I need to extrude a shape 180 degrees around an axis of rotation, but Follow Me doesn’t do it correctly…
I create a shape (square) in one plane, and a half circle arc in a perpendicular plane. The radius of the arc is equal to the width of the square.
I select the arc as the path, then choose the follow-me tool, then click on the surface of the square. The square is extruded around the circle, but the faces of the extruded piece are not on the plane of the original square. Both ends of the extrusion are tilted away from the plane (viewed from above, the end surfaces form a shallow inverted V, and there’s a V shaped gap between these surfaces. It’s as if the extrusion went from 5 degrees to 175 degrees, instead of 0 to 180 degrees, leaving the end surfaces offset from the plane by 5 degrees.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob McDermott
To put it simply, Follow me doesn’t use the end of a curve as expected. There are various plugins that address the issue, but the simple work around is to extend your path and trim back to what you want.
For example a follow me on a full circle will make a sphere but on a half circle you will get less than half a sphere. Easiest to make a sphere and cut it in half.
Here is an example I did for someone else who had this problem. You can see the arc they tried to follow didn’t meet with the shape. So by extending the path you get a smooth finish. The line flipping around at the end was showing the snap to axis. Also, because the last segment of the path was straight, I could have simply pushed the end up to finish square at the arc end.
The angle at each end is the result of the orientation of the lines forming the circle. If you start with a full circle and connect the midpoints of the opposing segments, you end up with a half-circle that has segments at each end that are oriented properly. You may find it easier to edit the circle than editing the resulting surfaces.
I created the following with 24 segments per full circle, then rotated it 7.5 degrees before creating the diameter and trimming the circle. As a result, the Follow Me tool behaves more like you would expect.
Robert,
I understand your post to mean you have something like this:
And you use the follow me tool and get something like this:
Perhaps this is what your are seeking:
In the interest of leaving no dead horse unbeaten, here’s a method using the new/improved pie tool.
As always, a picture or SU model would make answering questions more straightforward.
Shep
Follow me always starts and ends Perpendicular to the first and last segment of the curve. Which is why using a rotated half circle works, or even cutting the circle on the mid points but then it will be off axis as there is no natural way to infer a circle on the segment midpoints. The Polygon tool will if you toggle crtl, so you could do it that way.
But more importantly, by extending your path you give yourself an opportunity to intersect the resultant follow me with other geometry, rather than attempting to make it finish flush to a face.
In this example you can see how a twisted path will cause problems if you want to to fit the face, but pass it through and it’s simple to cut to fit.