I tried the ThomThom Guide Tools. The "CPoint at Exploded Arc Center" did not work. Not sure if I did something wrong on the install since it is a bit more complicated. I am running Sketchup 7, installed the TT_Lib2 folder and the tt_guide_tools.rb file. The tools show up in the menu but nothing happens when I click on the Exploded Arc CPoint option (above) except that the segments are deselected.

Regards,

Marty

All,

I tried the plugin from Chris Fullmer. It seems to work well. It even found the theoretical center of 2 line segments that I drew. I'm thinking that could come in useful sometime. Very nice. I'm amazed that functionality like this is not part of the core product.

I will also try to remember adding construction points to circles as soon as I add them. However, I tend to built models with a lot of circular sections (piping systems). The construction points are not tied to the arcs/circles they relate to so I am worried that I'll end up with a lot of construction points whose meaning I find hard to discern (probably an overblown concern).

Regards,

Marty

All,

Thanks for the replies. I installed the TomTom plug in (Guide Tools). It worked for adding a construction point to the center of a circle (when sketchup still "knows" it is a circle). However, it didn't add any construction points after I extruded it to a cylinder (cirle exploded). I tried both the top closed face (selecting all segments, some segments, face, and face + all segments) and the open bottom face (all segments & some segments). I used the "Guide Tools - CPoint at Exploded Arc" option (I tried most of the other options as well).

Am I doing something wrong? I first select the entities and than the plugin tool.

I also installed the Centerpoint plug in. It worked when I could select a closed face (top of cylinder). When I selected all the segments on the bottom, open face, it placed the construction point on the edge instead of the center.

Included is the cylinder for reference.

Regards,

Marty

cylinder.skp

Help. I have been using Sketchup on and off for 3 years. After a hiatus I am back at it and back to the same problem I encountered on my first day. How can I reliably select the center of a circle?

I have searched the net, read the advice, tried tips, waited on new versions assuming the problem must be fixed at some point. But so far I only have pain and suffering. My work is with piping systems so this is central to anything I do.

In this latest iteration, I drew a gas cylinder by drawing a base circle, then drawing a profile of half the cylinder and extruding it around the base circle (Follow me tool). Now I just want to move the whole thing to the origin. Yes, I could have drawn it there in the first place but I still run into the problem of selecting the center of a circle 10 times per hour.

All I can think of is that Sketchup has "forgotten" that the base is a circle since it is now segmented (Sketchup did that, not me).

Any specific help on techniques would be appreciated. Any education on what underpins this problem would really be nice since I run into it in so many different contexts.

Thank you,

Marty

Is there a way to extract a single component from a group without exploding the group? I have a complex assembly with valves and piping. I have multiple copies of it as well. So I would prefer not to disturb what I already have.

Thanks,

Marty

I work with pipes and valves and many times I am trying to move an object to align with an existing object; face to face. I can easily select the center of the face on the first object. However, when trying to select the center point of the destination face, the object I am moving obscures the point I am trying to select. Is there an easy way to select that second point?

Thanks

Marty

I would like to add my vote for equations in the VCB. This would be particularly helpful when scaling. Concerning the Ruby advice, when I tried it, division rounded to a whole number. Is this being controlled by the precision?

I am a newbie so I don't know if this is relevant but it would be great if you could limit inferencing to the type of inference being sought. I can't tell you how many times that I am trying to lock onto the center of a circle or arc and get everything but.