Once the ends of the hose are in place, you can use the Bezier spline tool to anchor the start and end of the curve, then click on each guide point to anchor the control points.įrom there, draw a circle on one of the faces of the fittings and use the Follow Me tool to extrude the hose. With the hose end created, use the Move tool to copy, rotate, and position them into place. Once the component is created, you can rotate and position it in place, and the guideline will rotate too (since it’s in the component), giving you a point of reference for your control point that is in direct relationship to the orientation of the hose end. They don’t have to be anything fancy, they can just be a simple circle, extruded. The best way to do this is to create a component for the ends of your hose (like, the fittings that are going on the end of the hose), then place the guideline inside that component. The key to creating hoses and pipe with the Bezier Spline tool is to place temporary guides in your model to snap the control points to.
Once you’re happy, click once more away from the curve to complete it.
Here’s a basic rundown on how to use the tool: The plugin includes a number of different tools, but the one I use the most is the first one in the toolbar, the “Classic Bezier Curve”. Bezierspline was created by Fredo6, if you’d like to donate to him, click the donate button on the plugin page.
This plugin is “Donationware.” It’s completely free to use, but if you find it valuable, the author accepts donations as a thank you.
Once installed, you can search for BezierSpline in the store, and install it from there. It’s a great way to manage all of your plugins, but it also gives you access to many more plugins than what you can find on the SketchUp Extension Warehouse.
This tool is the key to being able to create accurate hose, bending in all sorts of directions.ĭownload Plugin To install the BezierSpline plugin, I recommend installing the Sketchucation Plugin Store. The curves are created automatically in relationship to the control points you place. There’s a much more mathematical explanation to Bezier curves which I won’t pretend to understand. The BezierSpline plugin allows you to draw curves with multiple control points that give you the ability to create very smooth, multi-dimensional curves. That’s great for a simple curve, but what if you have a somewhat complex curved hose you need to model? The hose will then be created, and you can triple click it and make it into a group. Then, select the curve path, activate the Follow Me tool, and click on the face of the circle. Next, draw a circle at one end of the hose to represent the profile of the hose.
For a simple curve, you don’t need any special plugin, you can just use the arc tool. To create a basic pipe, you need to create a path along the center point of the hose you want to create. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel Basic Pipe