Cutting moulding

I have created a piece of moulding which I want to cut a 45 degree end. How do I do this?

If you want the miter because the moulding will go around a rectangular object, it is often simplest to draw the profile and use the follow-me to extrude it around the rectangle. SketchUp will create miters at the corners for you. If you want the edge pieces to be separate components you will have to follow up by drawing a few edges where Follow-me went smoothly around the corner then selecting just the edges along one side of the rectangle and creating a component. You will likely have to trace an edge on the end of the component to close the face there.

Another technique is to draw the moulding over-long and make it a component. Then draw a rectangle at the required 45 degree angle to the length at the desired location. Edit-cut the rectangle, open the component for edit, and Edit->paste in place. Then select the contents of the component (which now includes the rectangle) and do Intersect Faces With…Selection. Finally, erase the extra that projects beyond the cut.

Edit: In the second animation you might notice a couple of “oops”. Because of needing it in the first animation, I initially thought the end of the miter was not a closed face, so I traced an edge. Then I realized I was looking at a reversed face rather than the inside of the object, so I reversed the end face to make the component’s surface consistent. I could have saved these steps by orienting the cutting rectangle’s surfaces the opposite way in the first place.

1 Like

Fantastic! Thank you very much for the technique. I spent a lot of time making the fancy moulding only to discover that I couldn’t cut it. I really appreciate the information.

This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.