Does Sketchup "follow me" work with components?

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194
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Atlanta, GA
I was trying to get the follow me tool to work (manual mode), but it seems to not work with components??

First, I draw a simple rectangle and push/pull it into a box. Then I want to put a molding around it, so I draw a box/profile on the edge and, using the follow me tool, I can wrap it around the whole box.

But if I make the original box a component, and then draw the profile box, I cannot get the follow me tool to work (manually).
 
Charlie, in order to get the profile drawn around the original box component, you have to trace the edges of the component to create a path for the profile. I think I have a demo. I'll post a link to it.

I should have added that you could do what you want by editing the component and drawing the profile inisde the component. Of course then the geometry created by Follow Me would be linked to the original box and not a separate element.

Here's the link. http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=823488481
 
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ahh! Now that i've reread the question (prolly shoulda READ it first, huh? :rofl: ) i think I follow

Yes, tracing the path outside of the component would leave you with an object completely seperate from that component (and the original box) so that you can further modify it (miter corners, cope ends, etc) and then make it a molding all on it's own.

I'm sure glad Dave's here ... i woulda gone about it backwards :)
 
Jason's comment appears to be correct- only if I go into edit component mode, can I get the manual follow me tool to work.

I actually used Dave's method (don't have to be in component edit mode), although after triple clicking the path, it would only draw part of it before complaining about not being a valid path. So I then selected the path segment by segment and then the follow me tool was worked just right. I did notice that when I triple clicked the path, the "molding" also got selected, so maybe that was part of the problem.

Thanks for the help.
 
Charlie, you are correct. If the profile is selected when you are selecting the path, the follow Me tool will not work properly. You can triple click to select all--path and profile--and then hold the shift key while you deselect the profile face and its edges. You could also do as I did in the video example and make the path so it doesn't intersect with the profile anywhere. Then, as I did in the video, you can triple click on the path without selecting the profile.
 
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