I’m using FredoSpline to create the attached drawing. Using FredoSpline gives me control over how many segments are contained in a bezier curve. Sketchup native tools only allows for 24 segments and I need 65. Basically, I’m creating a bezier curve and a circle, exploding both, and using the follow-me tool to create a segmented piece that I can then color the individual squares.
My question is, is there a way to control the vertical spacing of the segments in the curve? When you look at the drawing you’ll see that the spacing gets smaller as it goes from bottom to top. I’d like to keep them all equally spaced.
I’m using the bezier classic tool and specifying 65 segments.
Yomust enable the tools you want to be shown on the toolbar then restart sketchup.
You can change the segments of a circle natively from sketchup, select the circle tool type the number of segments hit enter and the circle you create will have the segments you want, you can also draw a circle then select the perimeter, not the face, go to the Entity info tray and type the segments you want there and the circle will be changed to the segments you want.
Thanks, but I’m not looking to change the amount of segments in a circle. I want to modify the spacing of the segments in a bezier curve created in FredoSpline. I don’t think I can do it with the native bezier curve. If I’m not mistaken the default amount of segments is 20 and it doesn’t look like it can be edited.
Sorry, I just replied to your email without looking at the forum. Your second video definitely fixes the problem!
Questions…
My FredoSpline toolbar does not have the feathers, just the assorted curve icons. How do I add those to the toolbar?
I did find ‘Convert Curves’ from the tools menu which I think is what you are using. Is your choice in that menu ‘bezier curve’ or something else. I’m not getting equal segments no matter what I choose.
You lost me on the third video. Can you explain a bit about what you’re doing.
The first video shows you how to add tools, click on the first icon of the toolbar then a window will pop up showing you the tools and an eye, click on the eye then restart sketchup to see the updated toolbar.
when you click on convert curve a small menu appears on the upper left corner, there you can type the segments you want the curve to have and next to it how you want it to be done the segmentation, you must choose equalize.
On the third video I just selected all the curves of your model, selected them all and converted them to 65 equal segments, then I used curviloft to create a surface from all the new curves so you see how different it’s the new mesh compared to the one you created.
Making equal segment lengths on the curve is simple enough. Right click on the curve, choose FredoSpline and go into the menu to get to Polyline Segmentor
But is that what you actually want? Although the segments are the same length the layers you’d get for your stacked turning won’t be the same length meaning that the layers will have to be different in thickness.
Maybe a more straightforward approach would be to skip worrying about the spacing between control points altogether. Here I used a 96-segment Bezier curve and a 96-segment circle to create the shape from which I selected two “columns” (for two colors) and I divided them into 65 tiers using equally spaced rectangles. After applying the colors I used Rotate/Copy to reestablish the volume.
Thanks for the clarification. Once I got a handle on the different tools things started to make sense! For my particular application, segments that are all the same size is what I’m after.
Actual finished size of the rows is 1/8” (3mm). That said, what was more important to me was the proportion of the squares. That’s why it was so important to control the consistency in the height.
tool lets you equalize the segments.
then restart sketchup to see the updated toolbar.
