I’m TRYING TO RESIZE A CIRCLE USING THE MOVE TOOL. YOU HAVE TO GRAB IT JUST RIGHT OR IT DOES NOT WORK. HOW DO I FIND THAT MAGIC NODE?
Hover the Move tool over the edges of the circle. If you’re not on a cardinal point, the entire edge will highlight. If you are on a cardinal point, the edge will be black. There are four cardinal points on the edge of a circle or polygon.
Caps indicate you’re yelling. I can hear you just fine if you whisper.
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As Dave mentioned, the magic nodes do not turn the circuference blue when hovering over them with the ‘Move’ tool.
They are the vertices (or midpoints) closests to the lines parallel to systems axes trough the circle’s (polygon’s) center.
A circle or polygon with:
- even number of segments divisible by 4 means 4 vertices as cardinal points
- even number of segments but not divisible by 4 means two vertices and two midpoints as cardinal points
- uneven number of segments means one vertex and opposite one midpoint as cardinal points.
Thanks so much, sorry about caps.
That is one of the things I could never understand. perfectly clear now. I actually tried resize circle, but got nowhere. I keep a note book and will write this down.
Thanks again,
Don
They are another reason to draw your circles ‘on axis’. Meaning the inference guide on the tool should be blue, red or green when you click to set the circle.
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I see what you are saying about creating on one of the axis lines.
I tried it off axis and it did not work very well. I even tried to move it to the junction of the three axis and it was clear that the note points 24, never hit on any of them. Just for grins and giggles I think i’ll try and rotate the circle, drawn off axis, to line up and see what happens.
There are other benefits to drawing circles on axis as well. For example, when you want to draw a plug to fit in a hole, it’s much easier to make it look correct if you drag the radius for both out on axis. Dragging the radius for each out in the same random direction is difficult.
tried moving circle drawn off axis to apex of the three lines.
I rotated it best I could , but did not work so well as I was unable to resize.
I use this mostly for mechanical machinery or AutoCAD. been at it off and on for several years, but expect to use It a lot more this next few months. Like cad the only way to become reasonably proficient is to keep trying. nice to have someone to share questions with.
Have a great day,
Don
If you dont want to copy all the great help and jewels of wisdom, just click on the little ribbon to the left of the reply option. It will bookmark the post and save it for you in a selection option you can accesses by clicking on your icon in the top right corner. If you ever need a refresher or get to help someone with the same question down the road. You have a complete answer to share…Peace…
I think you are misunderstanding what we mean by on axis. It’s not where you start drawing the circle, it’s where you finish. The apex of the three lines is the model origin,0,0,0 and isn’t really relevant in this instance.
What is important is the direction you move the cursor after the first click to center the circle. Watch the inference colours as you move the tool and the little texts that pop up.
As you see here the colour changes when the circle is On the Red Axis and On the Green Axis, when off axis it is black. So by drawing it on axis you know where to find the cardinal points.
Also note that to use the move tool in this way you must have nothing selected to begin with or it wont work.
Here’s a couple of other things about cardinals that many people don’t know.
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Watching you do that demo is almost magical! You move around and do stuff with no wasted motion and it is a skill level I will probably never reach, but it sure is a goal to shoot for. Thanks for your expertise both in using Sketchup and in conjuring up these great demos! 
You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll be pulling rabbits out if your hat.
I came here looking for something else entirely but saw this, and glad I did. This is just the thing that would’ve hung me up for hours without your guys’ help. You and others have been such a wealth of helpful information since I started learning Sketchup. Thanks for all you guys do.
This is really great to know, thanks!