Placing an array over an arc
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I am designing a pergola with curved arches on top of which rest a series of 4" x 12' round dowels. Placing an array around a circle is quite simple, but doing so on top of an arc, created with the arc tool and having no defined radius point is proving to be beyond my imagination. Is there a procedure for placing an array around an arc without defining its radius? As a last resort I used the formula R=W2(sqd)/8H + H/2 to determine the radius and placed the rotate tool at that point. It would seem there to be an quicker solution, especially since I have several applications requiring different arcs.
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If it's a true Arc you can momentarily hover the cursor over it and then move the cursor to somewhere near its center, the inference dot will change color [bluish] and says 'center'.
There's also a 'Point at Arc Center' script that ships with Sketchup, you just need to activate it - it places a guide-point at the selected Arc/Circle's center.
If the Arc has been Exploded into separate Edges then it has no 'center', but you can draw guideline through any two whole segments and then Rotate the guides about the relevant segment's Midpoint [light-blue] by 90 degrees. Where the two guidelines intersect is the ex-Arc's center. Chris Fullmer also has a tool to do this for you automatically - you pick the two segments and it calculates the ex-Arc's center and adds a guide-point for you. Search the Plugins Index if you think you need help from it... -
Thank you for the helpful reply. Could you go one step further and tell me where to find "the point of arc center" script and how to activate it. I cannot seem to find it.
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Go to SketchUp menu > Preferences > Extensions tab. There activate ruby script examples and utilities (one of them has this plugin - I cannot remember which). Restart SU and when right clicking on the perimeter (only the edge) of an arc, circle or polygon (they need to be intact and still these entities), you will find this entry in the context menu.
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