# How to manipulate the orthographic view ruler in code
**URL:** https://discourse.slicer.org/t/how-to-manipulate-the-orthographic-view-ruler-in-code/8238
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [August 30, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/how-to-manipulate-the-orthographic-view-ruler-in-code/8238 "2019-08-30T12:41:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rat01](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/rat01)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/how-to-manipulate-the-orthographic-view-ruler-in-code/8238/1 "2019-08-30T12:41:01Z")
How can I access this ruler in python? I’m trying to do things such as toggle its visibility and change its color and thickness. I know how to do all of these things from the pin menu, but I’d like to be able to control these with a script.
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### Author:  [@pieper](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/pieper)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/how-to-manipulate-the-orthographic-view-ruler-in-code/8238/2 "2019-08-30T12:59:33Z")
Like most everything in Slicer, this is managed by a MRML node that you access via the scene. In this case it’s the [view node](https://apidocs.slicer.org/master/classvtkMRMLAbstractViewNode.html). You can get the view node from the threeDView via the layout manager. Is that enough to get you going?
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### Author:  [@rat01](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/rat01)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/how-to-manipulate-the-orthographic-view-ruler-in-code/8238/3 "2019-08-30T14:30:12Z")
🤩 Yes it is. Thanks for the help.