Hi
When I attempt to make a grouped object or a component follow a path SU will not permit this showing a no entry annotation against the follow me tool symbol.
When I explode the group or component SU performs the follow me. Obviously incorrectly.
So how can get SU to recognise a group of shapes as a single ‘profile’ for the purposes of the follow me?
Thank you in advance for any guidance.
Open the component or group and put the path inside it.
One of the key reasons for making a group or component is so it can’t be modified without opening its container.
It sounds as if you have a general misunderstanding of groups and components.
What does this mean?
add an image or your skp file…
john
Sorry what I meant was that the effect the exploded follow me gave me was not what I wanted.
I am afraid that I do not follow how moving the path inside the group can work. Once grouped the follow me tool does not work.
However what I have now done is exploded the group and made it into a single surface by removing the joins. The resulting shape can be used in the follow me.
As John said, add your SKP so we can see what you are trying to do.
The Follow Me tool does too work inside the group if the group is open for editing. You do not need to explode a group or component to make changes to it.
Here’s a group with a profile and path opened for editing.
And here’s the same group, still opened for editing just after running Follow Me.
With native SU tools you can only apply ‘Follow Me’ on a single face. This can be done with path and profile all as basic geometry (not grouped) or both path and profile inside the groups environment. To apply the tool on the latter you must enter the group or component for editing, just as @DaveR suggested in his first post.
edit: (see @TheOnlyAaron’s post below ! ) seems that path and profile can be in different contexts: path as basic geometry and profile inside a (nested) group’s environment.
(Tested one extra level deep as nested profile)
The only geometry that can be used for Follow me are surfaces. If the surface(s) are in a group/component, you can select the path, then Follow Me, then right click the group/component and select Edit group/Edit component, and click on the surface that you want to have follow the selected path. The nice thing about this workflow is that it keep the generated geometry inside the container.
Here’s another example of using groups with follow me.
Ok I understand this now. Thank you very much for showing me this.
Thank you for this explanation.
Thank you for this excellent example.
Hey, this is good to know; it will save me all sorts of time. Thanks!!
There is (or at least was) a Plugin called PathCopy that I used to make copies of Groups/Components along a path.
I would create the path with lines; WELD the lines to make one continuous path; select the Group/Component, touch the Path line and then you were able to say how many copies OR the distance between them (I can’t remember which).
It is/was a Great Plugin.
If you can find it, give it a go. It’ll do exactly what you are trying to do … very quickly and easily.
Furthermore, if you have an uneven terrain, you could follow the path and then select all the new copies and basically drop them vertically so they would stop on the terrain at different elevations (following the terrain elevations).
I apologize for being a bit vague. It has been a few years since I did either of these things but I did do it regularly with SU 7.
I’ve been exploring this method further, and while it always seems to work when the PROFILE is in its own group, trying to follow a PATH that is in its own group tends to generate unexpected results. This would be handy for, say, drawing casings around doorways. As is, I tend to trace a rectangle over the door, select three sides of it for my path, and then erase it all when I’m done. For more complicated in-group paths, I will copy the path out of the group, use it, and erase it.
I save my Profile shapes in their own individual Group/Component but then I explode a Copy of the Group/Component profile before using the Follow-Me tool as you described (select the path lines … voila).
Unfortunately, my previous post seemed a bit off topic (sorry). The method described does work really well, but not to do what you want to do.
Excellent. That’s the one alright.
Thanks Smustard for this and many other great plugins.
