Advanced Surface Modeling in SketchUp with Curviloft
Plugin of the Week #4
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This week’s Sketchup Plugin is designed to help create surfaces in SketchUp.
Plugin Name: Curviloft
Plugin Developer: Fredo6
How Much does it cost? Free! Please donate to your developer
Benefits
In SketchUp, there are a few ways you can create surfaces. You can push/pull a face. You can manually draw in your faces. You can even extrude a face along a path with the follow me tool. However, what happens if you need to create a shape that transitions into another shape, like a box that turns into a circle? Curviloft gives you several different tools designed to help you create more advanced shapes.
Where do you get it?
You can get it in the extension warehouse or from the SketchUcation store.
Cost of Plugin?
Free!
Tool Functions
This extension gives you the ability to create surfaces in several different ways.
The first is Loft by Spline. This tool is very powerful, and allows you to create a surface that runs between different shapes. You can use this to create very complex shapes.
In addition, Loft by Spline will also take multiple different lines or contours and create a surface that runs along them.
The plugin also offers options to adjust the way that surfaces are created, allowing an even greater range of customization for your surfaces.
Loft along path allows you to create a surface between points through a path you dictate.
Skinning is very powerful – it will create a surface between 3 or 4 contiguous contours, allowing for easy creation of these surfaces.
Ratings
Usefulness/Functionality – 5/5
This extension borders somewhere between useful and magical. Some of the functions are probably more advanced than the average user needs, but it allows you to do things that you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to do. Plus, with the addition of these tools, you may start modeling things that you never would have thought to before.
Value – 5/5
It’s free, and it’s amazing. Go download it now!
Ease of Use/Documentation – 3/5 –
I struggled to follow the workflow of this plugin. Even watching some of Fredo’s videos on his youtube channel, I’m still struggling with the Loft along Path function. However, the Loft by Spline function works well, and it’s really easy. I’d recommend stopping by the Curviloft post in the SketchUcation forums for more info.
Description
Overall score – 13/15.
Overall
Overall, this plugin is probably more for SketchUp power users. If you’re using this, you’re likely venturing more into the organic modeling space. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a try. Download it, install it, and see what you can do with it!
That’s where we’re going to wrap up this plugin overview. If you liked this video, click that like button down below. If you’re new, click that subscribe button for more SketchUp videos every week.
As always, leave a comment below and let me know if you’re using this tool and how.
Thanks very much for watching, and I’ll catch you in the next video.
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