Follow me path problem

[cboy1980]

Hey,

Normally I don't have problems on the follow me tool.
But now it skipped the curves.
I even tried to do the curves separately, but still no result...
Even when I redraw the curves it does not want to follow.

I attached the file.
I even searched already some forums but still no solution.
Can someone help me out.

In the file you will notice the path (single spiraled line with straight lines and curves)
You will see one where it did only the straight parts.
Then next to it you have the curves separately which do not work neither.

What did I do wrong?

---

LAMP.skp

[TIG]

You have found the SketchUp tolerance limitation.
SketchUp has to have some tolerances built in so that two almost coincident points in 3d are considered as being coincident for snapping, drawing etc.
This is ~1/1000"
If you have two points that are closer together than that then SketchUp assumes that they are coincident and so it won't create the tiny edge between them.
Since faces need a loop of edges, then even a missing tiny edge with a gap of 0.02mm will stop the face being made.

Native tools like FollowMe [and some Plugins doing similar geometry creation] have this limitation.
So your tubes have narrow width 'facets' and when you try to 'bend' then around the tight radii curves the facets get even smaller, especially inside 'crook of the elbow'.
Thus big lumps of geometry get missed out in the processing - the few missing tiny edges prevent the creation of the related faces...

All is not lost.
If you Scale your model so that you are working at a larger size the geometry will be created, then you can Scale it back down and the geometry will be kept.
Very tiny geometry can exist, but SketchUp cannot create it from scratch.

I suggest you Scale up x100 and see if that lets the geometry get created.
If so just Scale back down x0.01 when it's done.
Sometimes just x10 & x0.1 is enough to resolve the issue.
If you find you need to go up to say x1000 to get it all made, then you'll need to Scale back down in two steps - say x0.1 and x0.01, because the smaller single number [0.001] would be taken as effectively 0!

[Krisidious]

I rebuilt it from scratch and had the same issue... I'm not sure what is going on.

Nice catch Tig.

[cboy1980]

Thanks!!

Didn't guess it would be that problem since it took the straight lines.
Anyway I will give it a shot.

[jgb]

Just a suggestion here. What Tig said is totally correct, but scaling up then down of the model or just a part of it sometimes will create placement problems.

Make the part you want to offset a component (not a group).
Copy that component to a clear area of the model space.
From OUTSIDE the bounding box, scale it up by whatever.
(Critical, do not scale from inside the box)
Edit the scaled up copy.
Do your offset. The line segments created will be large enough to make a complete perimeter.
Exit the copy.

Notice that the original is what you want.

Delete the scaled up copy then explode the original component.

Everything remains in place.

[Dave R]

Why explode the component?

[jgb]

The entities that made up the initial component would most likely be part of a larger structure, and not fully standalone. Exploding the comp puts the entities back in place so to speak.
But if it were a standalone object, then yes, there would be no need to explode it.