Is there any way to create a circle without segments in Sketchup or Sketchup Pro? I am designing metal parts and having them cut out on a laser cutter. Because Sketchup builds circles in segments the laser cutter also cuts them in segments and my part ends up looking quite messy. I know I can up the number of segments but I am wondering if there is a different way to do this. I don’t want to spend lot’s of money on Sketchup if I can’t cut out nice circles on a laser cutter.

No, the only way to get a smoother circle or arc is to increase the number of segments.

Actually there is a way! Sorta. If you don’t mind exporting to an Autocad format, which I am guessing you might need to do anyway with your laser cutter. If you export your SketchUp model as 3D rather than 2D, the faces will export with the segments, but the edges of SketchUp arcs and circles will be converted to true curves. Just be sure to not export faces. Edit → You need SketchUp PRO to do this, I think. Edit 2 → Just imported exported .dwg into Illustrator. It also will honor the true curves. Will your laser cutter read Illustrator files?

[image] bandy1: Do you know if I can export true curves in .dxf format? Yes it does. Example: 2”r default 24-segment circle Exported edges only from SU as 3D DXF AutoCAD Version Release 12 3D DXF imported into CadStd Pro Entity query shown below: -Geo

The DXF and DWG formats are identical in content, the only difference is that DWG is a binary format, and DXF is an ASCII (text) version of the same. SketchUp Pro can export both. Anssi

Hi. Thanks a lot for your detailed help! It was exactly what I needed. It worked perfectly. I should have replied sooner but I suddenly got really busy with the harvest crew.

What version of Sketchup are you using? I ask because I am running Sketchup 8 Pro, and exporting to AutoCAD formats does NOT create real curves or perfect circles. They are still segmented. Thanks for any info.

hey bob. you have to do a 3D dwg/dxf export for it to work. File → Export → 3D Model …instead of 2D Graphic (or, that’s the wording on mac at least) add-- also, it’s not going to create real curves… only real arcs or circles (and even then, the arcs and circles which are being recognized as arcs and circles by sketchup… you can see if they’re arc/circles by right-clicking on the curve and choosing entity info)

Thanks for the response, Jeff. Yes. I understand we’re exporting a 3D model to a dwg format. I export without faces checked, as indicated in prior posts in this thread. Circles still look segmented when I view them in DWG TrueView, and importing the DWG file back into Sketchup still results in a segmented circle. That’s why I thought my results must be related to using an older version of Sketchup Pro.

hmm… see how this looks in TrueView: fromSketchup.dwg (16.5 KB) in sketchup, it looks like this: (a circle and arc on the left… then copies of them on the right which were then exploded/welded) i exported it with default settings: then in rhino it looks like this: edit- [image] bob_peticolas: and importing the DWG file back into Sketchup still results in a segmented circle. but this part, yeah… there’s no tricking sketchup into displaying true arcs… they’re always* going to be segmented… *well, maybe(hopefully) not always… but in all the versions up til now they will be.

Creating a perfect circle to cut on a laser cutter

SketchUp

bandy1 October 2, 2014, 9:40pm 4

Thanks for the detailed reply. It was very helpful. My laser cutter can read .dwg files but it works best with .dxf. Do you know if I can export true curves in .dxf format?

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Creating a perfect circle to cut on a laser cutter

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