Can I Have Some Help With The Follow Me Tool Please..?

SketchUp
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Hello everyone, I’m a SketchUp n00b so please be gentle with me lol.

I’m trying to make modular corridor pieces that I can fit together. I started off with a template which is the shape of the corridor I want. To get a straight section and a dead end section I just used the Push Pull tool for the straight and added a face for the dead end.

Everything was working hunky dory and I was a happy bunny :heart_eyes:

But then I started work on a turn and it all started to go a bit pear-shaped :open_mouth:

Now my original plan was to draw and arc by drawing two lines in an L shape and using the 2 Point Arc tool to draw the arc, delete the straight lines and use the Follow Me tool to draw the turn. But this didn’t work. The beginning of the turn and the end of the turn weren’t at 90 degrees so I couldn’t snap fit my other corridors onto it without gaps.

So I thought about it again and thought I had the answer. I decided to draw a 90 degrees Pie using the Pie tool between the Red Axis and the Green Axis and then delete the straight lines making what I thought should be a 90 degree turn after I used the Follow Me tool, but what I got was this:

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The gap between the two edges is less than 90 degrees for some reason. Is there some way of making these two edges of the corridor at 90 degrees of each other…? I thought that the method above would do that…? Am I missing something…? Is there some sort of mathematical formula that I need to work out the correct amount of degrees for the arc…?

Many thanks in advance for any help! :grinning:

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The reason is that the end edges of the arc are not at 90° to each other. Follow Me projects the profile perpendicular to the first edge and it ends perpendicular to the last edge in the path.

The way I get around that is to draw a circle instead of an arc. Then I quarter it at the midpoints of edges 90° to each other and use that as the path. I’ll make an illustration.

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Here’s one from Geo…

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That’ll work. Thanks, Cotty.

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Okay, thanks! So now I’ve drawn a circle, used the Select tool to select the face and deleted it. And now I’ve used the Follow Me tool to extend my template into a circular shape like this:

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So just one more question if you could please…? How do I go about cutting that three quarters of a circular corridor out and deleting it…? I’d appreciate step by step instructions as possible please because I’m completely new to SketchUp and don’t know what I’m doing lol :sob:

Would I just draw lines using the line tool and just delete the faces…? Or is there a quicker and easier way to do it…?

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What if I just show you live? Once you see it, you’ll see it’s really quite simple.

Draw the path to have the perpendicular ends.

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Then use that path for Follow Me.

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Wow!!! Got it. Thanks very much for your help guys, this has been doing my head in for a couple of days! Thanks a lot! :smiley:

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