Follow Me Question
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In the attached file, I created a compound spiral. Now I'm trying to give that spiral line three dimensions as a 1" diameter round. I set up the axis on the first segment of that grouped spiral. When I try to use the follow me tool, I get a message saying that the face needs to be perpendicular to the path. As far as I can tell, it is perpendicular.
I'm confused. Can anybody explain what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks.
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@unknownuser said:
Can anybody explain what I'm doing wrong?
It lofts along the path for me...
Did you try exploding the Spiral group, selecting the Spiral and then using FollowMe on the face?
FollowMe is not intelligent enough to consider the geometry in the group but if you explode it then SketchUp goes 'OOh, you meant you wanted to extrude along the geometry in the group...why didn't ask?'
It throws the perpendicular error because you are hover over something it can't extrude along.
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Awesome! That worked. I'm not sure I fully understand why, though. It seems a little counterintuitive that I would have to explode the curve. Intuitively it would seem that that would then 'follow' only the first segment, and that each one would have to be done individually.
I think I need to find some instruction on 'weld' and 'explode'. I don't think I have a real grasp of what those functions do.
Thank You so Much.
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@layneam said:
I think I need to find some instruction on 'weld' and 'explode'. I don't think I have a real grasp of what those functions do.
Weld Edges welds a series of edges into a curve which makes it easier to select among other things. Explode Curves breaks curves up into their edge segments.
What version of SketchUp are you actually using? Your forum profile says 2023 Free/Make. The only version that meets that description would be the free web-based version. It doesn't have any option for using extensions. If you are using Pro there are some extensions that could help you with this.
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You're slightly misunderstanding what Rich is saying/doing. He exploded the curve 'group' to make it work, not exploded the curve. They are two different things. If you select a group the context menu option is Explode, but if you select a curve the context menu option is Explode Curve.
The Path for follow me needs to be ungrouped, not exploded. It needs to be raw geometry. The Profile can be grouped but that is a different issue.
In the gif you can see the big blue bounding box of the group, exploding removes this. Your spiral within is already exploded, so I weld it to make it one curve, rather than group it.
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@box said:
You're slightly misunderstanding what Rich is saying/doing.
I must take the stone out of me mouth before I speak
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