Math in the Measurement/Status Bar

I think it would be a huge plus if we could type math problems into the measurement window on the status bar. I work with some other design software that has this type of capability and I would love to have it in SketchUp. For example when drawing a line you could write in 6*2/4 and your line would come out at 3". Of course this is very helpful when doing something more complex but you get the point… What do you all think?

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I’m glad this has already been suggested, it’s a very useful feature that most other design type software packages have used for a long as I can remember. Handy when extending/extruding lines/materials etc. by multiple known lengths/thicknesses.

Hope this eventually makes it in to SU.

Anthony

Could an = sign as the first typed character in the Measuements bar be used to tell SketchUp that what follows is an expression that needs evaluated?

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Also glad to see this requested - I use SketchUp to draw accurately, and such a feature would be essential. I’m using spotlight as work-around on Mac (cmd-space, then just enter the arithmetic required), but since Yosemite the spotlight window hides the working-space, so I lost lots of my productivity. I’m also convinced that such a feature could work very well together with the suffix-codes that can be entered in the VCB (such as ‘s’ for sides of a circle or ‘x’ for array copies).

Jim’s suggestion has the advantage that = is used that way in spreadsheets, so it would be familiar and consistent.

Why couldn’t it just evaluate whatever is entered? It’s either able to reduce the expression further or not.

-Gully

Because in order to enter advanced formulas we need to inhibit tool selection and allow the use of any letters as well as numbers while entering a formula. Currently, hitting a shortcut while typing in the Measurements box could switch to a new tool.

The = sign as a first character could be used to signal SketchUp to not switch tools and put the characters in the Measurements box instead until ENTER is pressed.

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At the very least allow Copy and Paste to be used in the Measurement window,