No. Those settings are hard-coded in the application.
Liking wont make the developers consider adding something like that, votes are limited to 8 per member of the community, and it doesn’t bother me changing the sides of a circle before drawing it or from the entity info after drawing it, plus there are plugins that can do what you’re asking.
This is how it would go
*Sets default to 96
*Comes to forum in 12 months time with a 27million edge model that won’t open anymore.
“My clients like detail, it’s essential that the grill wire inside the oven that can’t be seen and we are not selling was modelled with such accuracy.
Yes, I know I’m a kitchen designer and the spatial design and products themselves might be the focus - but modelling at a molecular level is important to the clients and the clients are always right.
No, I can’t update to Tahoe, my Mac is too old”
On the subject of circles, here’s a thought or two.
SketchUp should force the number of sides to be in a number divisible by 4. This would avoid an unsuspecting user from introducing error into a model by drawing a line from the center of a non-conforming circle to the edge of the circle, which is actually a polygon. A line constrained to the X axis, and drawn to the edge of a non-conforming circle will NOT have the value of the radius, unless it hits the vertex of a quadrant. Note the image below. the circle in black has 7 sides, and inside of the blue circle (polygon) which has 996 sides. None of the constrained red lines come anywhere near a quadrant vertex of the black circle. The green line is drawn to a vertex and has the true value of the circle radius. The more sides a circle has, the more minimal the potential error. But this is CAD and mathematical precision is the order of the day.
The other thought I’d like to share is the glaring omission of a circle’s area in the Entity Info. Inexcusable!
James… really?
And you offer to teach people SketchUp?
SketchUp should not force anything just for the sake of protecting an user from himself.
Although in 90% of cases is a good practice to do exactly what you described, there’s plenty of situations (especially in low poly and/or subdivision modeling) in which one may need something like a 3 sided or 6 sided circle (or whatever number of segments).
In addition to that, there are multiple situation in which you start modelling from a circle something that then needs to be split into a radial array of groups or components, and the number of components you will need is not necessarily a multiple of 4.
And so on.
I would not like to have this option locked just because some idiot is not able to judge and set the proper number of segments needed for a specific task.
Freedom of modeling is one of the SketchUp strengths, I don’t want to see that freedom being compromised.
a 48 sided circle has a correct perimeter (off course, as Dave said, it’s an equation no matter the side count). but even a 48 sided polygon would have a near perfect perimeter (0,07%)
and it has a good area, within 1/3 % of the actual area.
it’s a rounding error.
but if you want more, go 72 or even 96.
the difference between the correct area of a circle and a 96 sided polygon is a fraction of a hair :
the expected result is 3.14159265359
the 96-gon area is 3.14159265
I can’t even give you a % of deviation there, we’re talking a difference of 0,00000000359 m2.
that is 0.00359 mm2 or 3590µ2
Computers don’t like circles. but they can manage a 96-gon.
there have been many cases where I’ve needed an odd number of sides. making arches for example, with an off number of stones (due to the keystone)
I understand that, but if the correct circumference for a circle is given, then why not it’s area? A simple calculation is being performed for the circumference, then why not that same for the area?
Good point. Then I would think there would be an option to override the forced compliance.
Because “infinitely thin” edges have no area, only length. Only faces have area. In Entity Info - if you select edge(s) - you will get length, if you select face(s), you will get area.
Not that I know of.
3139350.20305 mm^2 for radius 1000 mm
But still, the whole discussion is somewhat superfluous.
@JamesClark, Sketchup’s ‘Entity Info’ clearly states:
-
Circle > Circumference > its length … (units)
-
Face > Area > its square … (units)
-
Poplygon > Perimeter > its length …(units)
-
Face > Area > its square … (units)
It could have said:
- Circle > Face area > …
But you see, edges do exist without faces, not the other way around.
But in the instance of a circle, you are not getting the perimeter length, rather the circumference of the circle you are working with.