Stretching to an exact dimension (inches)
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I've run into this one myself. the problem is, sometimes it actually works as expected with the " sign but other times it doesn't. If you know the inches as decimal feet, you could go that router. Instead, I use the Tape Measure tool to resize the selected component (which is open for editing). The down side is that it resizes in all directions and you can't scale in one direction only with the Tape Measure tool. Another option is to set a guideline and snap the Scale tool to it.
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Click and move the scale in the direction you want, then click again, then type in your 1" and hit enter, or click drag and release, type your size and hit enter.
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It's a subtle thing, isn't Ben. The inclination is often to hold the mouse button down after starting the operation instead of clicking to start it and clicking again to end it. Both work but as you say, if you click move click, the " sign can be entered without problem.
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Thanks for the quick reply's and great advice. It worked when I click the scale command and then click again in the direction i want to stretch it. Then when it almost looks like the command is done you type in the dimension you want to stretch it to. Thanks again!
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Most tools in sketchup work that way. You can finish the shape and then type the size or number of sides or distance etc.
As long as you haven't started to do anything else whatever you type will be the focus of the last tool. -
You can also just start the scaling operation then release the mouse (without clicking) and type the value with the inch symbol. Works the same way.
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I don't get it. When I scale, and input a dimension, I never use the " (inch) symbol. 1'-6" is input as 1'6 <enter>, or 18 <enter>, and the selection scales accordingly. What am I missing in this discussion?
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You work too big.
Try working at less than a foot. Or set your units to Fractional and try 18". If you use 18 without the units indicated, you're enter a scale factor of 18x not 18 inches.
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@gaieus said:
You can also just start the scaling operation then release the mouse (without clicking) and type the value with the inch symbol. Works the same way.
Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. Try it scaling in just one direction. It seems to be variable on whether or not it works. Click, don't hold, drag, click and then enter the dimension seems to always work.
Try doing it on something smaller like a 2" square. Try scaling it down to .75" square.
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Well, that's mostly how I do - true that I do not need to press the Shift key to type cm
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Dave, got it. Thanks.
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You can type any 'decimal units' as long as you include a units suffix.
So if you are working in inches then typing 18" or 1.5' give the same result.
If you are working in 'mm' but want something that's exactly 18" long you can type 18" and it will be made exactly that long [i.e. 457.2mm] without need to do complex calcs...
Vice versa, if you are working in inches but want something 45cm long then type in 45cm and you'll get something a little less than 18"...
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