Making curved legs with SU

[Michael Ballent]

I have been trying to make a curved leg in SU without too much luck. What I have been successful in doing so far is:

1. Make 2"x2" square
2. Use push/pull tool to extrude to 6"
3. Make arc tangential to 6" side down (3"midpoint) to mippoint on the foot (1")
4. Use push/pull to remove excess part
Basically this would be the first part of the BS cut

Now the trouble begins
I make the second curve the same way
but when I use the push/pull too to remove the second part of the BS cut it gets stuck at the bottom of the curve from the first operation.

So what would be the trick to make this happen? I am apparently doing something wrong. Besides that little snag it's been a pretty cool tool :D

[Dave Richards]

Michael, send me the SKP file of what you have so far. I'll see if I can work it out for you. I'll PM my e-mail address.

[Dave Richards]

Like this?

I have to catch a bus in three minutes so explanation will follow.

[Michael Ballent]

Like this?

I have to catch a bus in three minutes so explanation will follow.

Yep that would be what I would want. Glad my initial post made sense to you :D When I get home I will send you the file to show of what I did so far :D

[Dave Richards]

Michael, I just got home so here's the description of what I did. feel free to send the model anyway if you want.

I drew the leg as you specified. 2x2 square and 6" high with P/P. Then I selected a face and made a copy (Move tool+CTRL) and pulled the copy out away from the leg a bit. The distance doesn't matter as long as you pull it straight out from the leg. I repeated that for the other face.

Next, I drew the curve profiles on the faces. Then I used P/P to push the profile through the leg. Then Intersect with model and delete the waste.

A faster way to do it would be to draw the arc on the on one of the back faces, select the two edges on the bottom face that would get removed with the saw. Then select the Follow Me tool and click on the waste area of the profile. Does that make sense?

[Michael Ballent]

I think I understand what you are talking about... I would use the push/pull on the "waste side" of the arch from the copy of the face? correct... I am still at work so I still cannot play :(

[Dave Richards]

Yes, Push/Pull the waste. Or use Follow Me on the waste as in the second example. That also works for things such as a router profile on the edge of a board.

[Michael Ballent]

I tried the first way and I could not figure it out so I went to door #2 and Ok here is what I got using the follow me tool...

37696

Now how do I get rid of the pesky line :) Every time I select it it get a gaping rectangular hole.

Thank you soooo much Dave!!!!




Yes, Push/Pull the waste. Or use Follow Me on the waste as in the second example. That also works for things such as a router profile on the edge of a board.

[Dave Richards]

Hold down the CTRL key while clicking the line with the Eraser tool.

You're welcome. Call me and I'll get you through the first method. You'll find that method good for a lot of things, too.

[Gideon Yuval]

Hi Y'all,
I'm so glad to find this forum! I'm a frequent visitor to the Sketchup users forum and as a woodworker I'm thrilled to find a forum where issues particular to woodworking and Sketchup are discussed.
I'm attaching a tutorial I've put together on making curved or Cabriole legs. I hope you find it usefull.

All the best,

Gideon

[Lars Thomas]

Gideon, thank you for putting this together, this is great. I do have one suggestion. That would be using the Sketch Up 'terms' to describe the functions. Even without, I think I followed along. Thanks again. Lars


Oh, and welcome to the creek. I think you will enjoy it here.

[Michael Ballent]

Hi Y'all,
I'm so glad to find this forum! I'm a frequent visitor to the Sketchup users forum and as a woodworker I'm thrilled to find a forum where issues particular to woodworking and Sketchup are discussed.
I'm attaching a tutorial I've put together on making curved or Cabriole legs. I hope you find it usefull.

All the best,

Gideon

Welcome to the Creek :D There are a lot of really knowledgable people in here that are always willing to help :D. Your tutorial is really great and I do have a question. Obviously we would create a leg, then we would copy that leg, but the issue that I came across was how do you make sure that the legs are still in the same plane after you rotate them around. I made the leg and I tried to use the rotate tool but I kept picking different rotational axis, so as they were turned they moved to different locations. ( I hope I am explaining myself correctly) :D

[Jim Becker]

Michael..."practice". (And I do understand your frustration...)

[Jim Becker]

Gideon, welcome to the 'Creek! And THANK YOU for the excellent tutorial. While it's pointed at cabriole legs, it's good information so so many other shapes and components. In particular, starting out with the "block of wood" metaphor and working it similar to how you would in the shop is a terrific pointer!

[Dave Richards]

Hi Gideon. Glad to see you here on the Creek. Good tutorial, too. thanks for posting it.

[Gideon Yuval]

Michael Hi,
You must be aware the SU will want to rotate along a natural axis be it red green or blue. If you picked an object and wish to rotate it bear in mind that the center of the rotation will be the center of the protractor that appeares when the rotate tool is activated. the rotate tool or rather the protractor doesn't even have to be touching the object although the closer it is to it the more acurate your rotation will be.

[Gideon Yuval]

Gideon, welcome to the 'Creek! And THANK YOU for the excellent tutorial. While it's pointed at cabriole legs, it's good information so so many other shapes and components. In particular, starting out with the "block of wood" metaphor and working it similar to how you would in the shop is a terrific pointer!

I've been using SU for about 2-3 years now and I always build my models as if I were building them in the shop. You'll find that your experience as a carpenter will stand you in good stead in using SU. Don't try to think like a SketchUper, Think like a carpenter. The only snags you'll run into will be technique related, and I can't imagine you'll have any trouble getting help on this forum or the SU user forum.
I'm always glad to help, having been helped so much myself.
Just plain good Karma. :^D

[Todd Burch]

Gideon, good to see you over here too! Gideon, post some links to some of your stuff for the others to see.

Todd

[Gideon Yuval]

Gideon, good to see you over here too! Gideon, post some links to some of your stuff for the others to see.

Todd
Hi Todd, it's nice to finally have a face to attach to the name. I'd often wondered what everybody looked like. Too bad we don't have this option on the SU forum. Anyway, I'll gladly post some examples of stuff I made.