Basic math in Measurements box?

SketchUp Pro
1

is there some wiki of what stuff can be used in Measurements box? I know of:

  • /3 (division)
  • 5;3 (rectangle)
  • 3 (length)

what I would be interested in but does not work:

  • addition
  • subtraction
  • combination of both above
  • maybe some advanced addition with parenthesis

for example, using the Push/Pull tool I want to pull something from 0 to 500 but excluding the width of material, so my idea was to enter 500-16, but that was not valid nor:

  • 500-18-16
  • 500+18
  • 500-(2*16)
  • 500+18-16

is there a way to do this?

2

You can do the math in your head or push 500 units then push back 16 units. Sketchup doesn’t do that math operations, just the ones you mentioned when copying an object.

3

What is supported differs from tool to tool. /, * and x work in Rotate and Move (wit copy mode enabled) to change the number of copies, but they aren’t general to all tools. The behavior most tools share is parsing lengths, so you can write 3 and it’s interpreted in relation to your display unit, or you can type 3 cm or 3 m and override the unit.

The question about basic math comes up every now and then. As a SketchUp user myself, it sure would be useful at times! Sadly it’s not as trivial as it first may seem. If + and - are added, it makes sense to add * and / for consistency and completeness, but that would clash with the behavior of Move and Rotate. “20 m / 4” is not the same as 5 m, but means spread 4 copies evenly over a 20 m span.

3 Likes
4

That makes perfectly sense.

There might be a compromise: (calculations done elsewhere)

  • as it is now copy (from the ‘Tape Measurements field) is available.
  • also make paste into the ‘Tape Measurements field’ possible.
5

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