Dimension box is missing

In the various tutorials there is a ‘box’ in the lower righthand corner that denotes the dimensions, say of a rectangle that is being drawn. When open Sketchup this box is not visible. What am I doing wrong?

Check if you have enabled the Measurement toolbar, in which the VCB (Value Control Box) will have moved. If you uncheck that toolbar it should return to the statusbar.

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It could be that you simply have SU running in a window. Try hitting the zoom-to-full-screen button (the middle system button at the right end of your window’s title bar).

-Gully

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Perfect. Thank you. Bob

And what does one do when this occurs on a Mac instead of Windows?

Mac doesn’t have a Measurement Toolbar, so the advice above for Windows isn’t applicable. Unfortunately though, I don’t know what would cause the Measurement box to be missing from the bottom right of the view window. Tools can put their own label there instead of “Measurements”, but so far as I know they can’t disappear it…

Edit: see later replies - I was wrong!

Try right clicking anywhere on the toolbar and selecting customize. From there you can simply drag the measurements box to any location you like: from top left to bottom right. Totally customizable location.

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You can drag the measurements box in the toolbar at the top.
It won’t be at the bottom but should be at the top!
If you don’see it, it might be at the far right or hidden behind the <<

I stand corrected! If you customize the one and only toolbar at the top of the model view window, the measurements box appears there and not on the lower right. The two locations are mutually exclusive.

Customizing the toolbar does not move the measurements box to the top automatically. It does allow it to be moved though. It can be anywhere top or bottom based on preference. The only reason it might be missing is that it was removed manually. There might be more to this than we know right now.

Are you talking about location within the window-top toolbar, or more generally? I certainly can’t drag the measurements box to anywhere else! If you can, could you please post an animation showing it happen, as I would like to see how.

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Geeeze…The customize window covers up almost the entire bottom status bar where I want to put the measurements box. And I can’t move or resize the customization box. Its so large, but even so, I had to scroll it to find the measurements box. What a mess.

If you had the Measurements window on the top tool bar and you remove it from there, it automatically shows up at the bottom. You don’t need to place it down there. There’s nothing you can do with toolbars that requires access to the bottom area of the screen so the fact that the Customize window covers it is immaterial.

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Here I am moving it from the bottom right to the top.

And then showing how I move it back to the bottom right.

You’re not placing it at the bottom, it vanishes…:smiley: and thus, it gets its default location.

but if you hold your tongue right…

john

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Thank you for the animation, it clears things up!

You are misinterpreting what the GUI is doing - admittedly because of a “feature” of how the GUI handles “customize toolbar”. The item you select to drag, either in the top toolbar or in the customize window, attaches to the cursor while you drag. If you release the drag in the top toolbar, the item is placed where you released. If you release the drag anywhere outside the top toolbar, the item is removed from the top toolbar and reverts to whatever “home” location it has (if any). For the measurements box, the home location is in the bottom status bar.

But the fact that the item stays attached to the cursor until you release the drag can give the illusion that you dragged the measurements box to the bottom status bar, whereas it really went there because that’s its home. Try this: release the drag anywhere outside the top toolbar and you will see that the measurements box snaps into the bottom status bar regardless of where you released. The actual release point was irrelevant (other than influencing left vs right end of the toolbar as @john_drivenupthewall showed).

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If you pay attention to your screen capture, there’s a “poof” when you drop the Measurements window in the lower right corner. You aren’t actually placing the Measurements window there. You are only removing it from the top toolbar. The Customize window is only affecting tools on the top toolbar. Nowhere else on screen.

nibnib!

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Can you place it there? I’m wary that john may have customized the .nib file that controls the layout of the view window so that his measurements box always shows up at lower left.

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