Draws a variety of Polylines, Bezier and Spline curves, all in 3D. Version 2.1a fixes issues related to icon size. Usage: Draw BezierSpline Curves Downloads: 215780 Version Updated: 2018-11-01 12:55:12. Twinmotion Rpwallmaker - The Free Plugin for SketchUp Twinmotion Direct Link for SketchUp SketchUV - Plugin for SketchUp SimLab Composer Integration Brighter3D rendering plug SketchOSM by PlaceMaker On-Demand Ruby / Extension Loader Quantifier Pro PlaceMaker Profile Builder 3 Sky View Analysis KG-dev - CADoptimus - Tag Manager 2019 Skatter plugin in Sketchup Envimet INX for Sketchup Thumb.

In LayOut, you can bend lines and shapes — no telekinetic powers required! All you need is LayOut's path editor.

Okay, that might be a tiny fib. You need the path editor and a little knowledge about editing vector graphics and Bézier curves. After you know the tricks, however, bending lines and shapes is easy, and this article explains all the basics to help you get started.

You can use LayOut's path editor to bend almost any line or shape — almost because you need to draw lines in a special way in order to shape them with the path editor. Also, if you want to edit an ellipse, a rectangle, or a polygon, you need to split the shape first. If you have a circle, any arc, or a line drawn with the Freehand tool, you can jump right to editing its path in the path editor.

In the following sections, you discover all the secrets to bending lines and shapes to your will. Don't worry: You don't have to control your energy fields — just your computer's mouse.

Introducing vector graphics and Bézier curve controls

If you're not familiar with editing vector graphics and Bézier curves, you'll find the following background information helpful:

• Behind the scenes, when you draw almost any line or shape in LayOut, you're creating a vector graphic, which is based on a mathematical algorithm. Vector graphics create smooth lines and curves.
• When you bend lines and shapes in LayOut, you use Bézier curve controls — namely paths, points, and curvature controls. A Bézier curve is basically a special kind of vector graphic.
• When you open LayOut's path editor by double-clicking almost any line or shape entity, or by selecting it and pressing enter, these controls appear in blue, as shown in the following figure.

After you open the path editor, you see the following controls:

LibFredo6 is a shared plugin library used by most of my extensions. LibFredo6 takes care, among others, of enriching my extensions with a few capabilities such as default parameters, language translation, Check Plugins for Update, Trace logging, etc. The new curves are then generated and you exit the plugin; From there you may want to put a skin on the ramp (with Curviloft or TIG’s extrude tools) IMPORTANT: For the time being, the Direction for Shearing is the Z AXIS. So your curves should preferrably be in the Horizontal plane. CurviShear 1.5a - 25 Aug 11: Now part of. SketchUp Desktop 2020.2 Released: August 10th, 2020 Version: 20.2.172 (Win 64-bit) 20.2.171 (Mac 64-bit). Fredo6: Bezier Spline. Another valuable set of tools from Fredo6 enables users to draw a variety of Polylines, Bezier and Spline curves. A unique feature it offers is the ability to edit a curve after they’ve been drawn by adjusting its control points.

• Path: In vector graphics, path is just another term for the line or curve that defines your line or shape.
• Point: A point is kind of like the middle point or axis of the curve as you bend the curve with a curvature control. In the following figure, Callouts 1–4 mark all the points in the circle.
  Tip: The more points that appear on a path, the more you can twist and bend it.
• Curvature control: In LayOut, a curvature control is a blue line with little round points at each end. You can click and drag these end points to bend and twist the path.

Drawing curved lines

To draw a basic line with the Line tool, you click to create a starting point and then click or double-click to create an editing point.

To draw a line that's a path you can bend with points and curvature controls, you follow these steps instead:

1. With the Line tool (), click and drag to draw the line. As you drag, a curvature control extends from the start point.
2. Release the mouse button, and without clicking, move the cursor to set the curve's direction and size, as shown on the left in the following figure.
3. At this point, you can take one of two actions:
   • To finish the curve, click to set the curve's end point; if you choose this, er, path, then you're done.
   • To set a point and continue drawing more curved segments, you can click and hold the mouse cursor to set a point and then, without releasing the mouse button, drag the cursor to pull out another curvature control, and repeat Steps 1–3 until you're done adding curved segments. On the right in the following figure, you see a curve made of many segments; it's open in the path editor so that you can see all the points.

Splitting shapes to make them editable

To edit the path of any rectangle, an ellipse, or a polygon, you need to split the shape before you can open its path in the path editor.

To split any of these shapes, select the Split tool () and click anywhere on the shape's outline. Now, you can switch to the Select tool () and double-click the shape, or select it and press enter, to open it in the path editor.

Editing a path

To edit a path, you start by double-clicking the path with the Select tool (), or selecting it and pressing enter, which opens the path in LayOut's path editor. Then, with the path editor open, you can make the following edits:

• Change the shape of any curve by clicking and dragging one of the blue points on either end of a curvature control. In the following figure, notice how dragging the curvature control changed the circle's shape.
  Tip: To access the curvature controls for a rectangle or polygon, hold down the Ctrl key (Microsoft Windows) or the Option key (Mac OS X) as you drag a point on the shape's path. This action extends a curvature control that you can use to edit the path, as illustrated with the rectangle in the lower left of the following figure.
• Move a point by clicking and dragging it. Moving the point changes the curve, as the arc in the upper right of the following figure illustrates. To constrain the move to an axis, hold down the Shift key. You can also press Shift to select multiple points, which you can then move simultaneously. In the following figure, two points of the pentagon are selected and in the process of being moved.
• Move a segment by clicking and dragging it. For example, the lower right of the following figure shows a selected segment in the octagon.
• Add points to the path by holding down the Alt key (Microsoft Windows) or the Cmd key (Mac OS X) and clicking anywhere on the path. A point appears with a curvature control. After you add a point, you can move the point or curvature to control to edit the path.
• Remove points from the path by dragging a point over an adjacent point. LayOut previews how the path will appear when you release the mouse button. In the bottom row, you see how an octagon will look after dragging a point at the top over a point at the bottom. (Note that a path with only two points is deleted if you reduce it to one point.) Alternately, simply select one or more points and press the Delete key.

When you're done editing a path, click outside the shape to exit LayOut's path editor.

Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling – Sketchup became one of the world’s most widely used 3D modeling software products. This is thanks to its intuitive toolbar, interdisciplinary use within the creative industry (not just architects) and having a free version that doesn’t use watermarks.

SketchUp is one of the easiest, fastest, and most popular 3D modeling software. Its tools and interface are simple and easy to deal with for the beginners. However, as work starts to get a bit more complicated, these simple tools might become a hindrance. So, you might consider these simple tips to easily improve your SketchUp skills. That is when SketchUp plugins or extensions come into the picture. These plugins are created by users who noticed the shortcomings of the default tools on Sketchup and decided to solve them.

Now, using such plugins is essential for faster and better results. Once you have grasped how they work, you will realize how much time they could save you. Doing basic repetitive tasks like extruding (push/pull) multiple surfaces or creating offsets and multiple copies will be your job no more. Insert your data, and the plugins will do their magic in a blink of an eye.

Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling

We’re going to introduce you to Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling

Angular Dimension

This free SketchUp plugins seems so basic that it’s surprising this wasn’t already included with Sketchup, but someone actually took the time to program a plugin to fix it. Developed by the user SLBaumgartner, this plugin allows you to calculate and draw angles on the surface of a volume.

Chain Along Path

This free SketchUp plugins Created by 3dalbertsoft, this plugin allows you to create a helical turbine by selecting a curve and a predefined shape in SketchUp. A dialog window lets you choose numerous parameters to create the final shape. We think it is quite useful to define seams, seals, springs, tensioners and cables. And there’s a YouTube tutorial!

Bezier Curves Sketchup Plugins

Sketchy FFD

This free SketchUp plugins Sketchy FFD adds a “control cage” to an object, allowing you to create complex curved, forms from gridded surfaces. It raises the possibility of creating domes, arches or free-flowing organic shapes constructed from “weaved” elements or mesh.

Memory Copy

This free SketchUp plugins Memory Copy allows you to copy not only geometry, but also transformations such as the resizing or rotation of said geometry — the tool can “remember” your last move and duplicate it. This makes it a breeze to construct a sweeping staircase or a perfect stack of Jenga blocks!

JHS Power Bar

This free SketchUp plugins Among its many functions, this hugely useful plugin enables you to create an array along a path. A series of components can be quickly placed in a predefined arrangement, perfect for balustrades like the one shown above.

Follow Me and Rotate

This free SketchUp plugins Create detailed rope, twine and ornate balusters with Wikii’s amazing plugin, which combines the traditional “Follow Me” tool with a rotating action to produce twisting geometry.

Multiple Offsets

This free SketchUp plugins Sam D Mitch’s add-on gives you the ability to offset many faces of an object at once, making it possible to create complex, coffered forms like the sphere illustrated in this GIF — ideal for your model of the Pantheon dome!

Read also : 7 Step making engraving text in SketchUp

Helix Along Curve

This free SketchUp plugins One of the most ingenious plugins on this list, Helix Along Curve enables you to create helix tubing along a predefined path. When combined with Bezier Spline and Component Stringer add-ons, you can also model a perfect chain with individual links.

Edge Tools²

This free SketchUp plugins ThomThom’s handy palette of edge-related tools saves you time in multiple ways, enabling quick simplification of imported DWG site plans, the ability to split a face into multiple planes, and — most significantly — highlighting of imperfections so you can clean up your model in a flash.

Section Cut Face

This free SketchUp plugins Simply add a face to your section plane with this useful plugin. The face can be quickly modified, changing its color for presentation purposes, and it can also be set to update automatically as you edit your model.

SubD and QuadFaceTools

This free SketchUp plugins When combined with the QuadFaceTools plugin, SubD can be used to produce curvilinear volumes like the one shown above with clean, rationalized subdivisions. This is helpful when modeling complex domes and parametric shells.

CLF Shape Bender

This free SketchUp plugins Chirs Fullmer’s amazing tool allows you to bend an entire component or group, so you can create bespoke windows, doors and details for curved walls and roofs.

Animator

This free SketchUp plugins Another brilliant extension created by Fredo6, Animator enables you to creating moving parts with your SketchUp model with ease. Simply create the first and last frames of the movement you want, then hit play and watch your dynamic model shift into motion.

LSS Matrix

This free SketchUp plugins Created by Kirill B, LSS Matrix allows you to create a sequence of chained components by simply updating the parent block. As the GIF accompanying this description demonstrates, you can create a spiral staircase by creating a block with two steps and then choosing the number of copies. You can learn how in 2 minutes with this tutorial on Youtube.

Quad Face Tool

This free SketchUp plugins Created by ThomThom, this plugin solves one of Sketchup’s major shortcomings: its trouble working with non-flat quad surfaces. With Quad Face Tool we create figures with continuous edges as topographies or, as we see in the GIF that accompanies this description, give a much more real surface to a helmet that was originally reticulated. Yes, there is a Youtube tutorial!

Location

This free SketchUp plugins In 2012, Google sold Sketchup to Trimble Navigation. Although this case is not a plugin, it is a good example of the positive synergy Sketchup achieved with Google: the “Location” tool allows you to choose the satellite image of the place your project is going to end up by entering an exact address in Google Maps. Then, with a click, you can replicate the actual topography of that location. Very useful.

Components

This free SketchUp plugins Created by Chris Fullmer, this plugin allows you to replicate a component onto a surface. As in previous cases, when editing the base component, the rest are automatically updated. Highly recommended for designing parameterized façades.

Camer Tools

This free SketchUp plugins Another one by ThomThom, this plugin offers a series of new cameras for your projects’ animations.

Curviloft

This free SketchUp plugins Created by Fredo6, this plugin generates parameterized volumes when selecting a series of curves on a 3D model. Once created, it offers nine different possibilities, including the possibility to redefine its final thickness. Very useful for designing furniture.

Purge All

This free SketchUp plugins This plugin, also, rids your model of all the unused components, layers, and materials or whatever you choose it to remove. It, also, shows an optional report, listing the removed items.

Fredo Tools

This free SketchUp plugins This extension by Fredo6 gives a variety of handy options of no specific category. It groups a set of standalone plugins.

Architect Tools

This free SketchUp plugins can be helpful with advanced or urban scale uses. It creates buildings, merges them, and deals with contours and terrains, imported from 2D CAD files.

CleanUp³

This free SketchUp plugins literally cleans up your model, like for example it removes the hidden and duplicated lines, delete lonely edges, and merge surfaces on the same plane.

Bezier Spline

This free SketchUp plugins gives you a wider variety of line drawing options which include Polylines, Bezier and Spline curves. These baselines can be useful to create unique forms.

Weld

This free SketchUp plugins Like the Weld option in 3Ds Max, this plugin makes it possible to turn a set of connected lines and arcs into a single polyline.

Google Sketchup Plugin

Finally, make sure to check out the guidelines and manuals by the developers to understand the full potential of these SketchUp plugins and good luck with your modeling!

So the information we can convey, hopefully useful about Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling above