Thanks for that Box, I will give it a go and see if that cures the problem. I had been thinking that scale was immaterial as you can only see so much on screen and if you increase the amount of segments (in the case of circles) you get better definition and selection of points to click or accept - more reading required.

Hi Jean,

Thanks for your information as I've been reading Sketchup for dummies, and while it is good generally it does not always point out the little things that need to be set up correctly. At present I am playing with a profile and trying to make sure construction lines etc are coloured to ensure they are on axis as noted by Box and in most part I have succeeded as when I use the Follow Me tool I do get a result.

One problem that I'm finding with the profile seems to be how arc's are joined together (or more importantly how I am doing it. At the moment I create the top circle and then use ARC to click on the bottom inside curve and then the inside of the circle at the top, offset the arc to get thickness, add another arc on the outside under the circle, create the base, and then delete all the internal lines so that it shows up as a light blue face (I have had some white but they don't work). From there I use the follow me tool to complete the object - but, it seems like there is still a problem with the two inner arc's as a section does not appear in the object. It looks like it is from where the arc's join to the top of the tape measure line (see attached). Is it because they are not on the plane? The note in the box on screen when joining says "End Point" so is it how the join is made that is causing problems with that section of the circle? I also got the same problem when trying to put an arc in at the outside of the base and trumpet and that area has been left out when using Follow Me.

Straight lines do not seem to be a problem. When using freehand, reverse arc's, circles and offsets I can get complex shape to run, but when I try and calculate or get it mathematically right I hit problems. I know I am doing something wrong and its not the program as a 60mm one came out fine so therefore I want to find it, fix my method and get on to other commands and items.

Thanks for your time again.

Follow me test v01.skp

Follow me test v02.skp

Thanks for the reply Gilles. Hopefully it is attached now and someone can tell me where I messed up. It seems to be squares no problems, circles no end to problems.

40mm W 40mm H 10mm OS 5mm C v04.skp

Hi, just signed up as there looks to be a lot of people doing a lot of good stuff - and solving a lot of problems that pop up. I am a basic user who is just stumbling though, watch youtude and has ideas beyond the means to do.

I am currently trying to draw up and trumpet for an intake manifold for a car engine. The base object is an 80mm dia "washer" with a 40mm hole in the middle. Next to it is the "trumpet" part done a simple crossection and then used a circle and the follow me tool to create it. Both parts have been made into objects and have volumes. I then place them together so the base of the trumpet and the washer align on the vertical axis and both objects overlap.

The problem is that when I use Outer Shell to get only the external shape SU creates it, but I can not get a volume from the (now singular) object. Would it be something to do with the the number of straight lines used to define the edge of a circle, or their position where they overlap? At present I dont have any answers as this does no seem to be something they noted in the guides for using solids. It did work well with 2 blocks, but anything I seem to do with cylinder or circles seem to give trouble.

Thank you for reading this far, and hopefully there are some ideas out there on how to get round this. Before I get too far ahead of myself I will read up on posting files and attempt a few as I fear I will have more questions than answers for a while.

Thank you for your time.

Clive