I apologise for going AWOL, i posted this in work (while looking for the solution) and then went and took an extended weekend.

Anyway, you guys are incredible - Pilou, your method is perfect for a gentle column angle and Takesh h, your method of using the intersect curve from Round Corners.rb will prove perfect for more acute angles and Box, your advice about trying to take a component and re-use is well heeded. Your collective enthusiasm to help us mere mortals is inspiring.

I admit I was hoping for a quick fix plug-in (since I have about 25 unique geometry columns to model) but both your steps are very clear and reproducible so shouldn’t take too much time… as long as the scheme doesn’t keep changing like it did today

Oh, and Rich O Brien, the Blender demo makes me wish we used something more advanced than SK in my office.

Cheers all!

Thanks so much for the swift reply, Rich!

I've just installed that plugin and although it's a very useful but not quite what I need.

I apologise if my explaination before was a bit vague (actually lazy because I should have drawn it!)

What I meant by not minding about the intersection was its style as demonstrated in the attached image - if anyone knows a plug-in that can do it, that would be exceptional!

Trying your suggestion now Rich (with weld.rb?) just takes ages for SK to re-open on our company network. Will report back.

I currently use one called 'pipe along path' which is also very good as a follow-me tool.

(and thanks again for the help guys!)

EDIT:

Weld.rb seems to be a bit touchy with acute angles (perhaps my modelling issue!) so isn't a great help in this instance.

However, I can still use 'pipe along path' in two operations to achieve the same effect. It's fine as a stop-gap though. Still, if anyone knows another tool that can solve it, my tree columns will forever be in your debt!

@unknownuser said:

Something like that ?

[attachment=0:31ijmv7j]<!-- ia0 -->roundcube.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:31ijmv7j]

That's beautiful and if there is a plug in that can do that I'm certain I could find a use for it in the future! But for now my aspirations are rather more modest, as can be seen on the post above (it needed to be approved so it took a while to appear) It's the clean intersection of three (or maybe more) lines at one point.

Hi guys, I have what will hopefully be a simple problem that is causing me a big headache.

I need a pipe or follow-me style operation to create a cylindrical tube defined by some lines. Ive been trying to look for ‘follow me’ rubies that let you split the line rather than use a linear path, but to no avail. I've tried searching here, but I'm rubbish and don't really know how to simply describe the search terms.

The critical thing for me is that the pipes intersect properly at the corners. I’m not too fussed at the moment if the corner is smoothed or folded, but the option would be great.

Any help from you stalwarts of the community would be very very appreciated!

Cheers

Bob