Thanks everyone. I especially like the protractor tool idea. Still don't know why inference sometimes doesn't work (on an actual circle), alas.

This happens to me intermittently but often enough to be a real irritant. I can't find the center of a circle or an arc. Auto inference doesn't work and a selection of extensions does not seem to work either. I'm not sure if this is due to my particular setup or not.PVC/ABS 4" to 2" Reducer

Sketchup pro 2021

Jim, This is a fantastic! Thanks.
Dave, Thanks for the help.

Same error as Bruce. I did as suggested for Bruce: removed files in the plugin folder, then renamed zip to rbz, installed, exited, restarted,and got the same error. I see grayscale in the Plugins Manager, but not a sign of it in Tools, Extensions, or context menu.

Excited to find this on Smustard, but it's not working for me on SU Pro 2016. It errors on loading. Me or has it not been updated?

Wow!Fantastic. Sometimes I can't see the birds for the trees. Thanks

I have dimensioning problems, but only when using a particular document template. All other templates used to create a new LO file seem to dimension fine. I've gone through the template and deleted everything, then purged all external file links in document setup. Basically I've got a blank template--still new files created with it do not dimension properly. Attached is a png of a 20'x40' rectangle top view, parallel projection, dimensioned in both SU and LO. I've also attached the offending layout file. Can anyone duplicate this behavior?

Bad Template

I found this link on how to align pattern fills in LO: http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000027. It doesn't quite work as you'd expect though. Unlike the texture:position feature in SU where you move the texture to align it over a face, here you have to move the shape over the pattern-fill to align it.

I wanted the batt-insulation hatch to fill the stud bay from left to right.

1. I drew a rectangle and filled it with the pattern
2. I scaled the pattern
3. I traced over my viewport to make a shape the size of the stud bay
4. I brought the shape forward then laid it over the first rectangle so the pattern was aligned properly
5. I applied the fill to the shape. The applied pattern follows the alignment of the fill in the first rectangle.
6. I moved the stud bay shape back into it's original position with the fill aligned properly.

I sure wish there was an easier way to get decent hatches in LO.

This whole hatching thing in SU and LO is driving me crazy. Looking at other posts I can see that I'm not the first or only one.

Using a tileable hatch graphic imported as a material looks great in SU, but when the scene is brought into LO at 1/4" = 1', the hatch is distorted and fuzzy (even when exported as a pdf). At 1:1 it looks okay--not great, but acceptable. The hatch gets progressively fuzzier the smaller the scale. It looks like this approach is a bust. I know Jolran's been working on a vector based plugin, Hatchfaces, for some time, but it looks like he's stalled. Perhaps the inclusion of pattern-fills in LO has stolen his fire for the project. If so, too bad. It was promising.

The LO pattern-fill an an attribute of the Shape Style is welcome but cumbersome as you have to redraw the shapes you want to fill with the line tool. I tried to explode a viewport (from vector mode) then fill the resulting shapes, but I get strange results. The resulting intersecting lines don't seem to always create a shape that you can apply a fill to. My guess is that the line tool creates a continuous polyline that defines a fillable shape, while exploding a viewport sometimes does and sometimes doesn't.

It appears that the LO pattern-fill is the only game in town that will deliver clean hatches. I created a batt-insulation graphic and imported it into LO. It displays nicely except it's not aligned properly. I don't see a way to position the hatch as you can with textures in SU.

Any thoughts on any of this?

That's interesting, it's now working. Go figure.

Thx