SketchUp Skill Builder: Modeling a Spring

Modeling a spring in SketchUp is actually pretty easy if you use the Follow Me tool. This video will dive a little deeper and help to make your modeling process as quick and easy as possible.

[@edwinkidambu165]

Awesome Teacher . Very moderate speed lets one digest before moving on. I love your tutorials kindly do one on Dynamic Components and formulas. Love from Kenya.

[@KarlLambrechts]

Very well explained, to the point, not more, not less, perfect!!! Professional teacher!

[@XHALE303]

Small tip: since springs can take up a lot of geo & memory, only make 1 ''rotation'' make it a component & then connect copies

[@vtkrey]

Great advice, cut down the time needed to generate the spring from several minutes to several seconds (using the browser version).

[@jasoncampbell4660]

@@vtkrey onion onion onononoononnnonononoonookkkk b I in j mom o

[@PaulineFerguson]

That was awesome! I love how seeing videos on how to do things gives inspiration on how to meld them together and do a new design or project. Now... if I can just do justice to the idea I have in my head... 😁 I know it won't be for lack of people showing *how* to do things.

[@osrodrig]

Thanks! Great excercise! Simple and beautiful.

[@mikefyten8746]

That's a great tutorial! learned a lot from it, thank you.

[@djjones5954]

0⁰

[@vtkrey]

Great tutorial, I managed to replicate it in my project, however, it seems like the online version of Sketchup isn't able to cope with this, it took a few minutes for my follow me tool to generate the spring and I feared it had crashed but decided to leave it for a while and sure enough a few minutes later the spring generated.

[@shughes599]

I am struggling with making a table leg that has a spiraled cove cut into it. The leg remains square at the top and bottom. The middle section has diagonal lines across it (3) each diagonal line is a groove or cove. I can build it in shop but struggling to model it. When I use follow me starting with taking a semicircle across the diagonals it works great on first face but it rotates 90 on second face and 180 on third face etc. I will keep looking.

[@JYelton]

Great tutorial! Just one pet peeve though: "axes" is plural. When you say "green axes" it is weird. It should be "green axis." Sorry to be pedantic.

[@JosephKim]

Yet at it again. Great video!

[@jeffharmed1616]

Thanks for sharing. Great video. I am curious as to why the SketchUp developers didn't make a 3D rotation tool, do you know? For example, if you could rotate that "first line" so that the bottom end of the copy of the line meets the top end of the original, line it would make constructions such as the spiral a lot easier.

[@lykongheng]

A lot of steps but at the end I can draw it without re-watching video. Big thank

[@MrJohnspro]

How do you model a spring such as a chord, say from a old telephone cord where it's just not straight up and down follows a path, or a curve?

[@MikeHewitt]

holy crap! how much time do you have?

[@juanpablosilva8900]

Great video :) I'm a Mac user. Now to my question. How do you do to change directions on your axis so quickly change to blue/green/red? The way you do at 4:30...

[@juanpablosilva8900]

Never mind I just figured it out. I just use my right/left arrow key to change directions on it :)

[@more376]

Great lesson

[@marciocristino3216]

Very good

[@jacot1083]

01:42 - "x23" Does not work in SketchUp Free 2022. 'Invalid angle entered' is all I get. Any alternatives?

[@Mike-mo5bk]

A bit late, I know, but just in case you re-read this... I suspect you are using Windows, in which case you may find that the * (asterisk) works rather than "x". Works for me, anyway!

[@tamarakepreyeomgbuayakimi.1379]

Nice.

[@hyungjoochoi]

Your camera moving is very soft. How can you move smoothly?

[@triole1]

PLEASE HELP: I need to 3d print a 1m long, 50 mm inside section (1 mm wall) spring. All the segments must be printed separately and i they must fit one after the other... Any ideas? I cannot make the "fitting" since the sections are not aligned.. they all have a certain angle between each other. This will be a squash ball machine that originally has only a 5 ball feeder. This spring will allow me to feed dozens every time... Thanks everyone

[@SketchUp]

This is a perfect opportunity to hop over to our forum and ask for help! Check out forums.sletchup.com!

[@mysteriousal5098]

I'm struggling. at 2:11 wehn I try to copy and move the lines, I drag the entire shape including it's base. I just can't figure out why!

[@SketchUp]

Make sure to select only the lines (1:52) and use the modifier key-Ctrl on Windows or Option on Mac-to turn the move into a copy command.

[@mysteriousal5098]

@@SketchUp thanks for the reply! It's very strange, the lines are the only thing selected (blue) but no matter what the entire shape gets resized. I can't even copy it. Is there a setting I need for the move tool? I've noticed it can be locked to axis. Thanks again

[@SketchUp]

It's hard to know without seeing your model. Try posting on the forum forums.sketchup.com/

[@mysteriousal5098]

Thanks!@@SketchUp

[@pete.i]

Thank you so much!

[@madwani]

I Wonder how you guy were able to figure out at the first time you can make the spring in this way... Great Vid anyway

[@NeCtRiCkS]

The more you fiddle with that kind of software, the faster you think on solutions, specially if you master most tools the software has; you even find the same results in different approaches. Modelling is life

[@madwani]

nectricks absolutely true. Thanks

[@aarondietzen2995]

Wait, are you saying that you DON’T spend all day thinking about how to model the things around you in SketchUp? That’s just me??

[@madwani]

Yeh!! I am always in SketchUp. Sometimes I feel worried. Just as if the "Follow Me" is really following me!

[@ozcanonal]

Great video, thanks.

[@MsXu2010]

Great job!

[@TL-gt8qq]

I know this is hard to diagnose without viewing my sketch, but when I try to use the follow me tool on the circle I receive the message "this does not appear to be a valid path." I've tried just lining it up with the spring as well as pressing the right arrow key so it aligns on the red axis. Any idea what'd cause this?

[@aarondietzen2995]

As you said, this is hard to figure out without seeing the model. Are you selecting lines (as opposed to a surface)? If you have not figured it out, you may want to head over to our forum (forums.sketchup.com) and post a picture of your issue... As you eluded to, it's tough to troubleshoot modeling issues in YoutTube comments!

[@fmassajr]

how do i draw a round fin tube?

[@MrHeHim]

1:40 I'm on Windows using SketchUp Pro 2018 and i keep getting invalid angle at that point x23 is put in, i resorted to selecting groups i copied and copying them over then selecting larger and larger groups lol Spring i ended up making had 200 sides :-) but i first tried it with the default 24 sides Edit: Never Mind! figured out that after you copy you have to select in the area you want to move it next for the first copy THEN punch in x23, had fun either way! and thanks Double Edit: Also, what i did to easily delete the extra lines was just delete the base parts of the cercle only next to the ones i wanted to keep then triple click the sections that were still connected. Made quick work of it.

[@Samuel_J1]

I was having the same problem and tried what you suggested in your edit and it worked, so thanks :)

[@silberlinie]

Can I ask you a question?

[@layladadouch3073]

you can call it a turn maybe, 3 turns nice video ;)

[@TrevorDennis100]

We called them turns in the motor industry.

[@p0lednik]

OK i know I am 3 years late here, but I'll try anyway. I am at 4:51 in video and so far everything goes good. Now when I have drawn that small circle, selected the spring line, click on "follow me" and then I click on the circle, it just instantly disappears without following the spring line. Anyone know why?

[@SketchUp]

Most likely you are drawing too small. Try doing everything you are doing, but 10x larger.

[@p0lednik]

@@SketchUp ok, that work. Thank you! But now I have to figure out how to change the size of the whole model If I cannot create it in the real size :D But that should not be too hard :)

[@georgepatterson69]

very usefull thanks

[@Rebiai]

good work

[@MarioMortara]

Cool!

[@juliaberenguer4576]

Hello! I have a question and I need help! When I download a 3D Warehouse object, I copy it and paste it several times, when I want to edit it, ALL the copied elements are edited when in reality I only want to edit one of those because I need the others as the original, how can I do it? Thank you very much and I hope you will respond soon!

[@aarondietzen2995]

Julia Berenguer It sounds like you downloaded a component. Just right-click on the copy you want to edit and choose “make unique” before editing. In the future, try our forum for quick answers for questions like these (forums.sketchup.com).

[@thecadschool3656]

great

[@aminamulla86]

Like the way you speak

[@dabo9016]

Weld?

[@tehnomotiv6191]

Fine tips! But I have one question: You know that the circle is not perpendicular on the first segment of the spiral. Can you recomand a tool or an extension to fix this?

[@billferrol4202]

If you use the axes tool from the large tool palette and align the red, or green with the direction of the first part of the line and the green, or red with the face of the circle the circle is orientated at 90 degrees to the path.

[@omriron8722]

nice!

[@monicagracia4763]

im using sketchup free (browser) to do this... at 4:43 the circle is created on the green axis that essentially creates the spring. my "circle doesn't flip to follow the coil; it stays on the green axis. help?

[@aarondietzen2995]

Monica Soares In any version of SketchUp, you can tap the right arrow key to lock onto the red axis (or left for green).

[@monicagracia4763]

Thanks so much!

[@kingasz100]

Or just use HELIX ALONG CURVE for a quick result!

[@SeeZurKicks]

Anyone find out the term for one "rotation" on a spring?

[@SeeZurKicks]

I think I found it. Coil - single loop of such a coil www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coil

[@tska8473]

Yeah it's called a coil. Also, if you were wondering, when the end coils are squished in, it can properly be called squared or closed ends.

[@laurentcouvignou6348]

Very nice, however not perfect, technically speaking. The circle that start the follow up comand should be drawn perpendicular to the first segment, which is rotated 7.5º from the green axis plus the angle on the vertical plane, and not on the blu-green plane. But, the proposed solution in this video is quite sufficient for general use.

[@billferrol4202]

Laurent if you use the axes tool from the large tool palette and align the red, or green with the direction of the first part of the line and the green, or red with the face of the circle the circle is orientated at 90 degrees to the path.

[@emmayaw4606]

coool

[@GEK69NY]

Seems like it’s called “flight” (I would guess)

[@cekuhnen]

A simple spiral drawing tools would be so much more useful ...

[@marthadijkstra-maatkamp4179]

3:00 should be triple click instead of double click ;-) great video though!

[@aarondietzen2995]

Martha Dijkstra-Maatkamp Aaahhh! My first mistake ever!! 😉 Good catch!

[@bearthompson6506]

Awesome! I've been struggling at trying to invent this process for the last hour using tilted circles when the light bulb finally lit up and I realized I needed a helix. Thanks!

[@milehighslacker4196]

You have the coolest job! :-)

[@aarondietzen2995]

Mile High Slacker Job? Wait, you think I could get paid for this? 😉

[@eshosora9339]

as an engineer . it is not convinient to the beginners. it is too complex and primary. i have another method more simple and short , logically. i used it now while i was watching you. 1- draw 4 vertical lines in 4 sides of a circle in different hights from 1,2,3,4(0) units.. ie(1/4...1/2...3/4....4/4) of the hight of the turn. 2- draw a 3 POINT ARC between first three virtical lines (0,1,2). 3- draw a second 3 POINT ARC between second three virtical lines (2,3,4). 4- this will make a first turn. 5- coppy turn. thanks.

[@spinalgrey3600]

So how can i do that with curve?

[@rogerb5957]

I notice that on most tutorials, they always stress making objects into groups as soon as they are created. Your first circle, for example. I notice that on your tutorials you don't tend to do that. Is there a reason?

[@edwaynick5015]

Well done. Perhaps one day I will be able to use Skletchup.

[@seeker9969]

nice job :)

[@tianwang]

how did you smooth at 5:14? i don't have that many options in my entity info window? it just has the topmost simple pane? i right clicked and chose "Soften/Smooth Edges" but it did nothing?

[@pius222]

how can you draw on the red axis at 4:32? mine doesn't change to red color, stays on blue axis.

[@pius222]

found answer. press the right arrow key.

[@rvkajal]

Thanx I was searching

[@steveperry650]

Very creative use of the move/copy tools to generate the helical path. Good practical tips on smoothing the result of the follow me command.

[@mercuriallimit]

great video, but one question about the "faces". What's the affect of having a wrong face? I don't know what faces does.

[@SketchUp]

It's clean modeling practice to have the Front faces facing out, but it's especially important when you render a model. Some rendering engines interpret Back faces as transparent, which can lead to unexpected results.

[@cacho53tube]

Excellence in teaching Would you be willing to do a video explaining how to convert XKP files from newer version to older one. For example version 2022 to 2021 ..and so on, Than you

[@catallaxy]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@philandrawis6232]

there IS A 100% FASTER AND FREE - plugin that does it in one second its called helix

[@SketchUp]

And it is a great extension! Learning to model something like this with native tools is an excellent way to grow your Sketchup capabilities!

[@shakoorah1]

Good video with clear explanations and guided through eAch step to draw the spring ! Thanks for posting ! Keep sketching 👌🏼✌🏼

[@jiji707070]

Hi thank you or the video and we hope make video for create lighting

[@itagakixxx]

around 4:33 , how did you draw that circle vertically ? i tried to press right/left arrow keys but still horizontal, tried up or down arrow keys too but "constaint is not appropriate at this time"

[@kenhaley4]

Great tutorial! One nit: You said "using only native tools," but you used Weld (not native). Weld is one of my favorite extensions though--probably because it's so simple, yet very useful!

[@sajit63]

That was clever. Thanks Aaron.

[@GooGoosDad]

Adding degrees is definitely smart!

[@stumccabe]

"Axis" is singular, "axes" is plural !

[@vladimiro4488]

Do you have a video on how to draw threads on bolts or nuts?

[@fredod5271]

looks fantastic thank you

[@GENERALWA5TE]

Great video, hopefully this will help me make a corkscrew similar to what you would find in a slushpuppy machine.

[@pmhwessels6138]

Excellent Video Aron ;-) I've got a totally different question: Under Window/Preferences/Workspace I can select 'Use Large Tool Buttons' ! Is there a way to make these buttons even larger ? And that goes also for the measurements-box in the lower right corner ? Thanks in advance ;-)

[@ismail-ig2jr]

God job thanks you sir

[@vibhavarypatibandla4828]

Amazing!

[@huda9254]

Thank you 💗

[@bighax5586]

How do you delete the rest of the geometry?

[@nguyen3545]

Thanks!

[@murraymetcalf-CA]

Very interesting, well explained & illustrated tutorial!

[@nasseralajmi5259]

vector line weights and hidden lines in layout

[@Skans-Gustav]

Ok that works fine with a round wire, but try extruding a square and you will see that it twists and turns like crazy. How do I solve that?

[@r3kiwi20]

who would want to make something like that in the first place

[@starkuromigirl01]

the thing is, when i type x23, the command box says 'invalid angle'. how you did that array thing?

[@starkuromigirl01]

oooh. apparently i had to click the next point first, then type x23. shoot. silly me

[@clohan88]

How did you change the axes when creating the 2" circle? Try as i might it keeps defaulting to a horizontal circle.

[@jonomoles]

On my Mac I use the arrow keys to lock to axis. The up key for blue and either left or right for green- I can’t ever remember, but you can just toggle until you get the right one!

[@utv20100617]

Appreciate the skill build!

[@OmriRon]

👌