Is it possible to use the follow me tool to follow a "Y" path?

Im trying to use the follow me tool to create ridge tiles along the roof. But I cant get it to follow a more complicated path like an “X” or a “Y” shape. Is it possible to do this using the follow me tool or is there another way?

At the moment ive created ridge tiles for half of the roof, I have to repeat the process for the other half. Is there another method to do this in one process?

Thanks in advance people

The Follow Me tool follows a single path at a time, so you’d have to perform a series of Follow Me operations and then trim the extrusions to each other using the Intersect Faces command. Not really that big of a deal.

Still, I might approach it differently–more like a piping model. I would model each fitting (wye and el) as components and then just run straight pipe (tile) between them.

-Gully

Thanks for that. I was trying different paths to make it follow and it just wasnt working the way I was hoping. I have settled at the moment for repeating the process twice.

Could you elaborate a little more on your approach, it sounds like a new method I dont yet know

Also is there a way of toning down the lines or edges of what im seeing on screen. Is this a Styles thing or is there another option which I can toggle on and off? Its just now that my model has so many curved surfaces that I cant see past this mass of pink lines when I zoom out?

You can soften curved surfaces to cut down on the lines.

You can save filespace by making each tile a component, and ridges a compenent with multiple stacked tile instances.

The two ridges in front could be an instance, the 3 longer ridges could be another instance.

I would be surprised if someone has not yet made a dynamic component that you could scale between start and end of a roof ridge (which automatically copies the tiles the needed number of times.)

Maybe this picture will help.

http://i01.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/908/132/717/717132908_371.jpg

You’ll notice that there are tile pieces that go at the intersections between straight rows of tile, Notice on the bottom row there’s what I called a wye fitting and they cal a tri-pass, and next to it what they call a bi-pass and I called an el. You could model those tile fittings (one each) as determined by the geometry of your roof, and then for the straight runs of ridge tile between these there’s a straight tile at the very top. Then you would assemble them on the roof much as they would be assembled on an actual roof.

You could also consider making the straight runs of tile a single extrusion and simulating the appearance of tiles with a texture.

There are lots of possibilities. Depends on how great your need is for complete realism and accuracy versus just getting the point across, or just capturing the overall appearance versus extracting a detailed bill of material.

-Gully

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Ah right, fantastic explanation, never looked at it like that. I have overmodelled my windows at the moment compared to everything else in the model, im trying to figure out a balance. Pushing and pulling is alittle too easy and addictive. Im beginning to enjoy Sketchup a little more now, where before I was getting bogged down by errors and such. Thanks again guys, great help

Hi Andy,

As you build your models, keep in mind their purpose.
Modeling unseen detail is a sure way to bloat the file and slow model performance.
Keep geometry simple and save your polygon budget for the details that matter most.

See this compendium of performance modeling tips:
How do I make SketchUp run faster? — SketchUp Sage Site

I really appreciate the pointers and the help I’m getting at the moment, really really appreciated thanks again guys!

I think I have just discovered that performance of sketchup has been affected a tad over the last day not to the point of unuseable but a slight noticeable judder in frame rate? This has forced me to tidy things up… group things, put things the right layer etc… turn off guides etc, that usually helps.

I have to add that at the beginning, I was getting frustrated and hung up with the clean up tool as that was stopping me from creating. I was wondering why my windows were causing errors. I was obsessed with using the cleanup tool after every single thing that I made, as I wanted to make the red numbers disappear I was obsessed with hunting down all these errors and correcting them. My geometry just became as you say bloated. Instead of becoming simpler, I somehow assumed that sketchup wanted me to create proper windows, frames etc… as that made the cleanup tool happy

This is how I make frames; I’ve tried creating a profile and using the “follow me” tool, I’ve tried importing a component and making it fit, I’ve tried just using a simple offset and push/pull… I’ve found that this method lets me create frames of any shape/size/configuration that strike the right balance between realism and model simplicity while letting me choose an inside and outside frame finish.
It’s also just as quick (with keyboard shortcuts) to make a window as it would be to find a pre-configured one and alter it to suit.

(Not shown is the handle component that I would stick on) Make Window.skp (169.4 KB)

Note: I am only interested in rendering aesthetics, so it probably won’t pass any solid modeling checks

Thanks! This is all good! I created my own windows too, well to suit me at the time, I was frustrated as I hadnt fully understood the negative and positive push pull, reversing faces etc. My windows are simple too, at first I just wanted a flat surface and a few lines to represent a window. Then the cleanup tool took over and now my windows have sub frames, double glazing etc.

Yours sound really ideal and at the moment im preparing to workout veluxes so I will try them out!