Google SketchUp Cookbook

Chapter 2. Following Paths with Follow Me

The Follow Me tool is used to extrude a 2D face along a 2D or 3D path. In other design applications, this is sometimes called sweeping or driving. Follow Me is an incredibly useful tool for making such architectural details as moldings, parapets, railings, and fences, as well as circular objects such as cups, vases, and spheres. (It’s also quite fun to watch Follow Me in action.)

The basics of Follow Me are pretty easy to understand, but there are some little-known tricks you can use to make your designing easier. In this chapter, you’ll learn the best ways to use Follow Me, how to set up Follow Me paths relative to Follow Me faces, and how to take advantage of groups and components in order to prevent changes to other objects. You’ll also learn how you can use a circular path to lathe all sorts of round objects, and how to create 3D Follow Me paths.

Before using Follow Me, you need to have these two things in your model:

• A Follow Me face, which will be extruded along the path. This must be a single face (not divided by edges) and must be 2D.

• A Follow Me path, which the Follow Me face will follow. The path must be continuous and can be 2D or 3D.

Follow Me is available on the Tools menu and as an icon on the Large Tool Set toolbar (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1. Figure 2-1

Note

To display the Large Tool Set toolbar, choose View→Toolbars→Large Tool Set (Windows) ...