A Very FredoScale Christmas Part 1: Ornament

We like to be seasonal here at 3Daily, so here’s a nice project to get you in the holiday spirit (if you’re not already). Your kids will enjoy this as well – it’s not too hard.

While you could make this ornament with just SketchUp’s native tools, the FredoScale extension makes it a piece of cake. And I’d say that if you’re treating yourself to just one extension for Christmas (why not, it’s free), FredoScale is the one to get. Not to be all SketchUp-geeky, but it’s life-changing. It’s available via SketchUcation – see our post on how to find and install SketchUcation extensions. FredoScale also requires the installation of the “LibFredo6” extension (also free) in order to run.

Create the Striped Sphere

First, draw a circle with the default 24 segments, centered at the origin, lying on the “ground.” For the next circle, tap the Left arrow to lock the green direction and create a vertical circle, same center point, with a slightly larger radius.

To make the sphere, first select the circle on the ground. Then choose Tools / Follow Me from the main menu, and click the vertical circle.

To paint stripes on the circle, first display hidden edges: choose View / Hidden Geometry from the main menu. Paint one entire stripe red, and one next to it green.

Select one red face and one green face. Right-click on either one and choose Select / All with same Material.

Activate Rotate and tap the Ctrl (PC) or Option (Mac) key to make copies. Tap the Up arrow to keep the protractor flat, and place the protractor at the very top of the circle. Then click two corner points as shown below, to make one copied stripe. The rotation angle should be 30 degrees.

Type 11x and press Enter. This creates 11 copies instead of just one, and now the entire sphere is striped.

Turn off hidden geometry.

 

 

Twist the Sphere

Now for the magic of FredoScale. Select the entire sphere and click the Twisting option.

Click the drag handle at the very top.

The next click sets the baseline for rotation; the click after that sets how far the stripes will be twisted.

 

If you like the preview, click while the green check-mark is showing. If not, press Esc and try a different twist.

 

Try creating that without using an extension!

Next, in Part 2– a FredoScale candy cane.

About Bonnie Roskes

Bonnie Roskes has been writing tutorial-style projects on 3D modeling software, primarily SketchUp, since 2001. Her website, www.3dvinci.net offers a wide variety of learning materials for all ages, from kids in grade school through design professionals. Her materials cover general 3D design, 3D printing, geometry, interior design, geo-modeling, and more, and future books are in the works. Read more about Bonnie.

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