if I reverse the face, everything works as expected
I’m trying to figure out what this means, but I can’t.
Unfortunately, the screenshot doesn’t say anything about how or what you’re copying.
I see two circles (which are actually edges), point inference (On Face) and linear inference (On Green Axis), but no tooltip or Tool cursor icon. Is the darker part where the blue circle is a backface or the background?..not clear.
What is a “position vector”? What does “wrong” mean?
What is the expected behavior and what is not? Which face are you reversing?
Hi Dezmo,
Sorry, hard to find the right words for what it does and as I’m a noob, I can’t post multiple images let alone a video.
here’s the expected behavior:
The copied circle (or anything really) moves on the green axis (or whichever)
In the pic showing the buggy behavior, the circle is flipped on the point I selected when initiating the copy/move.
the error is always on the inner side of any surface. if I reverse the surface I can copy just fine (after an hour of cursing and trying out stuff I stumbled on this).
I hope this helps
Okay. I think I understand now :-).
I don’t have SU2026 installed on this machine, but I’ll check in a few hours. (I can’t reproduce it on an older version.)
Could you confirm exactly which Sketchup version you’re using (menu: Help >About Sketchup…).
Version 26.1.252 64-bit
…but I’m quite sure this issue has been around since the 2024 version or so - I just gave up in frustration each time I encountered it 
If I understand correctly, you are moving a copy of the circle by click-dragging on an edge? If that’s right, I think the issue is confusion about the difference between a circle of edges and a face bounded by a circle of edges, and not noticing what is selected as you start the move/copy.
A face can’t exist without its enclosing “loop” of edges, but a loop can exist without a face. When you activate the move tool in copy mode with nothing pre-selected, then click and drag on an edge from the loop surrounding a face, SketchUp moves only the loop. The associated face isn’t reversed, it is simply not copy/moved. Pay close attention as you start the copy and you will see that only the loop of edges is selected. To move the face with its edges, either pre-select it or start the copy when the tool marks the face as selected.
I cant reproduce the behavior as you described (as I understood) - see animation.
However I noticed that your screenshots there is no cursor-icon like in my animation.
__
Can you check in the Preferences>Graphics if you are using the classic or new graphics engine, and try to change it! (Don’t forget to restart SU if you change it)
Also, can you please sahare an example skp file where you have this reverse face with the wrongly behaving “edges” (circle).
I see now. Actually you are selecting face not an edge.
I also can replicate it, but only in SU2026 (Not in SU2025)
Definitely a bug!
Ah! The initial example of a circle made it hard to see the problem. The arrow shape makes it clear, and I can reproduce the error.
It happens when the shape to be moved is an inner loop of an enclosing face and you are viewing that face from the back side. Interestingly, it does not matter which side of the face to be moved is viewed from that direction. If you reverse the target it still happens when viewing the main face from the back. Feels like a bug in the handling of the loop of edges.
Note: I use white for front side, which comes out gray in this video due to lighting direction, and green for the back side. Less confusing to me than the default blue-gray, which is easily confused with shading. Also note that I moved the main face up in z so there is no possible issue about being on the ground plane.
the same happens with an edge
I edited your forum status so that you can attach more than one image now.
I also logged a bug, SKOR-21938 in our system, for someone to look into this.
(unfortunately also in the latest web version)
In trying to catch all possible options in two screenshots (top and bottom view) I get this:
Top view:
Bottom view:
As can be seen (an mentioned by @slbaumgartner above!) copying the inner face on a back face flips the inner perimeter and its face.
(uploaded images corrected)
One of the developers had a proposed fix for the problem, and wanted to run it by me. Fortunately, in getting ready to talk to him I noticed something. Which is, if you are in copy mode and moving the copy of some 2D geometry, the copy is oriented to any face that you point at. Meaning, the confusing reversal of the arrow is intended behavior, because the copy is being oriented to the normal of the face. As you are looking at the back of the face, the arrow gets flipped.
Here’s a recording made with SketchUp 2017, where I mouse over some terrain, and the copy of the geometry gets aligned to the slope of the terrain:
The fix the developer had done effectively made a special case of when moving the copy over the original face it came from. If you were to orbit and point to the front face, the arrow would flip around, which then would seem wrong.
So, the proposed fix would work for the limited case of making a copy while still inside the original face, it wouldn’t help for when pointing at other faces.
There are three choices:
- Don’t change anything. The behavior is odd, but intended.
- Fix the special case of making a copy within the area of the original face, and try to not worry about it looking strange when you point at other faces.
- Keep the copy of the geometry oriented the same as the original, no matter what you point at. But, also have a modifier key (shift is used for this exact need when orienting Snaps), that when you tap that key, the copy of the geometry would orient itself to match the face under the cursor.
You are all welcome to say what your preference would be. We won’t do any changes for now.
I didn’t see any suggestions from people about how we should solve the problem, so what we did was to special case the one where you are sliding the copy around on the face that it originally came from. In that use case the shape will keep the orientation of the original shape. Taking the copy of the shape to other faces in the model will then orient the copy to match the Normal of that face, which is the existing behavior.
Can’t yet say when that change will be in a released version.
Hi Colin,
just back from the hols…
Case 3 makes the most sense to me.
Regards, Ian
Me too, but #2 was easier to pull off, so that’s what we did.