Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Drawing Circles

Once you've mastered polygons, creating circles is a cinch, since they work almost exactly the same way. Click to set the center point; release the mouse button; move to a new point to determine the radius; and click again. The face of your circle fills in because it's automatically a closed loop in one plane.

If you want to create a precise circle, you can enter a specific dimension for the radius. In that case, click to set the center point, and then type the dimension and measurement symbol—like 6'—and then press Enter. SketchUp automatically draws your circle using 6 feet as the radius. You can change the dimension in the Measurements toolbar as many times as you want by typing a new number and pressing Enter. (After you go on to a new tool or command, you'll need to use the Entity Info window to make changes.)

When you open the Entity Info window, you learn one of SketchUp's little secrets—a circle is not a circle. It's actually a 24-sided polygon, as shown in Figure 2-12.

Figure 2-12. When you examine a circle with the Entity Info window, you see that it defines not only the radius but also the number of segments. Out of the box, SketchUp circles are actually 24-sided polygons, as you can see if you zoom in closely.

Tip

If you're doing more complicated work with circles, you may find it easier to change the segments from 24 to 36 segments. That not only smoothes your ...