Here is a very quick tip for creating Sketchup models which involves the simple circle. When drawing one, make sure that you use the circle’s radius and not the diameter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally made circles twice as big as I wanted them to be because I forgot that Sketchup uses the radius for input.
I’m not sure why it is set up this way, and I’ve looked for a way to change it but couldn’t find one. If someone does know how to set the input for drawing a circle to the diameter, let me know.
In the picture below, I drew a circle with a 1″ radius to get a 2″ diameter. But what if I wanted a 1″ diameter instead? Then, I would have to divide the diameter by two to get the 1/2″ radius.
Now, I’ll admit that this is an annoyingly simple example, but it shows you what I’m talking about.
An easy way to get the radius when you only know the diameter is to start your circle and type in the diameter with a /2 added to the end of it. This will insure that you get a circle of the correct size. If it’s something as straight forward as 1/2, then it could easily be done in your head, but if the number is more complicated, 2.437739 for instance, simply following it with a /2 is your best bet.
This does not work with fractional numbers though. For example, you can’t type in 7/8″/2. This isn’t really an issue however because, by doubling the denominator, you can easily “divide” a fractional number.
Two examples would be: half of 7/8″ is 7/16″ and half of 3/16″ is 3/32″
To me, it makes more sense to draw a circle using its diameter because, in the real world, it is easier to measure the diameter than the radius.
At this point, I’ve pretty much learned to remember that I need to use the radius in while drawing Sketchup models, but, for anyone else just starting with Sketchup, it’s something that you want to watch out for.
