# Follow me tool to create arc around curved lines

**URL:** <https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468>\
**Category:** SketchUp\
**Tags:** followme, sketchup, curves, modeling, follow-me\
**Created:** [July 30, 2021, 1:04pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468 "2021-07-30T13:04:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pisdihly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@pisdihly](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/pisdihly)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 1:04pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468/1 "2021-07-30T13:04:13Z")

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hi everyone im new here  
could smone tell me how to avoid this?  
i am trying to use follow me tool to create arc around lines but when the profile gets to curved line this happens!

 ![b8d500bb-3569-473e-bd4b-7eac44103c7b](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/a/f/af1261e8d9861e37b307b89ddb6c88cc77e203b2.jpeg)

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**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:** [July 30, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468/2 "2021-07-30T13:26:36Z")

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The relative position of the path the the profile will effect the corners.  
As you see in my gif when the path is at the bottom of the profile the corner overlaps, but when aligned with the middle it creates straight mitre.  
You can play around and get different results.

![Path](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/1/3/13c979058d82d0e3ed89f4686e5514377c04aa19.gif)

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**Author:** ![monospaced](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/monospaced/32/53363_2.png) [@monospaced](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/monospaced)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 1:28pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468/3 "2021-07-30T13:28:32Z")

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Very interesting! I had no idea the orientation of the two elements could result in such big differences. Thanks, this will help me troubleshoot some of my issues I’ve had over the years too.

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**Author:** ![slbaumgartner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/slbaumgartner/32/7302_2.png) [@slbaumgartner](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/slbaumgartner)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468/4 "2021-07-30T15:34:10Z")

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The algorithm follow-me uses to generate mitered corners doesn’t cope well with situations where the profile width is large compared to the edge segment lengths of an arc near an acute (inside) corner. It draws a projection of the profile onto the bisector of the angle where the edges meet and tries to connect vertices of that projection back to the vertices of the previous one. When these projections overlap close to the corner, the logic fails and creates a flap such as you saw.

It works more reliably when the corner is obtuse (outside) because the projected profiles fan out rather than overlapping. But if the path has both inside and outside corners, you may have to make copies to separate them. The offset tool can be used to do this.

Sometimes a middle-of-the profile compromise path such as @Box showed is enough to avoid the problem, but not always.

Edit: In your screenshot the curves appear quite smooth, suggesting you are using a large segment count for them. That makes the edges shorter and aggravates the problem. Obviously there is a tradeoff with nice looking curves.

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**Author:** ![pisdihly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@pisdihly](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/pisdihly)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468/5 "2021-07-31T02:42:23Z")

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thank u sir 🙏

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**Author:** ![pisdihly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@pisdihly](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/pisdihly)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/follow-me-tool-to-create-arc-around-curved-lines/171468/6 "2021-07-31T02:43:00Z")

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thanks sir