Pipe, follow-me arc - mating surfaces broken

Hi folks,

I have a flange with a pipe coming off it and I want it to curve. Easy :slight_smile:

However, the mating surface from where the follow-me starts is always disconnected.

I am only allowed a single image so mashed together the arc image and the followed-me result.


You can see where the mating surface is all messed.

I’ve tried putting the original arc on all edges but it just gives variations of the above.
Am I missing something which is making it disconnect?

many thanks

Follow Me starts and ends the extrusion perpendicular to the first and last path segments, respectively. The segment of your arc where it meets the flanfe is not perpendicular to the face of the flange.

When I need to do this sort of thing I start with a circle that I rotate so there is a segment perpendicular to where I want the extrusion to end.

If you share the SketchUp model I’ll make an example for you.

Please complete your forum profile with SketchUp version, operating system, and graphics card model.

I found a model I could use for an example.

Circle drawn and rotated so an edge segment is vertical at the point where it crosses the top edge of the flange.

Draw lines at the midpoints of the edges that are 90° to each other and remove all but the arc for the path. Add the prodfile for the extrusion.

After Follow Me is run:

Fixed to fit flange correctly.

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@DaveR 's post is most accurate. If more visual assistance is needed you might find this video helpful:

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Click in sequence on the two scenes tabs of this SU file for some ideas.

Pipe elbow.skp (422.3 KB)

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Fantastic help - thanks all.

extrusion perpendicular to the first and last path segments

Made sense at that point and when I looked at the arc I drew, the first path was indeed, not perpendicular to the original face.

thanks again for all the suggestions!

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Good deal. The thing about the path end segments and extrusion ends being perpendicular is important to understand as it comes into play in a lot of ways.

Please complete your forum profile.

Regarding your suggestion of starting with a circle:
My circle meets x axis mid segment and y axis at the end of a segment so rotating the circle by half segment (6 degrees for a 30 segment circle) does not make face perpendicular to the path. How can make my circle so that this doesn’t happen?

Then you are using an odd number of segments for your circle. Or you are pulling your circle off axis.
It is standard practice to use a multiple of 12, this also allows the Cardinal points to be easily accessed.

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