SketchUp Extension Review: Eneroth Upright Extruder

Among the most used extensions for Trimble SketchUp, the Eneroth Upright Extruder stands out for its unique features and usability. Today we will talk about how we can use this powerful extension to easily modify and design complex models.

Designed by Eneroth3, the Eneroth Upright Extruder (EUE) is available for SketchUp 2013 and above. Of course, it requires the Pro version of SketchUp to install plugins into this awesome 3D modeling interface.

What is Eneroth Upright Extruder

The EUE is an extension for the SketchUp software which is used for 3D modeling and rendering. With this extension, you can project profiles while maintaining it upright.

In the default SketchUp tools pools, there is a similar tool available called "Follow Me". However, the Follow Me tool keeps the sides of the extrusion straight. This leads to not keeping the extrusion upright. The EUE extension remedies this issue by twisting the sides to make the project the extrusion upwards.

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How to Use Eneroth Upright Extruder

How to Use Eneroth Upright Extruder

Using the EUE plugin for SketchUp is quite easy, as we will see below in a moment. First, let me inform you that the extension adds the following interface entries to SketchUp: a toolbar button as well as a menu entry. You can use either to invoke the extension.

Now let's talk about how it is used. The extension requires two objects in order to successfully perform and extrusion: a path and a face perpendicular to the beginning of the path. Just like the Follow Me tool, you select a face and a predefined path, and then you can click the toolbar button or menu entry labeled 'Eneroth Upright Extruder' to create the extrusion. Voila, you got your extruded object and it still stands upright!

How to Use Eneroth Upright Extruder

Why Should You Use EUE

The most impressive advantage of using this extension over the default Follow Me tool is that the Follow tool does not keep the orientation of the face upright as it goes through the path. Instead, it rotates the face as it travels the path along its bends, and therefore in the end object may become turns away from the upright position it was at the beginning. However, the very objective of this tool is to keep that face oriented upright along the axes, so the resultant object will not get twisted vertically.

For this property, the Eneroth Upright Extruder extension is best used for models with something spiral in nature. When you need a face to extrude along with a twisted, spiral nature of the path, your best bet is to use this extension over the default follow me extrusion tool since you can be sure that using this tool the face that is getting projected into a solid extrusion along the path will maintain its orientation.

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This comes in very handy with objects that go up in a spiral nature, like handrails on a curved or spiral staircase, or similar roads. In these models, one face of the spiral object is mandatory to face upward, so the EUE plugin is indispensable while designing these sorts of models.

How to Use Eneroth Upright Extruder

One possible downside of using this extension is that this extension may not create the hidden geometry edges efficiently due to the complex curvature of the resultant model. One possible solution to this can be to upscale your model a few times before invoking the plugin so that the face becomes much larger and thus the curved faces in the end object become much smoother. This is not a fault of the extension, though - it's more due to the limitations in SketchUp itself.

Technical Details

The Eneroth Upright Extruder extension for SketchUp can be found in the Extension Warehouse, as well as in the sketchUcation site and other repositories. It was last updated way back in May 2013 and at that time the last released version was 1.2.1, which is available these days. The tool is compatible with both Mac and Windows versions of SketchUp, and it requires no special libraries or anything else to function. The tool is available in English only.

Meet the Make

The creator of the Eneroth Upright Extruder tool is Julia Christina Eneroth, a 26-year-old architecture student from Lund, Sk?ne, Sweden. When not busy in school, she is busy coding for extensions and other stuff or enjoys a bit of Minecraft gaming. She also has her own blog here and can be contacted via LinkedIn or email.