Extruding with Follow Me
) leads a face along a path to create a 3D shape. Follow Me is ideal for modeling finishing details that follow a perimeter or edge, such as crown molding or gutters. It also makes easy work of modeling lathed objects like a spindle, and curved vessels, such as a bowl or a vase.There are two versions of Follow Me—the basic Follow Me tool (icon) and the Procedural Follow Me tool (icon).
With the basic version of the tool, extruded shapes and the paths you have them follow are entities like any other shapes you draw in SketchUp. The edges and faces created with Follow Me must be edited individually. If you need to change something you often need to redo the entire operation.
With the Procedural Follow Me, the path and the extruded shape become a non-destructive procedural component you can edit and manipulate just like other components in SketchUp.
What’s the difference between destructive and non-destructive workflows? Destructive editing directly alters the original geometry while non-destructive editing preserves the original geometry and allows you to edit the preserved geometry later and and automatically apply those changes.
Using Follow Me
Both classic Follow Me and Procedural Follow Me use two basic workflows—automatic or manual extrusion. Automatic extrusion requires you to select a path before activating Follow Me, while the manual extrusion method starts with activating the tool first.
Automatic Extrusion
Follow these steps to automatically extrude a face:
Determine the geometry in your model you want to use as a path.
Draw a profile of the face you want to extrude perpendicular to the path. The profile doesn't need to be connected to the path, it just needs to be perpendicular.
- Using the Select tool (
), select a continuous set of edges that represents the path. Use Shift as a modifier to add multiple edges if needed.
Note: If you've organized your model into groups, your selection and face profile must be in the same group for this to work. See Organizing a Model for details about groups.
- Activate the Follow Me tool (). The edges selected in the previous step won’t remain highlighted but remain selected.
Click the profile you created. The Follow Me tool extrudes that profile along your pre-selected path.
Manual Extrusion
To extrude a face without selecting edges first, follow these steps:
Determine what geometry in your model to use as a path.
Draw a face or profile to follow the path. Make sure that this profile is perpendicular to the path.
- Activate the Follow Me tool ().
Click and drag the face that you created along the path, touching the mouse pointer to the edge you are following. As you drag, SketchUp highlights your path in red.
At any time, press ESC to start over.
When you reach the end of the path, click again to complete the operation.
Modeling a Cylindrical Shape
You can use the Follow Me tool to create a symmetrical cylindrical shape, like one created by a lathe. To create a cylindrical shape, following these steps:
- Activate the Circle tool (
) and draw a circle. Draw a cutaway representing half of the final shape. Make sure the cutaway forms a face and that all segments connect. If needed, you can draw a larger version of your cutaway and use the Scale tool to adjust it to the proper size.
Align the cutaway with the center of the drawn circle.
Select the circle.
- Activate the Follow Me tool () and click the face of the cutaway. SketchUp creates your finished shape.
Procedural Follow Me Components
), the Follow Me operation creates a Procedural Component. When you complete a successful Follow Me operation, you’ll see the component selected.
With this component, you can adjust the shape you used to perform the action and edit the path without changing any other geometry in your model.
Unlike other Procedures, Follow Me doesn’t have any special controls in Entity Info.
Note: Editing a Procedural Component is a lot like editing other types of components. The most significant difference is that the procedure controls the editing process. To learn more about manipulating the Procedural Components you create with Procedural Follow Me, see Editing Components.