Why do you think so? When it is so simple, especially in this case where you aren’t even having to copy and scale up a component, just drawing in metres what you want to print in mm?
Remember, SU was started by a couple of graduate students who developed it for architecture. It became highly embedded in the code that distances were scaled to floating point values in inches - and it was never originally envisaged that it would be found so simple and useful for non-architects, let alone people working in tiny fractions of millimetres.
It may be as your peer says a ‘limitation of the software’, but all software has limitations that come from its history. This one has both a historical reason for it, and such a simple workaround that I simply don’t understand the heat of your reaction.
Each to his own, however. Find and work with something else, if you can’t stand this limitation.
There are many who would disagree with you. It really isn’t a big problem to work with. SketchUp was designed as a tool for architects. It works well for many disciplines, though. It’s a tool just like your CNC router and plasma table. They also have limitations. You just have to work with them.
As @sjdorst said, if that’s your deadline, why wait? Nothing is going to change overnight.
I’ve been using SketchUp since long before Google had anything to do with it. I draw lots of highly detailed small objects and I haven’t had any problems.
Direct from some people with SU: any 3D modeling application has a prime modeling size range - it could be anything from working in Å to au units (angstrom to astronomical units) but programmers have to pick a finite size range for their modeling application. These are the ‘limits’ of 3D, OpenGL modeling. Each edge in SU’s surface model is a vector and vectors have direction and length. Cannot disable the math. As noted above, the optimal size range has be picked for SU.
If one has tiny parts they want to keep in context, back in the Google days I worked out a method which leverages the use of some of the tools in SU - namely the component wrapper. It’s not a workaround rather I feel its more like harnessing/optimizing something that’s already there. Make your part a component. Leave it in place. Off to the side place a component copy. Scale up that component copy (the component wrapper) to a size where no added geometry inside the component would be anything close to 1/16" or less. Make edits to the larger component copy. Correctly scaled modifications will be seen in the smaller original.
I understand the frustration of discovering the limitations of SketchUp and believing how those limits should change now for what I’m working on today. It’s good that workarounds have been provided, but I’ve also learned to work within the confines of SketchUp as is, using those workarounds… because changes to not take place overnight. However, your response hit’s the nail on the head with one swing. Still giggling.
So the only way I’ve been able to overcome this is to draw a circle of relevant diameter (e.g. if you want a 1.0mm x 1.0mm arc then draw a circle with 1mm diameter) off the actual piece your trying to draw the arc then pick the circle up and drop it where you wanted the arc and delete the unwanted 75%
My original post went on at some length, in a sordid semi-philosophical tone, about virtual mathematical constructs having no absolute scale; I expect I used the word ‘relative’ a lot. And I, through respect for my fellow sketchupper’s intelligence, decided that the long rant wasn’t needed. But I still felt like something needed to be said, hence my truncated message which, as you suggest, was solely to give myself some form of cathartic vent. So - YES ! I did get some sense of relief from my post thank you. All too often one can feel alone and ignored in the world so it has been genuinely lovely to receive your caring request for a response. To answer your NEXT question - yes I simply made my tiny object in METRES - where a curve with a radius of 1 unit can have a great number of segments, instead of MILLIMETRES - where a curve with a radius of 1 unit is heavily controlled by the software in an almost totalitarian fascist way. Indeed - just drawing ANY curve when zoomed in to any ‘depth’ is absolutely VERBOTEN - with no option to reduce the vastly detailed default16 segments to a less exhausting level for those poor exhausted modern CPU’s and GPU’s. There was no need to make that ghastly swipe at an idiotic programming decision after all - I could have just switched to METRES all along and not bothered a soul.
I hope that THIS account doesn’t get deleted.
I hope that THIS IP address doesn’t get BLOCKED from the forum.
Seems kind of excessive.