Newb Intro Plus Follow Me Problem
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Hey guys. I'm brand new to the forum and sketchup. I've been building custom motorcycles for years and just recently decided I would like to try doing parts design in Sketchup before I make a new part. I've watched a ton of tutorial videos and seem to be catching on pretty quick.
I've been playing around a bit and ran into a problem with the follow me tool that I can't seem to figure out. I have a half circle that I am trying to get to go all the way around a cylinder, but it will go most of the way around then have a gap. I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. Here is a screen shot of what I'm encountering.
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Hello and Welcome !
Most likely that area won't get tubed because that segment is small, and Sketchup can't create too small faces.
Check the dimension of that segment and try to make it bigger by moving the edges to the right and to the left.
On a second thought, an easy way to use follow me tool is to preselect the path then click with the Follow me tool over the profile. Sometimes if you use the Follow me tool by manually showing/following the path won't close the contour.
If you can upload the part you are having problems with it will be easier for us to tell the best solution.Happy Sketching !
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Welcome to Sketchucation! What you describe should work. Without the file, one can only guess. Is this a very small model? Is the circle used for follow me guide intact? It looks like there's a circle you are using right under the follow-me profile. That could affect things. Any circle can be used (e.g. the top of the cylinder) if it is concentric and the right number of segments. You don't need to have it right alongside the profile in this case. Still--I wouldn't expect that to hurt the operation.
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Thanks for the help. The scale of the model is very small the follow me portion is only about 1/32" radius. I took your advice and went back into it. I was using the circular line below that portion for the follow me, but instead went back and used the top of the cylinder as the path to follow. That seemed to work. I think I was running into several issue just because the scale was so small. Thanks for the help!
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One thing that comes to mind from looking at your image is it looks as though the profile might have been placed very near but not on a vertex of the circular path. This would result in a very short section of extrusion between the profile and the vertex where the extrusion changes direction. And that short section would result in a gap. The best thing to do would be to place the the profile at the mid point of a side of the circle to get equally long sections of extrusion on either side of the profile. Of course if the side of the circle is extremely short you'll still have issues.
Second best would be to place the profile at the vertex itself. The downside, although it may not matter much in this case is that the resulting extrusion will be distorted a bit relative to the original profile.
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