Weld and PathCopy Recommendations

SketchUp Pro
1

Good Morning I hope that you are all safe and well,

I have a few queries which I hope that someone can help with.

  1. Can it be confirmed that the only way to create an array of objects that does not follow a straight line or a circle is via the use of an extension such as PathCopy.

  2. If so which extension are people using.

  3. Pathcopy is I believe supposed to work hand in hand with Weld. But weld does not appear to work in version 2020. I have briefly review other joining extensions which create a polyline. What is not clear is whether the result can be used as a Path.

  4. I do not understand the behaviour of circles and curves. In that I can create a circle for example select that as a complete circle move it around etc etc. Then at a later date I select that same circle and it no longer behaves as a circle it now behaves as a series of discrete edges.

4.1 What has happened to the circle/curve to change the way it behaves.
4.2 Does weld or its equivalents resolve that issue.
4.3 Why does grouping the edges together not resolve the issue.

Thanks in advance

2

I can answer some of your questions, but not always fully.

  1. You could do a series of manual copies.

  2. I have used PathCopy, but there are probably others.

  3. Weld?

It may not have been marked as compatible with v2020, but at least TIG Weld works in 2020. Which version of Weld are you using?

4.1 Some operations break a circle into a curve, or even into its separate edges.

For example, a Mirror operation using TIG Mirror splits the circle into separate edges.

Joining a couple of lines, or an intersecting circle, will split it into two or more arcs. If the joins occur between the vertices of the circle, short edges will be formed, whose vertices no long lie on the perimeter of a true circle.

Using Weld to rejoin the edges of a split up broken arc or circle creates a curve, not an arc.

There is at least one plugin (Lines to Arc) that will convert loose edges back into an arc, or a circle if it is a full 360°, but not if any edge has been split, changed length or edited. All the edges must be the same length, as well as forming all or part of a circle.

4.2 Weld will join all the edges to form a single curve, but not restore it to a circle or arc. I use TIG Weld. Other Weld plugins could test to see if the result is an arc or circle, and recreate it as such, but I don’t know if any actually do that. They would have to combine the functions of TIG Weld and Lines to Arc to do that.

4.3 Grouping the edges makes the group selectable to include all the edges. But there are many operations that you have to perform on raw geometry, and the group still contains only separate edges.

3

Actually that used to be the case - unavoidable because of the way SketchUp reprocessed groups’ contents etc… but I’ve just retested my [current] Mirror in v2020 and I have found that the mirrored circles/arcs are kept whole - as I believed they now were !

4

Thank you for your replay that is very useful.

I have not tried TIG Weld yet. But I think I have found the reason I thought Weld by Smustard wasn’t working. If you attempt to weld anything with a circle or hexagonal in it, it will not work. Anything with a curved line i.e. arc,2pt,3pt,pie then it does work. I am not sure there is a difference but obviously there is. It says I am using 3.0.1.

So the circle gets broken up say of I drew a guide line through it or something like that. But once broken up it won’t be restored with out employing another extension. That being the case should I lock the circle and will that prevent this?

Thank you

5

@TIG Thank you. I thought I had your latest version, but clearly not! Will get asap.

6

A guideline won’t break a circle or other curve. If you use the Line tool to draw across a circle, that would break it.

7

A guideline isn’t geometry, so won’t divide the circle. but a line drawn though it will. If the line joins at a vertex, the parts will stay as arcs, though.

8

Locking an object prevents all interaction with that object. Most users would use groups and components to isolate geometry and prevent a circle (or any thing else) from getting broken.

9

@john_mcclenahan Thank you.

10

@endlessfix Thank you

11

@DaveR Thank you

12

#1.

I would use profile builder to array along non straight lines.

How do I do this - #23 by whiterabbitdesigncompany

1 Like
13

Thank you I did install profile builder 3 but I have not yet explored it. Thank you for the link I will have to experiment. I think that you are saying that profile builder has the weld and pathcopy function in one place.

14

PB doesn’t have a built in weld, but there are a couple of weld plugins available for free.

15

Weld works fine have used it a number of times, however it only works as it was designed and not everything can be welded.

16

Eneroth Auto Weld gets used a lot here. It’ll weld everything that can be welded in the selection and it auto welds profiles after Follow Me.