Modeling part of a curved lift handle; filing faces?

The videos show how I attempted to model the curved ‘outline’ of top part of the pictured handle (i.e. grabbing part). I was wondering, going forward, if there was a way I could go on to fill the faces, without the use of any plugins?

Skp file: 033_fill face.skp (715.5 KB)

Make a path and a profile and use follow me.
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For fun I played with this a bit. I sort of got it, but can’t imagine doing it with the native tool-set. I had to use Curviloft and roundcorner. @Box, would this even be possible using the native tool set? And please don’t spend your time doing a GIF, a yes or no will suffice. Pull%20Practice Pull Practice.skp (526.7 KB)

Edited to ask Box’s opinion.

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You can use the native tools, although that’s tedious and involves trial and error. Model half the handle. Make an oval. Give it some length. Use the Scale Tool to shrink one end of the shape. Push/pull the scaled-down face to extend the shape. Scale the end again. Repeat until you get a decent-looking curve. Use Follow Me to bend the shape. Scale the end again.
Hope this helps.

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@davidheim1,[quote=“davidheim1, post:4, topic:83456”]
although that’s tedious and involves trial and error
[/quote]
Thank you! But it was tough enough with plug-ins. I had to stitch a lot of that final fillet from the handle to the mounting plate. So your suggestion that it would be tedious, is indeed correct! :slight_smile:

But I do get what you’re saying. I think I modeled a spigot for a kegerator, that way about ten years ago, it only took me a day or two.
,
(And why did my quote end up like that?)

For something like this handle, you could get away with drawing just a quarter of it. That wouldn’t take quite so much time with manual tools but it would still be tedious. I drew a quickie using mostly native tools although I also used Bezier curves and Curviloft. I could stand to refine the shape of the center part of the handle a bit.

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@DaveR
Thanks but I wasn’t the OP. I was just curious as to if there might be a viable option to model it in the free web version.
BTW, if you would add the .skp it would help to see how you did that! :wink:

Yeah. I understood that. Viable? I’d say yes. Would I want to do it? Probably not. I’d make a much more simplified version instead.

Sorry. I didn’t keep the file after I made the screen shot. I’d want to fix the shape to remove the ridges along the center lines of the handle portion before I keep a copy of it.

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Aw come on, Gully would have added ten scenes on how to hand stitch it! LOL, you know I’m just kidding with you I hope!

I had been thinking that Gully would have had a manual way to do it in like three easy steps. With the first step being to open SketchUp and the third saving the file. :smiley:

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And his first step would have been to suggest “read the documentation”!

I digress, I was just interested as to other options.

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Yes.
Anything is possible with native tools as long as you go about it the right way.
Extension really only automate what the tools can already do, as mentioned, tediously.
But as @davidheim1 has described and @DaveR has shown, it is all about scaling the underlying web of hidden geometry to fool the eye into seeing smooth curves.
If I was going to do it with only native tools I would start by drawing the screw plate, and fashion an oval shape on it that could then be follow me’d around an appropriate curve giving a mesh that can be worked with. Select each ring and scale it to form the tapering curve … and so on. Somewhere about there (probably after the follow me) I would split it in half so I end up with the quarter like dave and work with that.

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I did have some moderate success with the 1/4th method. Setting different dimension on opposite end, and curvature in between, using the scale tool, was unsuccessful on my end. I also don’t understand how the push/pull tool would come in handy, since the entire half-oval surface, created with follow me, is curved.

The very basics of push/pull scale rotate etc, manually building curved sections.
PPScale

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Thank you very much for the video guide, Box. I was able to achieve the following:

The uploaded video shows how I drew the initial arch, with the help of the protractor and a 2d arch in the background, to determine how much to rotate each push/pulled object.

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