How to accurately modify the size?

liangzhu

I'm a new user.
To accurately modify the size of an rectangle，I tried the "size" button. But it only measured the size, I still cannot modify the size.

Please help me, 3X a lot.

Gaieus

Hi Julie,

Use either the Scale or the Tape measure tools to resize your model.

With the scale tool, you can modify if you want uniformly scale everything or in just one direction, with the Shift key and if from the opposite point or the center, with the Ctrl. key.

You can type the scale ratio and press enter to scale precisely - or if followed by a unit (like 24cm) and then press enter, it will become exactly 24 cm.

With the Tape measure tool you measure a "known" distance and if it does not show what it should, simply type the desired value and press Enter.

TIG

You can input exact sizes in the VCB as you make a rectangle.

However, if you want to modify a shape later then there are several easy ways to do this ...

A. Use the Tapemeasure tool to offset one side of the rectangle the exact distance you want [drag the new guide-line in the plane/direction needed and type in the exact distance in the VCB].
Now highlight the line on the side you want to move over and use Move, pick a point on the line and then on the guide-line to drag the line across until it snaps to the guide-line.
If the rectangle has sides parallel to the axes then you can constrain your Move with shift/arrow-keys; if it's rotated relative to the axes you can make a second guide-line snapped to a side that at right-angles to the one you want to move and when you Move the line pick the end of the line and the intersection of the two guide-lines. Use the Erase tool to remove the guide-lines.

B. Select the rectangle sides+face [double-click on face].
Scale it. Pick the green 'handle' on the side you want to move and instead of typing in a scale 'factor' type in a dimension with a suffix to show it's units - e.g. 1234mm.
The face will now scale in that axis to be exactly 1234 mm. Without the 'mm' it'd be 1234 times bigger !!!
This moves the side next to the 'handle', if you want to scale the face from its center hold down the Ctrl key.

C. Select the edge of the rectangle that is opposite the one you want to move.
Move+Ctrl to copy it in the direction of the edge to be moved, pick an end.
You can constrain the copy direction by hovering over perpendicular edge and letting the rubber-banding change color [magenta?] when it does hold Shift-key; type in the new size of the rectangle and a copy of the edge is made at the correct location. Now Select the edge to Move over, pick an end, snap the end to the equivalent end of the copied line you just made. The rectangle is resized to new dimension.

there are other methods but these three should be more that enough...

liangzhu

Thanks. I tried these two methods but I can not see any input window for size, is it because my version is free?

Gaieus

There's no special "input window" - just type and press Enter. What you are typing (or doing in general) will however appear at the bottom right "Measurement box" (née VCB) unless it is hidden by something.

dedmin

And finally use FredoScale plugin - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=17948

pilou

EDIT I am affraid that is the same solution than TIG

You can also use the Scale tool
(I believe the more speedy )
Select your object
make any transformation you want at any coefficient
(many choice: from opposite, with SHIFT, CTRL, SHIT+CTRL, etc...)
then type your measures wanted but with unity + Enter!
like 13cm even you are working in meter!!!
That's all
Have fun precise modeling

CAntonis

@liangzhu said:

Thanks. I tried these two methods but I can not see any input window for size, is it because my version is free?

Hi Julie!
That "input window" is on every SU version , pro and free! Maybe you it wasn' t activated from the start. When you start SU does it say on the bottom of your screen "Measurements" right besite an input box?

If YES, that is exactly your input box for typing , whatever you wanna type !
If NO, then go to menu: View > Toolbars > Measurements , and thats about all!
Hope I somehow helped!

CAntonis

Dave R

The measurements input box that is being referred to, Julie, should be there whether it is selected in the toolbar list or not. It is normally found in the lower right corner of the SketchUp window. As you drag out a rectangle the Measurements will show you the dimensions and they will change as you drag the rectangle. If you stop dragging and type the desired dimensions, they will appear in that box. Notice the format of the dimensions as you were dragging. On an English keyboard the dimensions are displayed as n,n in the units selected in Preferences>Units. The natural temptation is to try clicking in that box to select it for data entry. Don't bother. Clicking there doesn't do anything. If the box is available for you to enter a value, it's background will be white. When it is gray, typing does nothing in that box. The Measurements box has a label which will change depending upon the tool you have selected. If you are drawing a circle, it is labelled as 'Radius'. If you are drawing a line, 'Length' and so on.

mitcorb

Could be the System Tray bar is locked on always visible and the Sketchup window is "underlapping" so that the VCB is hidden?

liangzhu

Hi everyone,

Thank you all. I have been able to accurately modify the size successfully with your suggestions. It's simply because at first I thought it would be somewhat a popup window, and ignored the right bottom.

Have a nice weekend!

kensnyder68

While I was happy to see this thread end in a happy ending I was hoping to take a small twist to the conversation and see if this friendly group could help me with my relatedproblem. What I'd like to be able to do is as follows:

Accurately change the size of a shape in my drawing;
without changing the overall scale of the rest of the drawing

I would like to use the Tapemeasure approach of typing in exact measurements (e.g., 5" by 7") rather than the relative approach of the Scale tool (e.g., make this shape 95% as big, etc.). The problem is the Tape Measure tool seems to always want to resize the whole drawing which is not desired. The Scale tool does behave correctly WRT to this "scoping" and only scales that objects I've selected leaving the rest of the model untouched but as previously mentioned the Scale tool seems only to allow me to put in relativemeasurements which is not what I want.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ken

Gaieus

Hi Ken,

Make a group of what you want to resize
Enter the group's editing context (short: double click)
Use the tape measure tool to resize the content insidethe group
Explode the group if needed.
Lesson learned; the tape measure tool always resizes the content of the context it is used in. If outside any group/component ("top level" or "model" context), the whole model while only the content of a certain groups/component you are editing.

kensnyder68

@gaieus said:

Hi Ken,

Make a group of what you want to resize

Enter the group's editing context (short: double click)

Use the tape measure tool to resize the content insidethe group

Explode the group if needed.
Lesson learned; the tape measure tool always resizes the content of the context it is used in. If outside any group/component ("top level" or "model" context), the whole model while only the content of a certain groups/component you are editing.

Fantastic. I should have tried that ... it makes sense. Can't wait for the weekend to try it out.