Woodturning - Spindle Drawing

Hello, Im new to Sketchup. I am drawing a set of spindles on Sketchup Make for a bird table. I have drawn the pattern in accordance with this youtube video - Sketchup: Lathe Technique, Follow Me Tool - YouTube

I have drawn a 2D pattern for the spindle. I select the path and then I select the follow me tool which instantly deselects the path and does not extrude the spindle.

I dont have Sketchup Pro. Maybe this function is not available on the free Sketchup that I have.

Is there an extension or plugin that I need for this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The path will appear to be deselected but go ahead and click on the profile (2D pattern) of the spindle to make Follow Me run. It happens in the video you linked to, too. Depending upon how complex the profile it, it may take a moment.

Perhaps you can share the SKP file?

Bird Table Turnings.skp (46.4 KB)

Hi Dave, thanks for your response. I tried doing what you said but it does’nt seem to work. I think I’m missing some small detail. I,ve included a drawing of the spindle.

Tour profiles don’t have a face which would be required. Use the Line tool to trace the top edge of the profile so the faces are created. Then there will be a face for Follow Me to work on.

Due to the small size of the overall objects and the short lengths of some of the profile edges, you’ll wind up with gaps. Scale the model up by a factor of 100 before running Follow Me then scale back down. Or better, use the Dave method.

When you’ve finished, you should have something like this:

Did you need to close (heal) the bottom face, with the path touching the profile?

Not if you delete the circle’s face before Follow Me which is what I did.

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Ok, thanks for this. Its going to take me a while to figure it out but I’ll give it a shot.

Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. You’re almost home with the Follow Me bit. It’s just the small stuff and that’s not difficult if you use the Dave method. Here’s an ancient old thing on drawing chess men that shows the Dave method in action. Maybe it’ll help.

Here’s a moving version of what Dave is saying. I move the circle down on the blue axis so that is not in contact with the profile. This also keeps the face on the spindle the same as removing the face of the circle.
Spindle

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I got it, thanks for the link and your help.

I got it, thanks for the video and thank you for the help.

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