Dimension Tool starts out really large

When I draw a rectangle, the dimension bar show really large sizes like 120’ x 245’ (replace the x with a comma). When I change it to 10’ x 12’ for example, the rectangle gets as small as a pin head. The same thing happens when I push/pull on a rectangle to make a cube. The height is over 100 feet tall.

I start my rectangle close to the red and green axes. I’ve also played around with the zoom extent and other zoom features. It seems like it something in my settings or starting template. Any ideas?

Start drawing a rectangle and type10’,10’ and hit enter.
Then go zoom extents.
If the square isn’t zoomed in on then you have some strange geometry somewhere in your template.
If it is still a pinhead, go ctrl+a to select all, then hold shift and and double click on the square to deselect it and it’s edges, then hit delete, then zoom extents again.
If all is well now and the 10’ square fill the workspace, save as template.
If not then there are other things to look for.

Ok, I’m working on your instructions. The smallest rectangle I can draw already starts out at 73’ x 45’. It looks less than a square inch on the screen.

After I enter 10’,10’ and hit enter, it shrinks down to about a quarter square inch. Then when I go to zoom extent, it gets really large and the axes fall off the screen.

Try using a different template to start.

Will do. I started with “Simple Template - Feet and Inches”. I’m taking an online course and this is my first day. I’m a rookie. I will be using SketchUp in my interior design and remodeling biz. Do you think I should try “Architectural Design - Feet and Inches” template instead?

Bingo! I tried the Architectural template and the dimensions are more reasonable/expected. Thanks for the suggestion!

Yes that’s fine, you can adjust any template to suit and save as your default template.
It sounds like you may have inadvertently zoomed way out on the other one and saved it.

Actually hadn’t saved any templates. But switching to the Architectural template did the trick. Thanks again.