How to plaster an object with another object (like constructing a rocket of wooden planks)

Greetings! I wonder how I can “plaster” (in lack of a better word) an object with another object. I am guessing there is an obvious extension for this - I just don’t know where to start.

Let me illustrate. I am trying to create a playground with the same feeling as the ones at www.monstrum.dk (the pictures seen in the background of this sketch). Notice the princess tower on the corner of the tree house.

I would like to draw one piece of plank and have it cover the tower shape.

Ah, you might say: Use the Rotate Tool with CTRL for Copying and then enter * x to repeat. Yes this works, but there are some obvious problems:

a. I want the angles on the planks to be calculated, so I don’t get any overlap

b. Some of the shapes I want to “plaster” are round but have a different diameter along the path of the cylinder. Like the Soyuz Booster seen on the rocket to the right.

How should I go about doing this?

Something like this?

with gaps and native tools…

I mistyped the angle, but it’s close enough for this gif…

john

2 Likes

Haha! You guys are great! You make me smile. It’s kind of funny, you know. I used Sketchup to draw my entire house - and we built the house based on the drawings - but I never knew some of the tricks you just did.

I’ll play around with the suggestions and then get back to you.

Again. Thank you so much. You’ve been so helpful!