hey guys, thanks for the responses.

yeah, ive gone through all the videos.

thanks honoluludesktop! the term surface modeling has really helped clear it up. and yeah, i am looking for a solid modeler.

well, now i know

yeah, the follow me tool will work just fine.

if i were to make a conical cylinder, which is just a cylinder with one radius larger than the other at the 2 ends, is it possible to make the solid form first, then using the push tool, to hollow out the inside. the problem with the push tool is that it pushes orthogonal to the plane of the curve, and does not follow the form of the outer surface.

it would be nice if it could push along some reference curve or surface.

but then that leads me to believe that the only real way to model in SU is mainly using the follow me tool, and then deleting / intersecting sections and parts afterwards.

does this make sense?

thanks!

hello all,

ive been told that most sketchup models are built using single wall thickness for objects. i want to use SU to do more detailed product modeling.

for example, if you want to make a basic snow cone shape with a wall thickness.... i know you can use the follow me tool to do a revolve, but is it possible to use the push / pull so that it references a surface to follow.

other than the follow me tool, i can't think of any other way, and if thats the case, it sounds like SU really isn't the wisest choice to do basic detailed modeling.

thoughts?

thanks!

ahhh...

i meant as a general approach, you do have to delete by hand, no matter how complex?

modelhead....

thanks for the image. i will play around with it, and see where it gets me.....

so then if you intersect, then the parts that you don't want, you do have to delete by hand? all the lines, etc....

if so, then does it make sense to model in low poly... and then add more poly at the end? is this possible?

thanks!

hello all.

ive been using sketchup for a couple of years, but only on a basic level. i'm getting very serious about 3d modelling rendering so i hope to learn a lot!

my first question has to do with how to deal with complex surfaces. ive tried searching for this issue, but came up empty.

say for example, i want to model a very basic bucket, consisting of just the cylindrical cone, and a small "spout" on the rim of the bucket.

the only way i know to do this, is to create the main bucket form, using follow me. then for the spout, i would try to make the spout separately and then just stick it on the bucket.

but then there is the issue of joining the 2 surfaces to become one, which requires removing sections from the bucket. which i have tried to do by the "intersect" command. but this causes me lot of other issues, and i just don't think this is the best way to do it. i intersect and have to go in and delete the leftover mess which is just ugly.

i think there is an issue with my fundamental approach.

im also learning rhino, and there i understand all about joining surfaces. now im just trying to understand how sketchup deals with this.

thanks!