thibaultron

I think what I will do is cut the channels from the outside edge into the slots for the deadeyes so that I can swing the entire deadeye and chain assembly down away from the hull.  That will give about 3/4 of an inch clearance from the hull to do the soldering.  I'll put an alligator clamp heat sink on and slide something behind for a heat shield.  Then I can swing the whole assembly back up into the slot and re close the opening in the channel with styrene.
 
Regards,

Kurt, I have soldered wire to rail with a resistance unit, but I'd be leery of doing it on a plastic hull. If you screw up on the ties, you can hide the boo-boo under the ballast. On the side of a Connie model, well...... Recommend removing it, if you can.

If you use a torch that close to the hull, PLEASE have a fire extinguisher handy.  I can see needing to form the chains in place, but surely you can remove them to do the soldering.
 
One thing that can work is resistance soldering - a thin insulator between the chain and the hull would be adequate to protect the hull from the heat.  Resistance soldering gets the metal between the electrodes hot extremely quickly and the electrodes act as heat sinks with the power off.
 
My torch is growing cob webs since I started using a resistance soldering unit again.  Had used a home made one 20 years ago but when my buddy moved we flipped and he got to take it with him.  Stay Brite - a silver bearing solder strong enough for chain plates, etc works good with a resistance soldering unit.
 
Kurt

Henry, 
 
Do you have one of those flexible soldering pads.. like this one:  http://www.micromark.com/soldering-pad-6-inches-x-12-inches,7529.html
 
They're flexible and you can cut them with a pair scissors.

I need to solder together the deadeye chains on my build, but unfortunately it has to be done in-situ.  Is there a good material to use to keep from melting the hull or scorching the pain work?  I plan to use silver solder and a mini torch.

Most times it's not that bad. I had to create some graphics for the posts, and in this case, just deleted a section, to use as an example. If it had not been as fiddley as it turned out to be, you would have gotten as intense an example.
 
It just happened to come out like that, so I went with it. It turned out to have quite a lot of good operations to be done.

Most times it's not that bad. I had to create some graphics for the posts, and in this case, just deleted a section, to use as an example. If it had not been as fiddley as it turned out to be, you would have gotten as intense an example.
 
It just happened to come out like that, so I went with it. It turned out to have quite a lot of good operations to be done.

Part 08B
 
You also have to check for missing surfaces, at junctions of shapes. The pictures below, are the interior of one of the cylinders. I zoomed through the end wall and scrolled along its length, checking for problems.
 

 
And found some.
 

 

 
I managed to fix most of them, until I got to the bottom of the large lower triangular area.
 

 
When I was filling this area, from the angle I was looking at (a view I could not get back after finding the problem), it looked like the area was closed properly. When I panned away, however, I saw that I had messed up. Instead of a flat surface, I had created a pocket by connecting to a lower surface, that looked like it was flush, at that viewing angle.
 

 
I deleted this and by changing the view, I was able to connect to the right lines.
 
Sometimes the endpoints are not terribly visible. In the picture below, that endpoint at the base of the triangle, was only shown when I ran the cursor along the bottom line.
 

 
In the next part, I’ll explain why I threw all this careful work away, and used a different method to simulate the welded front of the dredge. This is why I save to new file name versions frequently (Dredge Frame _45, Dredge Frame_46, etc.), as I talked about in a previous part.

Part 08A
 
Some times when you go to fill in a space or missing section, you cannot see all the endpoints. They may be very near one another, so that you cannot distinguish between them, or otherwise hidden. Sometimes SketchUp should fill, but does not. When this happens, you have to resort to creating many triangles, sometimes to minute proportions.
 
I will use the example from the last post, but intentionally make a mistake that forces me to use this method.
 

 
Here I’ve drawn the upper line to an edge rather than the endpoint. This creates the situation I talked about. I will ignore the endpoint that I should have connected to.
 

 
I continue to draw in triangles. I generally try to use a go from one corner, to the midpoint of the other line for the second end of the line.
 

 
When I drew that last line to the right (see below), SketchUp filled in the rest of the space (see below). This happen often, and you can just be thankful that you are done. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
 

 
The last line drawn.
 

 
The highlighted area, is what SketchUp finished filling in, when the line was drawn.
 
Remember from the last post that the ends of the cylinders in the example, did not line up. So all the lines here enclose surfaces that differ in orientation, and cannot be deleted, without also deleting some of the surfaces.
 

 
However if they had formed surfaces that are in line (entire surface should all be one flat plain), you can delete the extra lines, to clarify the drawing.
 
To show you this, I will use example from the first two pictures of Part 7, where the ends did line up, and the entire end should be a flat surface.
 

 

 
We can erase most of these lines. But, be careful. Not all the lines can be erased! The lines that form the circular rim of the cylinders cannot be erased, without losing the adjoining cylinder surface.
 

 
If I delete the highlighted line above, I will delete a surface, on the cylinder.
 

 
This is the end with most of the lines removed.
 

 
Even here I had to leave the line (actually 2 lines very close together) inside the left cylinder end, or the upper or lower surface was also deleted. Check frequently!

Thank you for the suggestion.

Part 07B
 
Now on to filling in along the length of the cylinders.
 

 

 
A few things to note. Notice that the lines running along the length of the darker cylinder are dashed. SketchUp many times treats these as not lines when it comes to doing this filling in. You can see that in the area of the closely spaced surfaces, I have drawn a line over the edges along the length. Without the new lines, SketchUp would not create the surfaces. Yet on the longer sections, it did.
 
The lines on the lighter cylinder are solid, and I did not have to draw over them. I do not know why SketchUp uses the two different types of lines, but be aware of the difference.
 
In the picture below I have filled in more of the area. I drew triangle between the narrow surfaces, but ran out of matching ones on the dark cylinder, I attached the rest to the other end of the larger space. I could have done the same at the left, by continuing to connect to the left end point, as in the second picture.
.

 

 
I continued filling in the surfaces, until I ran into a spot where I had to change gears. As I went along I reached a point where the two cylinders had changed level, and I had to change the surfaces to another lower edge.
 
Look at the right hand line, in the picture below. As you can see it dips below the surface of the lighter cylinder,
 

 
I had to go down to the next line to eliminate the interference.
 

 
I also drew a line from here to the upper line to connect the space.
 
I then continued using the new spacing.
 

 

 
Looking at the picture above, you can see extra lines on that first panel, where I change which lines were being used. These indicate that there is still some minor inference, but without a lot of effort to find the exact right spot for the line at the right side of the surfaces, this is good enough for our purposes. It will not hurt the finished printed part.
 
More tips on filling in surfaces in the next post.

Part 07A
 
Now I will discuss filling in missing surfaces, and filling in new surfaces between parts.
 
There are two problems that may be causing the missing surfaces. The surface is really flat, but the program did not fill it, or the surface is not flat, and should be made up of two or more flat surfaces.
 
Below is an example of both.
 

 
The white end of the part is the first type, the horizontal surface is the later. Both can be fixed the same way, by drawing in triangles. By definition – any triangular shape encloses a flat surface, take my word for it. So the solution is to draw in triangles.
 
Connect the end points to each other with triangles. The end shown has one end of the cylinder too long and in the next shot I will remove part of it to show the flat surface.
 

 
What is an Endpoint? SketchUp endpoints are the end of lines making up an object. Look at the rim of the cylinders above. It is made up of a series of straight lines, that form a circular shape. The end of each individual line is an endpoint.
 
When you are drawing lines, arcs, circles, etc. SketchUp will indicate when you are over, or very near an endpoint. If you click, it will snap to that point and set that is a point on your line.
 

 
Then as you continue each time you are near and endpoint the program will show that to you.
 

 
SketchUp will also show when you are near the middle “Midpoint” of a line.
 

 
Notice that the Midpoint is not the middle of the line from one side to the other. Because the two long lines cross, (when on the same plain), SketchUp breaks them into four individual lines. So the Midpoint shown is the middle of that new individual line, of the four.
 
SketchUp will also show you if you are on a line, but somewhere other than the above two points. This is indicated by “On Edge”.
 

 
These aids will only be shown while you are drawing something. During normal mouse movement in other operations, they will not be displayed.
 
These indicators are vital as you build your part. Navigation in 3D space takes learning, and a lot of patience. Unlike 2D drafting, where everything is on a single plain, and where your mouse is, is actually where you are. In 3D space your mouse may actually be touching something in the far distance. When you draw a line, you may think you are drawing a horizontal line, when it is actual also going away from you, so it goes in an entirely different direction, and may be connected to a point far behind, or in front of the place you want it to go. Frequent checking is required.
 
This line looks to be horizontal from this view.
 

 
But when we scroll to a view from a different angle, we can see that it really runs down along the face of the side of the cylinder.
 

 
Navigation in 3D space takes some getting used to, and can be quite frustrating at times, but SketchUp is not unique in this problem. Maybe someday we will have 3D holographic displays, but while we still have flat screen monitors, it will be a problem.
 
For the discussion of filling in a surface, I will use the following drawing.
 

 
The task is to draw a surface across the two ends, like we had glued a sheet of paper over them, and to connect them along their length. On the dredge frame, this represents the ends being welded together.
 

 
I will start with connecting the ends.
 
You will notice a difference in the finished product from the example above. In the picture above, the end is truly flat, as in the first and second pictures in this post. To save time and effort on my part, I will be connecting the ends, but they are not on the same plain. The darker cylinder is slightly longer, in this earlier version. So what I will end up with is a series of flat surfaces that fill in the area, but are not all in a line. In the second picture I show where, with a flat surface, the end of the cylinder can be erased, to bring the end truly flat.
 
Is does show that you can connect parts that do not line up.
 
I will fill in the space by drawing in a series of triangles, until I have connected the area I wish to fill. When drawing the triangular surfaces The best way to get a good surface is to draw the lines so they end on an endpoint. I will show later what can happen when other points are chosen.
 
To start a line is drawn for the bottom of the area to be filled in.
 

 
Normally I would draw in the line for the top of the area, in the hopes that they might line up, and I would be finished. In this case I tried that, and failed, so I erased the line, and will fill the area , piece by piece, to show you the process.
 
Remember connect endpoints.
 
I drew in a line from an end of the line for the bottom of the area up across to the endpoint just up from the other end of the line. Right to left, in this case.
 

 
I then starting from the left end, where I had just finished, I drew a new line up to the next endpoint on the right.
 

 
Continuing in this fashion, I continued to fill in spaces.
 

 

Oy! This is very exacting detective work with a high-power magnifier. I'm impressed, Ron.

Part 08B
 
You also have to check for missing surfaces, at junctions of shapes. The pictures below, are the interior of one of the cylinders. I zoomed through the end wall and scrolled along its length, checking for problems.
 

 
And found some.
 

 

 
I managed to fix most of them, until I got to the bottom of the large lower triangular area.
 

 
When I was filling this area, from the angle I was looking at (a view I could not get back after finding the problem), it looked like the area was closed properly. When I panned away, however, I saw that I had messed up. Instead of a flat surface, I had created a pocket by connecting to a lower surface, that looked like it was flush, at that viewing angle.
 

 
I deleted this and by changing the view, I was able to connect to the right lines.
 
Sometimes the endpoints are not terribly visible. In the picture below, that endpoint at the base of the triangle, was only shown when I ran the cursor along the bottom line.
 

 
In the next part, I’ll explain why I threw all this careful work away, and used a different method to simulate the welded front of the dredge. This is why I save to new file name versions frequently (Dredge Frame _45, Dredge Frame_46, etc.), as I talked about in a previous part.

Part 08A
 
Some times when you go to fill in a space or missing section, you cannot see all the endpoints. They may be very near one another, so that you cannot distinguish between them, or otherwise hidden. Sometimes SketchUp should fill, but does not. When this happens, you have to resort to creating many triangles, sometimes to minute proportions.
 
I will use the example from the last post, but intentionally make a mistake that forces me to use this method.
 

 
Here I’ve drawn the upper line to an edge rather than the endpoint. This creates the situation I talked about. I will ignore the endpoint that I should have connected to.
 

 
I continue to draw in triangles. I generally try to use a go from one corner, to the midpoint of the other line for the second end of the line.
 

 
When I drew that last line to the right (see below), SketchUp filled in the rest of the space (see below). This happen often, and you can just be thankful that you are done. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
 

 
The last line drawn.
 

 
The highlighted area, is what SketchUp finished filling in, when the line was drawn.
 
Remember from the last post that the ends of the cylinders in the example, did not line up. So all the lines here enclose surfaces that differ in orientation, and cannot be deleted, without also deleting some of the surfaces.
 

 
However if they had formed surfaces that are in line (entire surface should all be one flat plain), you can delete the extra lines, to clarify the drawing.
 
To show you this, I will use example from the first two pictures of Part 7, where the ends did line up, and the entire end should be a flat surface.
 

 

 
We can erase most of these lines. But, be careful. Not all the lines can be erased! The lines that form the circular rim of the cylinders cannot be erased, without losing the adjoining cylinder surface.
 

 
If I delete the highlighted line above, I will delete a surface, on the cylinder.
 

 
This is the end with most of the lines removed.
 

 
Even here I had to leave the line (actually 2 lines very close together) inside the left cylinder end, or the upper or lower surface was also deleted. Check frequently!

Ron, as a further thought, you might be better served when you've finished the log to assemble it into a pdf file and ask the moderators if it can be posted in the Ship Modeling Resources area of this site.
 
Tony

Part 07B
 
Now on to filling in along the length of the cylinders.
 

 

 
A few things to note. Notice that the lines running along the length of the darker cylinder are dashed. SketchUp many times treats these as not lines when it comes to doing this filling in. You can see that in the area of the closely spaced surfaces, I have drawn a line over the edges along the length. Without the new lines, SketchUp would not create the surfaces. Yet on the longer sections, it did.
 
The lines on the lighter cylinder are solid, and I did not have to draw over them. I do not know why SketchUp uses the two different types of lines, but be aware of the difference.
 
In the picture below I have filled in more of the area. I drew triangle between the narrow surfaces, but ran out of matching ones on the dark cylinder, I attached the rest to the other end of the larger space. I could have done the same at the left, by continuing to connect to the left end point, as in the second picture.
.

 

 
I continued filling in the surfaces, until I ran into a spot where I had to change gears. As I went along I reached a point where the two cylinders had changed level, and I had to change the surfaces to another lower edge.
 
Look at the right hand line, in the picture below. As you can see it dips below the surface of the lighter cylinder,
 

 
I had to go down to the next line to eliminate the interference.
 

 
I also drew a line from here to the upper line to connect the space.
 
I then continued using the new spacing.
 

 

 
Looking at the picture above, you can see extra lines on that first panel, where I change which lines were being used. These indicate that there is still some minor inference, but without a lot of effort to find the exact right spot for the line at the right side of the surfaces, this is good enough for our purposes. It will not hurt the finished printed part.
 
More tips on filling in surfaces in the next post.

Part 27
 
The wood for the mast and boom have not arrived yet, but I finished the drawing for the dredge frame in 1/32nd scale. I’ll order a set at the beginning of the month.
 
This is the frame drawing from the Willie Bennett plans.
 

 
It has decent detail, but not as much as I think it should.
 
This is from an old stereographic print
 

 
Of course there is the dredge in the hand winch photos.
 

 
And even a picture of a dredge that was on sale on EBay! Wish I could have bought that one.
 

 
This is the print from the Fisheries' book, that I showed in a previous post.
 

 
I bought a book “Images of America Maryland’s Skipjacks” that had several photos showing a dredge. After looking at these pictures, I decided to draw a more complex frame, using some of the details from the pictures.
 

 

 

 
What I got from these pictures, is that there were many different designs, and just about anything resembling a dredge would be correct on a model. In the first book picture, showing frames at the docks in Baltimore, some of the dredges have bottom braces, and some don’t.
 
I particularly like eyelet and hook arrangement for the bottom brace on this last picture, and decided to use this on my dredge. The dredge in the winch photo also has a hook and eye arrangement, though of a different design. Having the dredger bar bolted to the frame, then welded to the bottom brace, making removal impossible, also did not make sense to me.
 
What I settled on was a frame like the Bennett drawing, but a bottom brace like the last picture above. The front of the dredge in the Bennett drawing is a blunt end, with a ring. I made the front end a mass of the upper and lower bars welded together, with a blunt point which is the common configuration in the pictures. I will still use a ring, rather than a welded eye for the cable connection.
 
This is my completed dredge frame drawing in 1/32nd. I have to redraw almost all of it for the 1/64th one, as I will have to make the diameters of the bars larger, to meet the printing requirements, though not a whole lot. The 5/8” upper frame bars will only have to be made a little large than ¾”. I want to increase the size of the rest of the bars, to keep the proportions correct.
 

 

 

 

 
Close ups of the bolt area and the nose.
 

 

 
This is a screen shot from the Shapeways site showing that everything is acceptable (all green, no yellow, or red).
 

 
The only thing that worries me is that the model may sag during the printing process. If that happens I will have to break it up into sub-assemblies.

Part 06B
 
Next is a bit more complex a path.
 

 
One thing I will have to tell you here is that the surface is not perpendicular to the path, it is angled off somewhat in the vertical direction.
 

 
You can see above that the path angles up, but the surface is vertical, not angled back somewhat to be perpendicular to the path. SketchUp should as you draw a line, snap when you are close to perpendicular to the line, and tell you so. With this complex line there were too many small lines for it to be able to do this, and I had to settle for vertical lines to make the cross. We are not making parts for NASA, so the slightly oval shape of the final solid will not be a problem for us.
 
Anyway, back extruding.
 
Follow Me makes this shape.
 

 
From a higher viewing angle it looks like this.
 

 
Using Eneroth gets this shape.
 

 
The shape is distorted at the sharper curves.
 

 

 
The distortion shown is a depression forming a sunken area.
 
So if you can, use the Follow Me operation, and ways check for missing surfaces.
 
To fill in missing areas may take some work. It could be as simple as drawing over an existing line like in Part 5, or it may take a lot of lines to convince SketchUp to fix the surface.
 
 The next part will discuss ways to fill these missing panels.

Part 06A
 
As you can see from the label, this will again be a two part post.
 
There are three main ways to extrude a flat surface into a 3D object. The ones that come with SketchUp are: “Push/Pull”, and “Follow Me”. The third is from one of the add on plug-ins “Eneroth Upright Extruder”. They operate in different ways to extrude the surface.
 
What is extrude? Think of the press Play-Doh makes were you force the Play-Doh through a shaped hole to make a column with the cross-section of the shape in the Doh.
 

 
The three tools above operate in a similar fashion taking the surface and extending it along the path you choose.
 
In this part I will talk about the differences in the way they work.
 
While “Follow Me” and the Eneroth extruder work in a similar fashion, there are differences in what you end up with. The “Follow Me” more frequently gives you a 3D shape that is truer in cross-section than the Enenroth, though the Eneroth will sometimes times work, where the “Follow Me” will tell you it cannot do the operation, and visa-versa. The Eneroth will also many times give you a better shape than the Follow Me” for complex paths. I generally try both, and pick the one that looks better.
 
The difference between the two are how they extrude the surface. “Follow Me creates a new face, at the junction of the lines, perpendicular to the line(s) that are the path allowing the surface to angle up or down with the path, if it is angled. Follow Me then connects the faces The Eneroth always keeps the face vertical, so some distortion of the shape may occur.
 
After creating all the new faces, both then connect them with surfaces to fill in the shape, and delete the interior faces, leaving you with a hollow solid..
 
Note: that sometimes both commands will leave the inside faces, giving you a series of chambers inside the shape. These can sometimes act as the hidden interior walls I talked about in the previous post, when you go to export the file for the 3D printing. This happened to me on a ring I made as part of an eyelet for the dredge frame. I would export the file and the ring would show up, the another time, it was missing. Deleting the interior surfaces solved the problem. It took awhile to find this.
 

 
Both “Follow Me” , and the Eneroth one will sometimes leave a shape with missing surfaces, that you have to manually fill.
 

 
Let’s start with a simple flat curved path.
 

 
The Push/Pull command will only extrude the surface in a straight line, not what we want for this.
 

 
The Follow Me creates a solid like the one below.
 

 
Each of the joints where the solid has a joint, are where the lines changed angles to make the curved path.
 
The Eneroth extruder creates a solid like the one below.
 

 
You can see that the outside shape of the solid has many more surface segments, giving it a slightly more rounded shape.
 
These two solids come out looking similar after the extrude.
 
Next we will see what happens if the path is angled up.
 

 
 
Using Follow Me creates the shape below.
 

 
The above is how it looks with the Hidden Geometry turned off, this is how it looks without the outlines of the surfaces shown. This is what your printed part would look like.
 
Now to see the difference in the Follow Me and Eneroth operations see the two shapes created.
 
The Follow Me shape.
 

 
The Eneroth shape.
 

 
Notice how the joints are vertical in the Eneroth shape, not following the slope of the path, as in the Follow Me.
 
As I said above I generally try both ways, and choose the one that either is the only one of the two that worked (obviously), or the one that produced the better shape.
 
Next we will create a hooked shape by extending one end of the shape using Push/Pull, to see what happens in each type of shape we made.
 
Extending the Follow Me does this.
 

 
While the Eneroth looks like this.
 

 
Generally, but not always the Follow Me comes closer to what you want.
 
One thing to note is that all these commands will only extrude a flat surface, not a curved section, which is really made up of several surfaces.

Part 06B
 
Next is a bit more complex a path.
 

 
One thing I will have to tell you here is that the surface is not perpendicular to the path, it is angled off somewhat in the vertical direction.
 

 
You can see above that the path angles up, but the surface is vertical, not angled back somewhat to be perpendicular to the path. SketchUp should as you draw a line, snap when you are close to perpendicular to the line, and tell you so. With this complex line there were too many small lines for it to be able to do this, and I had to settle for vertical lines to make the cross. We are not making parts for NASA, so the slightly oval shape of the final solid will not be a problem for us.
 
Anyway, back extruding.
 
Follow Me makes this shape.
 

 
From a higher viewing angle it looks like this.
 

 
Using Eneroth gets this shape.
 

 
The shape is distorted at the sharper curves.
 

 

 
The distortion shown is a depression forming a sunken area.
 
So if you can, use the Follow Me operation, and ways check for missing surfaces.
 
To fill in missing areas may take some work. It could be as simple as drawing over an existing line like in Part 5, or it may take a lot of lines to convince SketchUp to fix the surface.
 
 The next part will discuss ways to fill these missing panels.

Part 06A
 
As you can see from the label, this will again be a two part post.
 
There are three main ways to extrude a flat surface into a 3D object. The ones that come with SketchUp are: “Push/Pull”, and “Follow Me”. The third is from one of the add on plug-ins “Eneroth Upright Extruder”. They operate in different ways to extrude the surface.
 
What is extrude? Think of the press Play-Doh makes were you force the Play-Doh through a shaped hole to make a column with the cross-section of the shape in the Doh.
 

 
The three tools above operate in a similar fashion taking the surface and extending it along the path you choose.
 
In this part I will talk about the differences in the way they work.
 
While “Follow Me” and the Eneroth extruder work in a similar fashion, there are differences in what you end up with. The “Follow Me” more frequently gives you a 3D shape that is truer in cross-section than the Enenroth, though the Eneroth will sometimes times work, where the “Follow Me” will tell you it cannot do the operation, and visa-versa. The Eneroth will also many times give you a better shape than the Follow Me” for complex paths. I generally try both, and pick the one that looks better.
 
The difference between the two are how they extrude the surface. “Follow Me creates a new face, at the junction of the lines, perpendicular to the line(s) that are the path allowing the surface to angle up or down with the path, if it is angled. Follow Me then connects the faces The Eneroth always keeps the face vertical, so some distortion of the shape may occur.
 
After creating all the new faces, both then connect them with surfaces to fill in the shape, and delete the interior faces, leaving you with a hollow solid..
 
Note: that sometimes both commands will leave the inside faces, giving you a series of chambers inside the shape. These can sometimes act as the hidden interior walls I talked about in the previous post, when you go to export the file for the 3D printing. This happened to me on a ring I made as part of an eyelet for the dredge frame. I would export the file and the ring would show up, the another time, it was missing. Deleting the interior surfaces solved the problem. It took awhile to find this.
 

 
Both “Follow Me” , and the Eneroth one will sometimes leave a shape with missing surfaces, that you have to manually fill.
 

 
Let’s start with a simple flat curved path.
 

 
The Push/Pull command will only extrude the surface in a straight line, not what we want for this.
 

 
The Follow Me creates a solid like the one below.
 

 
Each of the joints where the solid has a joint, are where the lines changed angles to make the curved path.
 
The Eneroth extruder creates a solid like the one below.
 

 
You can see that the outside shape of the solid has many more surface segments, giving it a slightly more rounded shape.
 
These two solids come out looking similar after the extrude.
 
Next we will see what happens if the path is angled up.
 

 
 
Using Follow Me creates the shape below.
 

 
The above is how it looks with the Hidden Geometry turned off, this is how it looks without the outlines of the surfaces shown. This is what your printed part would look like.
 
Now to see the difference in the Follow Me and Eneroth operations see the two shapes created.
 
The Follow Me shape.
 

 
The Eneroth shape.
 

 
Notice how the joints are vertical in the Eneroth shape, not following the slope of the path, as in the Follow Me.
 
As I said above I generally try both ways, and choose the one that either is the only one of the two that worked (obviously), or the one that produced the better shape.
 
Next we will create a hooked shape by extending one end of the shape using Push/Pull, to see what happens in each type of shape we made.
 
Extending the Follow Me does this.
 

 
While the Eneroth looks like this.
 

 
Generally, but not always the Follow Me comes closer to what you want.
 
One thing to note is that all these commands will only extrude a flat surface, not a curved section, which is really made up of several surfaces.

I agree totally with Mark. This will be a valuable reference log for a lot of people in this growing/emerging field.
 
Thanks for the effort, and keep it up!
 
Tony

Part 06A
 
As you can see from the label, this will again be a two part post.
 
There are three main ways to extrude a flat surface into a 3D object. The ones that come with SketchUp are: “Push/Pull”, and “Follow Me”. The third is from one of the add on plug-ins “Eneroth Upright Extruder”. They operate in different ways to extrude the surface.
 
What is extrude? Think of the press Play-Doh makes were you force the Play-Doh through a shaped hole to make a column with the cross-section of the shape in the Doh.
 

 
The three tools above operate in a similar fashion taking the surface and extending it along the path you choose.
 
In this part I will talk about the differences in the way they work.
 
While “Follow Me” and the Eneroth extruder work in a similar fashion, there are differences in what you end up with. The “Follow Me” more frequently gives you a 3D shape that is truer in cross-section than the Enenroth, though the Eneroth will sometimes times work, where the “Follow Me” will tell you it cannot do the operation, and visa-versa. The Eneroth will also many times give you a better shape than the Follow Me” for complex paths. I generally try both, and pick the one that looks better.
 
The difference between the two are how they extrude the surface. “Follow Me creates a new face, at the junction of the lines, perpendicular to the line(s) that are the path allowing the surface to angle up or down with the path, if it is angled. Follow Me then connects the faces The Eneroth always keeps the face vertical, so some distortion of the shape may occur.
 
After creating all the new faces, both then connect them with surfaces to fill in the shape, and delete the interior faces, leaving you with a hollow solid..
 
Note: that sometimes both commands will leave the inside faces, giving you a series of chambers inside the shape. These can sometimes act as the hidden interior walls I talked about in the previous post, when you go to export the file for the 3D printing. This happened to me on a ring I made as part of an eyelet for the dredge frame. I would export the file and the ring would show up, the another time, it was missing. Deleting the interior surfaces solved the problem. It took awhile to find this.
 

 
Both “Follow Me” , and the Eneroth one will sometimes leave a shape with missing surfaces, that you have to manually fill.
 

 
Let’s start with a simple flat curved path.
 

 
The Push/Pull command will only extrude the surface in a straight line, not what we want for this.
 

 
The Follow Me creates a solid like the one below.
 

 
Each of the joints where the solid has a joint, are where the lines changed angles to make the curved path.
 
The Eneroth extruder creates a solid like the one below.
 

 
You can see that the outside shape of the solid has many more surface segments, giving it a slightly more rounded shape.
 
These two solids come out looking similar after the extrude.
 
Next we will see what happens if the path is angled up.
 

 
 
Using Follow Me creates the shape below.
 

 
The above is how it looks with the Hidden Geometry turned off, this is how it looks without the outlines of the surfaces shown. This is what your printed part would look like.
 
Now to see the difference in the Follow Me and Eneroth operations see the two shapes created.
 
The Follow Me shape.
 

 
The Eneroth shape.
 

 
Notice how the joints are vertical in the Eneroth shape, not following the slope of the path, as in the Follow Me.
 
As I said above I generally try both ways, and choose the one that either is the only one of the two that worked (obviously), or the one that produced the better shape.
 
Next we will create a hooked shape by extending one end of the shape using Push/Pull, to see what happens in each type of shape we made.
 
Extending the Follow Me does this.
 

 
While the Eneroth looks like this.
 

 
Generally, but not always the Follow Me comes closer to what you want.
 
One thing to note is that all these commands will only extrude a flat surface, not a curved section, which is really made up of several surfaces.

I though I might be going into too much detail.