Extruting.pdf (11.7 KB)
I have been trying to figure out why extruding doesn’t always work when going around a circle. I have a profile for a restaurant booth that I need to extrude around a radius. However when I extrude the object it does not come out to be 90 degrees. I always have to select the bounding edges on the end pieces and rotate them to be so. Does anyone else have this issue and if so how can i avoid these issues going forward?
On my phone so can’t look at your model, but I suspect your issue is that SketchUp’s follow-me tool (aka extrude) always starts by projecting the profile to a plane perpendicular to the first segment of the path and stops at perpendicular to the last segment. So, it is normal to need to rotate your path so that the first and last segments are perpendicular to the profile or to extend the path with segments that are and trim it after extrusion.
Follow Me requires the profile to be perpendicular to the first segment in the path and the extrusion will end perpendicular to the last segment in the path. If you don’t rotate the profile to perpendicular or set the path so the first and last segment are perpendicular to where you want the extrusion to start and end, it projects (not rotates) the profile.
When I need to do something like this I start by drawing a circle instead of an arc. I rotate the circle so an edge is perpendicular to the profile face. Then I split the circle to make the 90° arc to use for Follow Me.
I will try this thanks for the input. This problem has been giving me issues for ages. I will see if I can’t make this work out.
Nothing wrong with what @DaveR has shown you BUT keep in mind the radial distance to the middle of the flat edge and the distance to the vertex are different. It depends how accurate you need to work.
Won’t matter if the path is set up as I show in my GIF.
If the measured radius is critical the model shouldn’t be created as a single extrusion with Follow Me.
Just a note, if you use the polygon tool you can tap ctrl to change from inscribed radius to circumscribed radius, meaning it will put the flat where you want it. But arc/circle wont have softened vertices.
I’ve been saying for years this option should be available with the circle tool, but who listens to me…
I do!!!
In the meantime, use polygons with 24 sides, or more, as circles. Then click on the curve, explode it, then immediately weld all segments. It will now extrude as smooth as a circle.
or use a polygon, extrude as a prism, then triple click and smoothen.
if you’re modelling something complex that’ll require smoothing anyway, might as well go poly.