Extrude along path

[D Wood]

I am trying to add a quadrant gutter to the eaves around a T plan house. The gutter is not continuous - the wall at the base of the T is a gable.

I have made the gutter profile and filled it. I have drawn lines around the eaves where the gutter is to run, however, I can't seem to make these lines into an object that the program regards as a path.

I can make straight runs with the profile by extruding it, but I can't get it to extrude along the path so it turns corners.

How do I make the proper path that the Extrude Along Path will recognise?

[Pat Stanford]

As long as your path is planar, you should be able to use either the Combine/Connect tool in the third mode (Dual Object Combine) and just work around from straight section to straight section. Or you can select them and use the Compose command from the modify menu. This will only work if all the end points are exactly coincident.

The third option is to use the polygon tool and trace around the edge of the roof to get a single polygon to use as the path.

If this is something you may change later, you might want to make a copy of the path and save it in an invisible class. When you do the Extrude Along Path, the path becomes a NURBS curve.

Pat

[D Wood]

Pat

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I've got 7 lines in plan that I want to make into a path so I get mitred corners, but they don't form a closed object because one wall is a gable, so Compose and Convert To Polygon don't work.

I could do it straight piece by straight piece, but then how do I mitre cut the gutter extrusions?

I get peculiar results with Connect/Combine - how do I use it to join 7 lines?

[Pat Stanford]

Combine them all together in plan and Convert To NURBS. Get the points on the gable that need to be a different height and adjust them. Easiest way may be to vie it in elevation and use the Reshape tool.

If you want to do it in sections, just to the Extrude and use the Split tool to cut the 45 on the end of each piece.

Pat

[islandmon]

Try making the inner & outer gutter corners separately ( like in the real word) using ExtrudeAlongPath ,as symbols. Then use straight path gutter runs pitched to perfection. It's virtually impossible to create a complete non-planar ExtrudeAlongPath gutter run which does not profile twist around the corners.