@unknownuser said:
View > Toolbars > Measurements
Thank you. But I hadn't overlooked that. I've never quite understood what that option is for. There is a default measurement window at the bottom right of the screen already in Sketchup Pro 7. When I enable "toolbars > measurements" all it does is move that window to the left hand corner of a whole new info bar that eats up more of my screen space. Does it provide any more use than the measurement box that is already in the lower right hand corner?
In any case, the missing measurement box (bottom right default one) turned out to be a silly oversight. You were correct. I had a slightly minimized window. It was so slightly minimized that only the bottome was missing, so I overlooked that possibility. Each time I reopened a new model, Sketchup continued to open a minimized window just like the last model closed. I clicked on the "Restore Down" button and it fixed it. Funny, I never noticed that it was called "restore down". Always thought it was just restore.
@unknownuser said:
As for the Tape Measure tool, if you simply measure by clicking on endpoints, that's all you get is a measurement. If you type a value after clicking on two points in succession, and then hit Enter, you'll start the resizing process. If you don't want to resize, don't type. Does that help?
The majority of the time that I am typing a value is to establish a point. If I wish to establish a point exactly 3.25 inches along a given line, I will begin the measurement along that line, enter 3.25, and then enter, most of the time the little dot marker will appear at exacty 3.25 inches along that line. The scale of the entire model is not changed. Occasionally however, for reasons that I'm never entirely sure of, instead of establishing a point along the line, I will be asked instead if I wish to rescale the entirety.
I was under the impression that you had to drag the measurement tool from one previously established point, to another previously established point, (both ends of a given segment in the model) in order to summon the resizing feature. But often it just seems to randomly pop up even when trying to simply establish a new meausurement point in the model.
So I must be pressing some keys out of sequence somehow. I just can't figure what I'm doing wrong. In most cases, I simply retry exactly what I had tried, initiating the measurement along a line and then typing in 3.25, and it puts a point exactly 3.25 inches along the line instead of asking if I wish to resize the entire model like it did just the moment previous. Seems like I'm doing the exact same thing, but I must be mistaken.