I created an ellipse by scaling a circle. As I continue with drawing the complete shape, I need to update the scaling of the ellipse. At some point, I can no longer select the entire ellipse. If I click on an edge only a small portion (probably based on the number of parts (i.e. 24)) is selected. Apparently this also stops me from being able to readily find the center of the ellipse which I need to be able to do. I do that by simply drawing a line from the edge inward and move the line around until it snaps to the center. But that seems to fail when the ellipse is divided.
How can I keep my ellipse from being divided by SU. Is grouping the only answer? That too is difficult because items are so close that a marquee doesn’t work at only grouping the ellipse.
Also, even if I am able to group the ellipse, I still can’t find the center like I was able to before. This seems to be due to the face also being grouped. So, I went back and deleted the face and then grouped the ellipse. SU still can’t find the center which I absolutely need to be able to find. So, issues are not being able to select the entire perimeter of the ellipse with one click and being able to find the center of the ellipse. It would also be nice if SU would provide the dimensions of the major and minor axes of the ellipse instead of just the area.
This screenshot shows an eliptical form with the axes moved using the axes tool to the center of the bottom circle. I used the tape measure tool to make a guide line from the center of the top circle to the center of the bottom circle. Does this do what you want?
Thank you. This video was helpful. A couple of things, though.
How were you able to get the scale tool to evenly scale both sides of the ellipse by using a side handle and not a diagonal handle. This is a feature that would be crucial to what I am doing. I watched to videos on scaling specifically looking for this ability and they did not mention it. The only thing I saw was being able to scale the side that the side handles control.
I am aware of the find center for the circle command. However, because I was only able to scale one side at a time, so, I didn’t trust the “guide”.
So, it seems like you are suggesting that whenever I create an ellipse, I should always make a group early on?
So, it seems like you are suggesting that whenever I create an ellipse, I should always make a group early on?Blockquote
Yes, or a component. If you are going to copy it, make it a component.
It is present in SketchUp 2023. It’s been there since before 2023. Right click on the edge of a circle and it will show. It works with circles and polygons.
BTW, please update your forum profile. It says you’re using the trial version of 2021.
Correct. It’s no longer a circle. The ellipse is identified as a curve instead and as it is non-regular, SketchUp won’t identify the center.
The center of a regular polygon can be found as the intersection of lines through the midpoints of the edges and perpendicular to those edges. Since SketchUp represents circles essentially as regular polygons, the same applies to them. That doesn’t work for a circle that has been scaled into an ellipse.
You could identify the center of the the circle before scaling it into an ellipse and then scale about the center. Or you could place crossing guidelines through opposing vertices.
