How to make a sphere in Sketchup​? that's a good question

The Famous Two-Circle Tutorial (You Know the One) 

This question has always been asked since Sketchup ever existed, and it is still being asked because Sketchup beginners tend to skip steps and start 3D modeling right away until they hit the wall and be like one sec? where is the sphere in Sketchup? it's not cylinder not a cube not a prism, wait Sketchup is unable to make a sphere? How to make a sphere in Sketchup? 

A quick web search will reveal the famous gotcha tutorial, make the first circle > make the second perpendicular circle > use the follow me and voila your sphere! and at that moment you will discover how weird it is, and start wondering what else we needs to be drawn in two steps...

Although I see this two steps protocol as both useful and pedagogic to push the new users learn how to think in 3D, learn basics of descriptive geometry, and since the follow me tool is used here as a revolve function which is the definition of many shapes in the world of geometry, similar to a cone or a cylinder, a sphere is the revolution of a semi circle 360 degrees around its diameter, I still feel there is something odd, something missing somewhere...

What I Found in the Extension Warehouse

But one sec, do we need or have to draw two circles to a make sphere in Sketchup?  some people may come and suggest to use a primitive tool or any extension that makes spheres, or even just paste a ruby code in the console (the famous Hello Sphere ruby tutorial code) to make a sphere... good I went ahead and searched the Extension Warehouse to see if there is any extension that does the job and guess what, here is what I found : 

Sketchup Extension warehouse primitives extensions

• Place Shapes Toolbar: an extension that loads pre-made spheres (and other volumes) from SKP files.
  
  
• SU Shapes by the SketchUp team: an extension that creates domes, not spheres, with limited control over radius and rings (called segments in the prompt).

I know there might be some other extensions that have a sphere creation integrated, but bro I'm not gonna search for the hay in the needle stack, I'm looking for a sphere creation tool, not looking for a feature from a terrain creation extension.

Wait, Do We Even Need a Sphere Tool?

Alright alright, but spheres are just primitive volumes that are rarely used as is in a brute naked form, they may be part of a mesh, we may need a dome, a quarter dome, a flattened sphere, an ellipsoid but a sphere as shape is rarely used for anything except I don't know a crystal ball? so do we need an extension in the first place? may be that what justifies the gap, or may be no one complained about the the two steps protocol?

For some people visual feedback is important and intuitive, sometimes it is essential so see what you are doing with bare eyes and preferably if it's done in one click, so I guess making an extension to create spheres in a proper way will make Sketchup modeling workflow more smooth and intuitive, real UV spheres a la Blender with Radius, Segments and rings...rings a bell?

How about the same sphere in Sketchup

Sphere in SketchUp

Sphere in Sketchup is an extension that I made to end this question of making spheres once and for all, because I found myself dealing with it for like 20 years and each time I recall my very first experience I guess I have spheres creation PTSD, and the real problem is not geometry, but feedback. You never really know what kind of sphere you are creating until it is already created -and often wrong-. Too many segments, not enough rings, redo, undo, repeat.

This extension takes a different approach. Instead of guessing first and fixing later, it lets you see the sphere before committing.

One click Sphere Creation in Sketchup

How it works

• Click once to place the sphere center
• Drag the mouse or enter a value to define the radius
• Use the mouse wheel or type a value to adjust segments
• Do the same for rings
• Click to confirm and create the sphere

At every step, a live ghost preview is displayed directly in the viewport. What you see is exactly what you get. 

Why this matters

A sphere is almost never used as a final object. It is usually a starting point: a cutter, a dome, a rounded transition, a reference volume, or a base for further modeling.

In those cases, topology density matters. Being able to visually control segments and rings before creating geometry makes the workflow faster, cleaner, and far less frustrating.

The tool behaves like a native SketchUp tool: it snaps to points and edges, supports manual value input, remembers the last used settings, and works the same way across versions. 

Snapping makes Sphere creation easy in Sketchup

Final thoughts

This extension does not try to replace SketchUp’s modeling philosophy. It simply removes an unnecessary layer of guesswork from a very common task.

If you ever asked yourself “why is making a sphere in SketchUp still awkward?”, this tool is my personal answer to that question.