I use Solidworks at school and NX at work along with. In both of these programs i can make an object (lets just say a cube) then build off this object (make cuts, add parts, make an assembly, etc), and then, if i realize that i messed up my cube dimensions, i can click on it, change the dimensions and it will literally change the cube shape for me.
It seems like in sketchup i can do that UNTIL i click enter. once i hit enter, its set in stone. When i click on the dimension tool, it only gives me the measurement and keeps it on the part. when i click on that dimension to change it, the TEXT changes, but the actual part doesn’t move / change at all.
is there any way to go back and fix a dimension after the fact?
This seems to be the only big cumbersome i have with Sketchup Make.
Immediately after you draw something in SU, you can type on the keyboard and what you ttype will appear in the dimesnions box. When you press return, the dimension is applied. Without changing anything else or clicking the mouse on anything you can type again, and press enter and the shape will change again. As soon as you draw a new shape or change tool, SU will forget the old shape and typing dimensions no longer applies tto the old shape, it applies to the new one. If you want to change the size of an entity after you have drawn it you must use the move tool to move one or more of its nodes or lines/edges, or you must use the scale tool to scale one or more dimensions accordingly. The scale tool works either on percentages or on raw dimensions, so if you:
Grab a 1x1x1 cube in the corner and type 2.0 in the dims box you realise a 2x2x2 cube
Grab a 1x1x1 cube in a face centre and scale by 0.5 you realise a 1x1x0.5 cube
Grab a 1x1x1 cube on an edge centre and scale by 1.5 you realise a 1.5x1.5x1 cube
Grab a 1x1x1 cube by a corner and type 2500mm in the dims box, you realise a cube 1.443 metres in every dimension (because the diagonal you dragged became 2.5m long, it was the hypotenuse @2.5m = 1.443 for the other two sides)
If you wanted to scale your whole cube so each side was 2.5m long, grab a corner and drag it a little (doesn’t matter how far) then let It go. Type 2500mm,2500mm,2500mm in the dims box and press return. You can specify different values for the R G and B axes (X Y and Z) in this way. It is important to type the dimension units (and they don’t have to be the same as your world units) so that SU knows you mean 2500mm not 2500 times magnification