A scalloped tabletop edge in SketchUp
Jazz up your design with the help of a few extensions.
Feb 13, 2023
Some time ago I modeled a small tilt-top tea table based on photos of one dated to 1760. The top is interesting but being based on a square I don’t think it fits all that well with the three legs on the pedestal. The other day I saw a photo of a similar table with a sort of sine wave-shaped edge. Here’s a video showing how I went about modeling it. To keep things simple for this demonstration I used fairly large curves. I think I would probably want to make a smaller curve unit. Of course this same process could be used with other edge patterns as well.
I used a few extensions and plugins to speed things up. The links are below; however I would recommend getting them through the Extension Warehouse or Sketchucation ExtensionStore tool.
Curve Maker (ewh)
TrueBend (ewh)
TIG-Weld (scf)–The newer versions of SketchUp Pro have a native Weld Edges feature which can be used instead. I just haven’t changed my keyboard shortcut yet.
Bool Tools 2 (ewh)–This set of tools is very useful for cutting and combining components. This set of tools works in SketchUp 2017 Make as well as SketchUp Pro. For the SketchUp Pro users there’s also Eneroth Solid Tools.
Eneroth Auto Weld (ewh)–This is a more powerful weld tool than the native Weld Edges or TIG-Weld. It will automatically weld edges of Follow Me profiles and will go through a selection set and weld all edges that can be welded. I find it very useful after using the Bool Tools 2 Boolean tools because they wind up exploding curves when they run.
–Dave
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Comments
another gem, Dave, thanks!
That's an awesome work flow and I think you may have just found another solution I've been looking for with the cosine curve vertical at start... Many Thanks !!
I working with Pro. Did tig weld go away, can’t find it in the the Extensions. I found it difficult editing in and out of groups. What is the little tick mark at the origin of the sine curve? It prevented me making the extruded curve solid.
TIG-Weld is still available from Sketchucation as it's always been. The most recent couple of versions of SketchUp include a Weld Edges option.
What did you find difficult about editing in and out of groups?
There's a guidepoint at the start end of the sine curve but guidepoints and guidelines have no impact on whether a group or components is considered solid. Perhaps you added some edge that became a stray?
Appreciate the rely. After the cutter is extruded along the sine curve doesn't the group need to be closed before the 'cutters' can be used the subtract the wings? I used the subtract command to remove the wings. is Booltool2 free? I installed it but when I try to use it at asks me to login. Just asking. Thanks again.
The 'cutter' blocks were enclosed in a component. Both blocks can be included in the same one and be solid because every edge in the component is shared by exactly two faces.
As for BoolTools 2, it isn't free. I show it instead of the native Solid Tools for two reasons. First and foremost is that it respects components. In other words it leaves the modified component as a component and if there were additional instances of the component in the model they would get edited as well. The other reason I use it is because it will work with the old SketchUp Make.
-Dave
That curve ruby is amazing
I agree. And nice work there.
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