I am struggling with extruding this post using follow me.
I select the two line segments that make up this post, select follow me, and then the circular face at the base.
The second image shows the result.
Just that random floating section?
Could you share the skp file? Most likely there is something simple wrong with either the model or your technique, but I can’t tell what from the images.
This is a selection issue, and a great case for learning to model with groups and components. Because you are not using groups or components to separate your geometry, all the things you make are sticking and intersecting with each other. The line you are trying to follow is actually a series of many smaller lines, splitting each time it passes through another entity. This makes it almost impossible to select the pathway as many of the tiny segments you need to select are buried inside the crossmembers.
I was able to make follow me work by carefully selecting all the lines in the path using a right hand selecting box, Right hand selection boxes select everything that fits entirely inside the box, left hand selection boxes select everything they touch. Even though the face is selected as part of the selection, it still completes a follow me OK.
You should really consider learning and using groups and components to separate your geometry, this is a basic core concept in SketchUp and you will continue to experience frustrating results until you adopt this practice.
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@endlessfix nailed it before I got back from dinner. As he wrote, the problem was that you hadn’t made groups from the horizontal members and that was causing them to chop the edges you want to use as a path into a bunch of chunks. The right way to model is to make a group or component for each distinct piece that you would need to create if you were building this in real life. In this model you would have to make each section of pipe separately and then weld them together into the frame. Bends are ok, but parts that meet at right angles need to be separate or their edges and faces will “stick together and intersect” in SketchUp.
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Thank you. I am slowly starting to learn about using groups and components. In fact, the “wings”, sections to left and right of the centre are components, built with a series of individual post components. But I suspect the components are built wrong as the horizontal pieces are not individual pieces. It I am interpreting your comments correctly, it is stronghly recommended to avoid interesecting pieces of a model.
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Yes, anything that intersects or touches will stick together and become one entity, difficult to separate or move around. Best practice is to make every piece of your model a group or component as soon as it exists, so it can be moved around and edited without effecting anything else.
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