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    Line length on circle scaled to ellipse is very wrong

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    • D Offline
      driven
      last edited by

      I figured you meant the circumference/curve length [after I posted]...

      the number of segments will affect the returned length as SU is Edges...

      'Entity Info' update on 'Left Button Up' so you can get pretty close if you watch it as you scale...

      when you get close use the VCB to up scale marginally e.g 1.000673

      with 2000 sides you want to scale too 676.4085...

      however, number of edges needed really depends on the thickness and mailability of your ply...

      for a veneer 2000 should be ample...

      john

      learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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      • bazB Offline
        baz
        last edited by

        I have a given ellipse with a minor of 400 and a major of 900.
        Why do you suppose different segments give such different answers, none of which is accurate anyway.

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        • D Offline
          driven
          last edited by

          in SU any curve is a sequence of edges, each Edge has a fixed length, added together they equal X...

          X = number of edges times edge length...

          the more edges the longer the distance needed to complete the path...

          if you have a 2155mm edge curve made up of 2155 edges, each 1mm in length, than that's better than most people can cut manually...

          if you export to cnc as a dxf, than even 24 edges will be fine if the chord lengths are correct mathematically...

          it is called Sketch Up after all...

          john

          learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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          • BoxB Offline
            Box
            last edited by

            If you export the ellipse as a 3d model to .dxf you should get the correct circumference.

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            • bazB Offline
              baz
              last edited by

              Thanks Box.
              John, I understand about the segments adding up. But it seems as if SU doesn't like lines which have been scaled. And I'm not seeing this with arcs, regardless of number of segments the line length remains the same.
              However, will chuck that one in the too hard basket for the time being,
              Thanks for your help.

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              • sdmitchS Offline
                sdmitch
                last edited by

                @baz said:

                I have a given ellipse with a minor of 400 and a major of 900.
                Why do you suppose different segments give such different answers, none of which is accurate anyway.

                Several perimeter of ellipse approximations can be found here
                https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/ellipse-perimeter.html

                Using Approximation 2, the perimeter would be 2118.265712279433

                mnr=200;mjr=450#semi-minor and major axes
                cir=(Math;;PI*(3*(mjr+mnr)-Math;;sqrt((3*mjr+mnr)*(mjr+3*mnr))))
                

                Nothing is worthless, it can always be used as a bad example.

                http://sdmitch.blogspot.com/

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                • bazB Offline
                  baz
                  last edited by

                  Wow, this is getting complicated.

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                  • pbacotP Offline
                    pbacot
                    last edited by

                    if you split the circles before the length of the two half curves remains the same when scaled regardless of sides...

                    MacOSX MojaveSketchUp Pro v19 Twilight v2 Thea v3 PowerCADD

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                    • bazB Offline
                      baz
                      last edited by

                      @pbacot said:

                      if you split the circles before the length of the two half curves remains the same when scaled regardless of sides...

                      Sorry, not quite following you there.

                      But to restate the question: If I draw a line at 100, Entity Info will tell me its 100.
                      If I draw an arc and explode, I will get an accurate line length.
                      However, if I scale a circle to make an ellipse, Entity Info gives me nonsense, and not even consistent nonsense. I just went back to my example model as shown at top and all the reported numbers are now different...

                      It's to do with scaling, I reckon. It confuses SU's little brain.

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                      • ely862meE Offline
                        ely862me
                        last edited by

                        This might be a bug..

                        Elisei (sketchupper)


                        Before no life was done on Earth it was THE LIFE ITSELF...GOD
                        Come and See EliseiDesign

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                        • bazB Offline
                          baz
                          last edited by

                          @ely862me said:

                          This might be a bug..

                          According to previous posters, it is a limitation of SU. But I can't see why a line shouldn't be a line, whether curved, stretched or otherwise abused.
                          Shall I load the skp?

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                          • G Offline
                            Garry K
                            last edited by

                            Circle1 144s at 400 mm - scale by factor of 2
                            Circle2 288s at 400 mm - scale by factor of 2

                            entity information reports ~5026.5 mm for both - I don't know where this number comes from

                            Then pushpull each ellipse into elliptical cylinder
                            Select arc and explode
                            entity information now reports ~3872.6 mm for Circle1
                            entity information now reports ~3875.3 mm for Circle2

                            Elliptical Circumference calculates out at 3875.38

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                            • bazB Offline
                              baz
                              last edited by

                              @garry k said:

                              Circle1 144s at 400 mm - scale by factor of 2
                              Circle2 288s at 400 mm - scale by factor of 2

                              entity information reports ~5026.5 mm for both - I don't know where this number comes from

                              Exactly! Or inexactly as it happens. Could you open that file again and see if the numbers have changed, they have on mine.

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                              • ely862meE Offline
                                ely862me
                                last edited by

                                Once you get to copy them around you get all kinds of lengths.

                                Elisei (sketchupper)


                                Before no life was done on Earth it was THE LIFE ITSELF...GOD
                                Come and See EliseiDesign

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                                • pbacotP Offline
                                  pbacot
                                  last edited by

                                  @baz said:

                                  @pbacot said:

                                  if you split the circles before the length of the two half curves remains the same when scaled regardless of sides...

                                  Sorry, not quite following you there.

                                  But to restate the question: If I draw a line at 100, Entity Info will tell me its 100.
                                  If I draw an arc and explode, I will get an accurate line length.
                                  However, if I scale a circle to make an ellipse, Entity Info gives me nonsense, and not even consistent nonsense. I just went back to my example model as shown at top and all the reported numbers are now different...

                                  It's to do with scaling, I reckon. It confuses SU's little brain.

                                  It doesn't make sense. Really CAD programs should have an ellipse tool.


                                  Screen Shot 2016-02-09 at 8.35.22 AM.png

                                  MacOSX MojaveSketchUp Pro v19 Twilight v2 Thea v3 PowerCADD

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                                  • S Offline
                                    slbaumgartner
                                    last edited by

                                    I did some probing via Ruby, and it seems there is a chain of bugs causing this. First, when you scale a circle to make it an ellipse, SketchUp should drop the metadata defining it as a circle and treat it as just a closed loop of segments (a Curve). It does not do so, it continues to carry the center point, radius, and normal vector as if the loop is still a circle, and the edges still say they are part of an ArcCurve. This evidently triggers a second bug in the method that calculates the circumference of the loop. In some cases it still calculates the mathematical 2pir as if the circle hasn't been scaled. In other cases it calculates a strange value that has no evident relationship to anything. In no case does it return the sum of the lengths of the edges!

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                                    • Wo3DanW Offline
                                      Wo3Dan
                                      last edited by

                                      Lengths of (part of) an ellips do not show rigtht. This has been mentioned before.
                                      I hope you can see this thread. See posts around 17/4/2008 and on.
                                      https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/sketchup3d/ellips$2Barea%7Csort:relevance/sketchup3d/z70T5xdUm_I/g-ChcSEcL2YJ

                                      *"Taff, Google SU team,

                                      Very nice approach Taff, almost precise. Here again there is the
                                      lack of a precise ''snap to" with these rotations. But it's the best
                                      you can do!

                                      But I noticed an (important) bug in the "Entity Info" and "Text"
                                      tool output.
                                      The curve length shown is only half of what it should be.

                                      Before you exploded the 1/4 ellipse curve the Entity Info reports
                                      141.371669' as the curve length (also through Text tool)
                                      It should however be: 282.743338'

                                      16 segments out of the exploded curve add up to: 281.923143'
                                      just a bit shorter which is obvious.
                                      The more segments the more precise Taff's approach will be.
                                      Even better when there were a "rotate snap" option to a curve.

                                      Regards,
                                      Wo3Dan "*

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                                      • bazB Offline
                                        baz
                                        last edited by

                                        Pilou. The actual line length is 2155 +/- 5. measured in the real world.

                                        This thread is starting to make my brain hurt...so, respected elders, is it a Bug or not?

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                                        • pilouP Offline
                                          pilou
                                          last edited by

                                          @unknownuser said:

                                          Using Approximation 2, the perimeter would be 2118.265712279433

                                          A nurbs program 400 * 900 ellipse gives 2118,2799332 length line perimeter

                                          Sketchup gives 2118,276442 with circle 1000 segments

                                          Frenchy Pilou
                                          Is beautiful that please without concept!
                                          My Little site :)

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                                          • S Offline
                                            slbaumgartner
                                            last edited by

                                            I think it is a bug. I looked up the formula for perimeter of an ellipse and compared that with what SketchUp's entity info returns. For a 10x20 ellipse, the result should be 96.88. SketchUp variously returned 62.83 (20*pi), 111.3, and 113.27.

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