How can you make a pipe using the follow me and path

[Ole1969]

Hi
How can you make a pipe using the follow me and path
It is for electrical pipes and it must have different radio

[mics_54]

You’re attempting to model flexible corrugated wire conduit. It’s fairly easily modeled for straight short pieces with native tools but creates large files.

[TheOnlyAaron]

I would recommend using a circle along a path and use alternating black and white strips in a material to emulate the corrugation. If you need it large (including the detail of each ridge) I would try stacking amll and large extruded curcles, then use Fredo6’s radial bend extension to put the bend in it.

[mics_54]

I did that and it froze up my computer for a while so I abandoned it.

[TheOnlyAaron]

I would likely keep the geometry of the “rings” pretty low resolution. Maybe a 10 sided circle, and make the rings with an arc of 3 - 4 sides.

[DaveR]

I agree with Aaron. A texture would keep the model easier to handle. If you absolutely have to have geometry, you could use Helix Along Curve to make it. It will result in a lot of geometry and potentially cause performance issues but it can be done.

[Ole1969]

Thanks for reply
Must try and draw this in electrical pipes pulling my house, but possible there is easier way to do it

[mics_54]

I would just use the lines to tubes or pipe along path plugins and forget the corrugation.

[TheOnlyAaron]

Totally agree. If you had not pointed out that those pipes were corrugated, based on this picture, I would have through they were smooth.

[mics_54]

@Ole1969

Must try and draw this in electrical pipes pulling my house, but possible there is easier way to do it

I think I would use bezier curves and pipe along path or lines to tubes…it’s not going to get easier than that except to forget about modeling the wire pull and just place boxes and fixtures like in normal electrical plans…actually they don’t usually even do that…they create electrical plans in 2D and use symbols for box types…then they simply use like a spline line to show home runs and connections from switches to fixtures

Of course doing it your original way would give you the ability to query the SU program on length of wire, type of boxes and quantities…something a 2D plan will not do.

[IanT]

Plenty of options to go at here. I would agree with the others and forget the corrugated part, it will just bog things down.

Here’s a way to make the pipes using Follow Me. The key I found were to have a short vertical line (perpendicular to the hole) at the top and bottom of the path. That makes the operation much easier…

You can also cut holes through the timbers using Push Pull and then take advantage of sticky geometry by selecting the opposite opening and moving it into position using the Move tool…

I ended up getting a little carried away with myself and did a version of the image…

[Ole1969]

Thank you for all your help