Our company make concrete building trim such as window sills and window casings.
I have to create many images of our different profiles and I’m using the follow me tool to create items like window sills, this is fine for sections of casing or sill that have a flat end, but not so great for creating a section with a “returned” end.
If I want to create a returned end, I have to make the path to follow with small right angle bits so that the shape follows the path around the corner. I then have to use the push/pull tool to remove the extended pieces.
It’s easier to see with images.
I want to eliminate the step. I realize that I could create a path with a very small length , but I was trying to find a perfect solution.
Is there a way to make the follow me tool do a 90 degree turn with zero length?
aha, got it.
thanks slbaumgartner your instructions were great.
i was doing one thing wrong.
The return path lines must be as long as the longest return edge.
my return lines were only 1 inch, they had to be 5.3125 inches long (longest horizontal length)
The key is that the length of the “ells” on the path must be the same as the thickness of whatever part of the profile you aligned with the path. In my example I aligned the thin part at the bottom, so the “ells” were that long. In your case you aligned the thick part, so the “ells” needed to be that long.
Even if using Steve’s method gives you the shape in one go, I would perhaps stop worrying about the length of the “L-s”, make them longer than needed and finally cut off the excess using the Subtract tool with a large rectangular block as the cutter.
