# Struggling to get a set of faces over this organic styled structural frame **URL:** \ **Category:** SketchUp\ **Tags:** sketchup, modeling\ **Created:** [November 15, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468 "2020-11-15T22:43:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/1 "2020-11-15T22:43:10Z")
Hi guys, I’ve been trying to get a load of faces over this organic styled structural frame to create a canopy of sorts with the end goal being to have a group of diamond-like groups spanning the distance of each of the frame components - however, I can’t for the life of me work out how to do a set of faces yet alone have it wrapped in that group I’ve tried a variety of things with the following plugins flowify, shape bender cloth works, and soap bubble but can’t get anywhere with it. I’ve attached the file to see if anyone has any ideas - its a bit rough as its a conceptual model so sorry in advance ---
**Author:** ![john\_mcclenahan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/john_mcclenahan/32/135377_2.png) [@john\_mcclenahan](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/john_mcclenahan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/2 "2020-11-16T01:31:47Z")
You could try working with one of a few plugins. Fredo6 has Curviloft, on the SketchUcation plugin store. Or try Soapskin Bubble - I think fom Extension Warehouse ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/3 "2020-11-16T01:42:22Z")
John is right, Curviloft will do it for you, but you have some work to do first to get there. You need to clean up the structure to get rid of stray edges and faces so that you can weld the edges into a clean profile. Once cleaned up you can run curviloft. ![Curviloft Structure](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/c/d/cdb165a2a468b31b9bbf0a87e5e9672692312a12.gif) ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 10:08am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/4 "2020-11-16T10:08:04Z")
@Box @john_mcclenahan Thank you both very much. I managed to get it to work using curviloft! ---
**Author:** ![john\_mcclenahan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/john_mcclenahan/32/135377_2.png) [@john\_mcclenahan](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/john_mcclenahan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 11:09am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/5 "2020-11-16T11:09:35Z")
> [@giantsmountain](#): > > I managed to get it to work using curviloft! Glad to hear it. Can you show us the result - at least in an image if not your model? ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/6 "2020-11-16T16:21:14Z")
![curviloft](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/8/4/84d88f7e4782fb8888463627ab832a3f98d4e56f.jpeg) Needs some cleaning up as I had to do it in separate chunks to match the geometry as best as possible without bricking my pc but overall happy with the outcome. The only thing I’m struggling with now is trying to get the desired geometry to bend around it as flowify doesn’t seem to recognize the structure as a group ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:34am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/7 "2020-11-17T11:34:26Z")
Hi Box, do you have any suggestions to the above problem? ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/8 "2020-11-17T12:15:26Z")
I have little experience with Flowify. First thought would be have you explode all the separate groups down into one group? ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 12:25pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/9 "2020-11-17T12:25:44Z")
Yeah I have, Im thinking its not working because its based off of more than four corners and flowify seems to only work with faces that were created from a single rectangle So im wondering if theres an extension that can use the hidden geometry that curviloft made to expand on it and then use it to create the pyramid pattern over the shape? ---
**Author:** ![Box](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/box/32/235164_2.png) [@Box](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Box)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/10 "2020-11-17T12:44:02Z")
> [@giantsmountain](#): > > Im thinking its not working because its based off of more than four corners and flowify seems to only work with faces that were created from a single rectangle @Cotty is pretty good with Flowify and may have a tip or two. > [@giantsmountain](#): > > So im wondering if theres an extension that can use the hidden geometry that curviloft made to expand on it and then use it to create the pyramid pattern over the shape? I’m not understanding fully what you are trying to accomplish but Fredo’s Joint Pushpull may be what you are after, it will extrude and taper the faces of the underlying mesh. ![Taper](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/d/d/ddd44d5389f9201b9c073441704d2e21e66c08f0.gif) ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 1:13pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/11 "2020-11-17T13:13:34Z")
thank you for that, I’ll have a play around with that Im basically trying to recreate the pattern you displayed but over the face of the structure you made so its a bit similar to this ![the-honeycomb-design-on-the-roof-of-the-esplanade-the-singapore-opera-BNG92N](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/d/2/d2734bdcb624f77a888b2335ac5d785565f4b471.jpeg) ![curved](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/4/4/44220a97cb298038cf98f4cb58471af73cf2dcae.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/12 "2020-11-17T14:26:32Z")
I modified all those profiles to have the same number of segments (I reduced the number of segments) and then I created the surface (only for part of the whole model for example). I used Flowify and the resulting model looks like this. ![pta_161733](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/8/6/86af8f3734a3348d42446304069ab7924764f90e.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/13 "2020-11-17T14:46:12Z")
That is exactly what I want to do, How did you modify the profiles, was it by hand? I tried to repeat what you did using the same model and had quite a few interfering lines how did you get around that? Sorry for all the questions im completely out of my depth ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/14 "2020-11-17T14:54:29Z")
With [JHS Powerbar](https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=JHS_Powerbar_2019) ![pta-03](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/4/d/4da3944eed16a4bd5d2ac590d5cd04a52144d57e.gif) ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/15 "2020-11-17T16:46:39Z")
Ive tried to repeat what you did but on the rest of the model and I just keep getting flowify error messages, Ive done it in this order SuperWeld,Equalise,Curviloft, Flowify Am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/16 "2020-11-17T17:37:53Z")
You probably need to divide the surface into zones and apply Flowify to each one. ![pta_193413](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/4/1/41b5d2cf212a272e70746f1fe54066f9dee720d9.jpeg) [https://ibb.co/8r87LK4](https://ibb.co/8r87LK4) ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/17 "2020-11-17T22:20:02Z")
Ive managed to get it to work ish - it either does it and shows a load of extra lines (shown below) or crashes the program entirely ![curviloft1](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/5/c/5c61c284cf6a5530426141466b6141db24c63e4d.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/18 "2020-11-17T22:52:22Z")
1. ![pta-07](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/a/2/a2dda8f1b9f8ec1cad6c2b0f332dd83cb0ac2bdd.gif) 1. ![pta-08c](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/2/e/2e2455795557d6204c716ac4630785968082ff86.gif) 1. ![pta-08e](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/8/2/82705eee63ad032d918d5d89e77eda20f8324097.gif) Then do the same for the other parts. ---
**Author:** ![giantsmountain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@giantsmountain](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/giantsmountain)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2020, 3:28am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/19 "2020-11-18T03:28:41Z")
![ezgif-7-98f192032487](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/f/9/f998e27a011549eb78ff99e3af1805e94a1aef02.gif) I’ve followed exactly what you did using the same plugins, but every single time I just get an error message whenever I try and use quad face unwrap “Could not map mesh to a 2D grid”. I cant see anything ive done obviously wrong so im just lost at this point Thank you for all your help so far any solution to this would be appreciated ---
**Author:** ![mihai.s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mihai.s/32/202022_2.png) [@mihai.s](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/mihai.s)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2020, 7:18am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468/20 "2020-11-18T07:18:30Z")
Visually inspect the surface and if you find any irregularities, repair it ![pta-08f](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/6/2/62ff5a9f3020faea9b3fcd7236429a71917af736.gif) [Next page](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/struggling-to-get-a-set-of-faces-over-this-organic-styled-structural-frame/142468.md?page=2)