I was going to use the two above mentioned plugins for Sketchup on the modelling of this odd shaped desk in the photograph below as a demonstration of how to create objects that have a curve in two direction. However after having a good look at it, I have realised that the hood curves only in one direction and you can easily model the desk with the basic Sketchup tools without too much trouble.
That’s alright. I'll do a bit of a demonstration of what Curviloft with Joint Push-Pull can do and then go ahead and model the desk conventionally.
Sketchup’s basic tool are great for orthogonal and planar modelling and probably the majority of buildings and houses fall into this category. Sketchup is also reasonably good at handling linear curved surfaces like curved vertical walls or wavy roofs; the sort that Harry Seidler used to drop on top of his houses.
It becomes a bit more difficult when the curve is in two directions or more complex organic surfaces with multiple curves. The sandbox tool can be used to some degree to model complex surfaces but one of the better plugin tools for this sort of job is Curviloft by Fredo6.
The Curviloft plugin can be found on the Sketchucation website and requires both the installation of the plugin file as well as LibFredo6 which contains some essential functions that allow Curviloft to work.
It has 3 different modes:
- Loft by spline
- Loft along a path
- Skinning
Each mode has its own different options which varies parameters of the resulting objects. Watch the video below as I go through the three modes. Unfortunately I don’t need to use Curviloft to make the hooded desk, using just the conventional Sketchup tools to create it but should you need to model something more complex in the future, Curviloft is very versatile.