Follow me: sweep a face along a path

Follow me moves a face along a path and builds the solid it passes through. The face keeps its shape and stays square to the path, and at each corner of the path the pieces meet on a clean mitre.

Make a cable

1. Draw the path: a Curve through the points the cable passes (it can rise and fall), or Lines and Arcs joined end to end.
2. At the start of the path, draw the cable's section: a small Circle across the path. Start the circle on the path's end point and turn it to face along the path; or draw it on a face that crosses the path there.
3. Select the path (one click selects a whole curve or arc; ⌃Ctrl+click adds more edges).
4. Click Follow me in the Modify group, then click the circle.

The tube is a closed solid, with smooth (soft) sides.

Without selecting the path first

Click Follow me, click the face, then click any edge of the path. The path is the chain of edges through that edge, up to where three or more edges meet.

What to know

• Closed paths (a circle, a closed curve, a rectangle's outline) make a ring: the face is used up and the ring closes on itself. Draw a circle on the ground for the path and a small circle standing across it for a donut.
• Off the path: the face does not have to touch the path. A profile drawn beside a path sweeps along beside it, like a molding along the top of a wall.
• The path must not branch, and must be one connected chain. ModelCraft says so when it is not.
• A face lying along the path (in the same plane as the path's first edge) cannot be swept: turn it to cross the path.
• It is one undo step.