# Dimensions unexpected on scaled cylindrical section **URL:** \ **Category:** SketchUp\ **Created:** [January 22, 2015, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/dimensions-unexpected-on-scaled-cylindrical-section/6177 "2015-01-22T09:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gregor\_shapiro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/gregor_shapiro/32/2898_2.png) [@gregor\_shapiro](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/gregor_shapiro)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/dimensions-unexpected-on-scaled-cylindrical-section/6177/1 "2015-01-22T09:17:45Z")
I extruded (Push/Pull) a circle into a vertical (parallel to the blue axis) cylinder. I Offset the top circle and extruded that to a cylinder I repeated several times I used the Dimensions tool to indicate the diameters Realizing that some of my offsets were inaccurate I selected a section and used the Scale tool to scale in the Red/Green directions. When I go to the Dimensions tool the circles with the scaled sizes light up blue but I no longer get a diameter measurement but the length of a segment of the circular curve. When the entire circle (which SketchUp still calls a curve) lights up I expect the dimension to be the circle’s diameter In the attached .skp the 51.5mm dimension is one of the segments the other diameters are as expected. [Rings\_mandrill.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/default/3313/6718d19ee9e9cca6.skp) (45.6 KB) ---
**Author:** ![Wo3Dan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/wo3dan/32/7450_2.png) [@Wo3Dan](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Wo3Dan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 10:55am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/dimensions-unexpected-on-scaled-cylindrical-section/6177/2 "2015-01-22T10:55:24Z")
I can’t replicate your problem with the circle. This is what I did. - draw circle \> extrude face (_result is a circle_) \> scale circle by green **corner** grip (_result is still a circle_) \> scale circle in x (=green) direction (_result is a curve_) \> scale curve in y (=red) direction (_result is a circle again, thanks to SketchUp’s memory_) etc. Somewhere along the sequence of many extrucions and scaling I also applied offset, on just the circular face as well as on a preselected circle. The result always came out as being a circle again. I don’t know what went wrong in your model. But in SketchUp only arc entities and circle entities do have diameters or radii that can be changed in ‘Entity Info’. ---
**Author:** ![JimD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@JimD](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/JimD)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:32am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/dimensions-unexpected-on-scaled-cylindrical-section/6177/3 "2015-01-22T11:32:33Z")
> [@gregor\_shapiro](#): > > Realizing that some of my offsets were inaccurate I selected a section and used the Scale tool to scale in the Red/Green directions. Hi, I don’t know how the circle flipped into being seen as a curve by SU. But I do wonder about the choice of scaling a circle to adjust it’s radius. It seems more reliable to me to use the radius box within the Entity Info Panel – Type in a new value there and SU adjusts things very nicely. I also wonder if the results would have been different if the stepped cylinder was centered upon the origin point, and extruded directly along the blue axis from that position. * * * EDIT: I apologize for repeating any comments already made by, Wo3Dan. I didn’t realize there was another post added to this thread… I guess I didn’t refresh the page on my browser for that to show up. ---
**Author:** ![gregor\_shapiro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/gregor_shapiro/32/2898_2.png) [@gregor\_shapiro](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/gregor_shapiro)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/dimensions-unexpected-on-scaled-cylindrical-section/6177/4 "2015-01-23T22:34:12Z")
Good idea I’m not accustomed to using the Entity Info box to change dimensions so I used the Scale tool the edge control point and Ctrl then entered values into the edit field.