# Creating colour twist on cable greater than 360 degrees **URL:** \ **Category:** SketchUp\ **Created:** [October 30, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768 "2019-10-30T10:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/1 "2019-10-30T10:27:47Z")
I am able to create the stripe on the cable using the box twist tool (See sketch example) but need to go beyond 360 degrees. As per the picture. Any help would be appreciated. Dave [Bicoloured core.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/fVYxO8MqCTY2yBmzV14sOi9xisv.skp) (763.8 KB) ![equipment%20wire%20biclour](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/4/4/442829bc1eca713498a05275ef989742a7eb6f18.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 10:49am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/2 "2019-10-30T10:49:26Z")
![siy-03](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/9/3/9307f0c7d794f16e237d53e0cca043126bb0073f.gif) ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 11:06am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/3 "2019-10-30T11:06:06Z")
Thanks for the info, I’ll give it a go. much appreciated Dave ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 10:00am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/4 "2019-11-06T10:00:51Z")
You make this look very easy. I managed to replicate your actions but in a somewhat long winded way. I had great difficulty in lining up the tubes once i’d scaled the first tube…which action did you perform. Also when you rotated the tubes (which I also did) you are able to move to the edge of the stripe and drag it to line up with the previous stripe. I could only do this from the end rotating the tube, which made it difficult to see the lining up process. Also, using this method of grouping each of the sections makes it difficult to subsequently change the colours for the complete cable…any suggestions? Going down a different route, would it be possible to attack this in a different way…see attached…if I was able to join the two helix around curve ends and create a face for the stripe I could fill in the stripe with colour easily… [coreandhelix.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/c2dTFGj1xEYBKO68qiXasbXpWPn.skp) (55.8 KB) Again…any help would be much appreciated as I have many of these cables to generate and I nee to find a quick way of doing this. Thanks All ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 11:09am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/5 "2019-11-06T11:09:39Z")
~~The arcs and circles in SketchUp are created from segments. You will not be able to match the segments created by the helix to those created by the circle.~~ ![cab-05](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/1/f/1f396b76f0b2f6eaa681734ee2c86ab69731ce9c.gif) //edit I see there are problems with displaying this GIF Try this link to the animated GIF: [cab-05.gif - Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-67XjYO1hpMN7g8nqNv61J_uVwjdtFi0) Learn about - Cardinal Points: [![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/1/5/15b866497b491efce125aff4555a20cb7993c7de.jpeg "Cardinal Points in SketchUp - Skill Builder") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrvE7Wws9vQ) ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/6 "2019-11-06T11:36:06Z")
No matter what method you use to create the helices, make sure they have the same number of segments per rotation as your circle. ![Helix](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/9/b/9b704cfb0d7ae89034a01434cf71ec234ee3e2d4.gif) ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/7 "2019-11-06T12:13:30Z")
“Spot On” This looks considerably quicker, thanks. The only question I have is when you have extruded the centre to line up with the helices, then hit select you scroll up to something that I can’t see. This action must separate the stripe colour from the main tube colour. Thanks Again Dave ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/8 "2019-11-06T12:14:40Z")
Explode, it explodes the two helices so they merge with the cylinder. ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/9 "2019-11-06T12:56:16Z")
I followed your instruction and hit explode and for whatever reason the stripe still does not appear as a separate face to colour. Any thoughts… Dave ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/10 "2019-11-06T12:56:56Z")
Upload what you’ve got. ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/11 "2019-11-06T13:06:26Z")
[purple twist.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/176uh0LAoHk4Zh721rUswEvjhA2.skp) (38.7 KB) ---
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/daver/32/7601_2.png) [@DaveR](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/12 "2019-11-06T13:09:11Z")
It looks like you drew the circle for the cylinder at some random angle instead of dragging it out on axis. ![Screenshot%20-%2011_6_2019%20%2C%207_10_25%20AM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/e/7/e75021014368da6aeb9f5961750ad8196370b5f1.png) You should get in the habit of always dragging the radii of circles out on axis. It prevents all sorts of issues. ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/13 "2019-11-06T13:10:03Z")
And the helices aren’t on the vertices of the circle. ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:15pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/14 "2019-11-06T13:15:07Z")
ok I hadn’t realised that. I thought i’d created both the cylinder and helices on the green axis and extruded up the blue axis…ill try again. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:17pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/15 "2019-11-06T13:17:13Z")
Look here. The off screens are in order, Make Group and Explode. ![Fix](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/8/8/8812fe11a445177af315c4b3bfa27fab6b71c769.gif) ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:12pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/16 "2019-11-06T14:12:52Z")
Copied your example to the letter and still it will not separate the stripe from the cylinder. ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/17 "2019-11-06T14:14:00Z")
Upload it ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/18 "2019-11-06T14:20:57Z")
[sample 1.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/jpGDpa4V3wVM3DZgQiWvX0nThj3.skp) (34.3 KB) ---
**Author:** ![technical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@technical](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/technical)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/19 "2019-11-06T14:22:40Z")
All of the start and end points are as per axis. None of which is freehand. ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768/20 "2019-11-06T14:23:20Z")
Why are the helices 40 segments and the cylinder 24 segments. [Next page](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/creating-colour-twist-on-cable-greater-than-360-degrees/107768.md?page=2)