Drawing a dome?

[Tkh]

What is an efficient way to draw a dome shape starting with a circle and a vertical line from the centre whose length is equal to the radius of the circle?

[DaveR]

Draw an arc with the Pie tool centered on a circle and perpendicular to it. Use Follow Me to extrude the shape around the circle.

[john_mcclenahan]

And choose carefully how many segments you want - both in the plan circle, and in the arc.

If the circle is ‘small’ - measured in mm rather than inches, for example - you may need to draw the dome at a larger scale (x10 - cm for mm, x12 - feet for inches, or x 1000 - m for mm) then scale down the result. If you don’t scale up, FollowMe may not be able to create small edges near the centre.

[ChrisDizon]

here are just a few ways

[Tkh]

Thanks so much for the tutorial on “domes”. You make it look so easy.

[Tkh]

The advice on scaling up 1000 times was very helpful. It seems “follow me” works properly when in larger scales.

[john_mcclenahan]

If you have to draw different domes repeatedly, consider the free plugin SU Draw Parametric Shapes from the Sketchucation Plugin Store, from SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation