And I thought I knew what I was doing

I’ve become somewhat proficient using SUp for modeling various thing so I thought let’s try something different, I’ll model a drawer pull. WOW, I’ve tried several approaches and am still don’t have a clue. This is the drawer pull, and if I could get a general idea on how to model it, I’d appreciate it.

You need a couple of profile pictures and a few plugins. Artisan/Curviloft/Fredo tools.
I would draw the main shape, then add the detailing.

Like ely862me, I would start with a front view as well as a side view and get the basic shape. Since it is symmetrical, I would only draw half of it and make that a component that I would copy and flip to make the opposite side.

I wouldn’t work too hard to draw the fine detail, though. If that pull is used on a piece of furniture, most of the fine detail would be wasted.

Although not the same sort of drawer pull, this one is a simplified one compared to the original example I was working from. And the ones on this lowboy are even more simplified. That one was drawn for plans to make the piece but the woodworker would most likely buy the pulls so only a simple representation is needed.

I would add that even if you are designing for a customer, a photograph or sample of the real pull will be far less work to obtain and more satisfactory than anything you can model in SketchUp. A rough model will be adequate to convey how the pull will look on a dresser - after all, if you are close enough to see the little details, you are too close to see the overall piece.

That said, if you are just looking for a SketchUp challenge, go for it!

This is as far as I got without learning/using any new plugins. Since it is symmetrical in both red and green I made the lower left quadrant then flipped and made the standoffs and flipped it again. Softening and the Eraser got rid of most of the lines, but I can’t delete the line in the center. And I can’t put the curves along the red axes.drawer pull 3.skp (208.3 KB)

This is just for my own use/challenge/enjoyment (hopefully - eventually).

That’s not a bad start. So try this.


Delete the face and the seam line at the join line,
Copy the geometry and flip the copy with Flip Along. Move the copies together.
Select the face around that seam line (drag a right to left selection box around the seam line) and run Intersect Faces>With Selection.
Use Hide, not Erase, to hide the seam line edges.

Generally in practice I would suggest that you draw the pull in the orientation it will be used. That will save you having to change the axes later to get them into the correct orientation. Whenever I draw a new piece of hardware such as a drawer pull, I make it a component and set it’s origin to the center at the surface that would be in contact with the drawer front or door stile. This allows me to very quickly and easily drop the pull into the model and I can replace them easily if needed, too.

Thanks for that Dave. Did you use the skp drawing I uploaded for that screenshot?

Yes. I did. And you’re welcome.

Last question, softened? Mine had many lines when exploded.

There are many lines in your model but you can soften some of them by selecting the geometry and then right clicking and choose Soften/Smooth. Adjust the slider as needed but 20° should be adequate.

I worked with the given image to model 1/4 handle component and coaxed the geometry to resemble the pictured handle with the native SU tools - Scale, Move, and from the Sandbox extension: Smoove, Flip Edges and Add detail.

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Nice, I’ve been playing with Curviloft a little, but I’m a long way from using it. I can see how Smoove might do it. Not sure how you got from first pic to fourth though.

Your picture shows curves and one can guessimate where the curves go and what the high and low points are. The shadows also help. If I use any reference pictures, I usually just work with one image, just like you gave us, and imported into the SU workspace.

@rboppy I’ve been thinking about this handle and how it would make a nice tutorial on getting started to use SU to scupt. I could add this to the SketchUp Sage as a tut if you don’t mind me using your image.

For the curlicues, I’m thinking it would be good to model them separately then use Outer Shell from Solid tools to intersect as it would be available to the free crowd.

The geometry should be kept low-poly for ease, then use one of the subdivide plugins if a 3D print is needed.

Please help yourself to the image.

Jim