sketchUcation

Overview of RoundCorner

RoundCorner performs the rounding of the edges and corners of 3D shapes along a 2D profile, in 3 modes: Round corners, Sharp corners and Bevel. RoundCorner also supports concave corners (always rendered as Round) and non-orthogonal edge faces. Corners can have 2, 3, or more edges.

Note: I published recently a plugin, FredoCorner, which is based on a different algorithm and includes additional features.

Discussion forum

Links to Sketchucation Forum: Main Post   Latest Release

Installation of RoundCorner

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you have first installed LibFredo6 v14.3 or above.

RoundCorner is released as a regular RBZ extension file on the Sketchucation Site.

To download the RBZ file, use the red button on the right side of this page:

•  Download  If your are already logged in.
•  Log in to get it!  otherwise, in order to log in or to register to Sketchucation as a new user (this is FREE). Then you will be able to download the RBZ file.

Then, you can install the RBZ file from within Sketchup, via the Sketchup Extension Manager

If you are not familiar with the installation of Sketchup extensions and Sketchucation, it is advised to watch the video LibFredo6 installation.

IMPORTANT: Whatever way you choose, you MUST quit and restart Sketchup to get RoundCorner (and LibFredo6) properly loaded.

After the installation, you should have the following footprint in the Sketchup Plugins directory:

Generic usage of RoundCorner

There is an excellent introduction to RoundCorner by Aidan Chopra

RoundCorner works in the current editing context.

1. Pre-select geometry (edges, faces) and click on one of the 3 icons. Edges are highlighted in Red and the offset borders in Green.
2. You can also select the edges interactively. For convenience, you have several selection modes which can be activated via the buttons in the left part of the palette (or via Ctrl and Shift keys). By default, RoundCorner only considers plain edges.
   You can add / remove edges from the selection by clicking on Edges, Faces and Vertices as indicated:
   
3. Adjust the Offset parameter by typing the new value in the VCB (in model unit) or clicking in the small field in the button palette. This will be reflected in the preview.
   IMPORTANT: Be careful to choose an offset which is relevant to the model. If you pre-select edges and launch RoundCorner on the pre-selection, you may see a mess of red and green segments, or even no segments; this probably means that the current offset is too large or too small.
   
   
4. Adjust the number of segments for the rounding (default is 6). Click in the button palette or type a new value followed by ‘s’ in the VCB.
   NOTE: Round Corner vs Sharp Corners: you should keep in mind that the Round Corner mode is very greedy in generation of faces and edges. For a standard cube (8 corners), with rounding made of 6 segments, you would generate a minimum of 8 x 36 + 12 x 6 = 360 new faces (possibly 720 when faces are not orthogonal and corners must be triangulated). In contrast, Sharp corner would only generate the rounding edges, with no corner, and create 12 x 6 = 60 new faces.
   
   
5. Optionally, set the rendering style for the Borders and Corners edges. The default values are usually fine, as they soften and smooth the corner edges and soften the borders.
   
6. Generate the Geometry, by clicking in the empty space or on the GENERATE GEOMETRY button or Pressing Enter.
   Once you have generated the geometry, you can cancel the generation with Ctrl-Z (or orange Backward button) and go back to the Selection mode.

   You can also adjust some parameters (offset, number of segments, ....) and then use the button Apply Change to regenerate the geometry with the new parameters.

   
   
   NOTE: there may be some limitations and issues for some complex geometric configurations. For instance, Rounding a hole may leave the top face in place. Just delete it to make the rounding appear
   
   
7. You may want to change other parameters. See Documentation) for details
   NOTE: you can save the parameters across Sketchup sessions by using the small icons with a disk and letter. See documentation. It is also a good idea to check the contextual menu and tooltips to see available options.

Menu and toolbar of RoundCorner v3.x

The RoundCorner toolbar includes 3 icons: Round Corners, Sharp Corners and Bevel

By default, the menu entry for RoundCorner is in Tools > Fredo6 Collection > RoundCorner...

Documentation in English: Quickcard RoundCorner - English - v3.0.pdf

Documentation in French (slightly outdated) Quickcard RoundCorner - French - v2.5.pdf

Links to Sketchucation Forum: Main Post   Latest Release

New features in RoundCorner v3.x

RoundCorner 3.1 is a refresh of this now old plugin. The main evolutions are related to the User Interface:

1. Updated button palette, separating the buttons in 4 areas: Edges selection, Parameters, Edge properties and Geometry Generation.

   

2. Post-modification: You can now modify the parameters after the generation of the geometry without reselecting edges. When one or several parameters are changed, you can apply to the previous generation by clicking on “APPLY CHANGE”. As soon as you select an edge, this option is no more available and the parameters will apply to the next generation.

   

3. Detection of Overlaps: RoundCorner now detects the situations of overlaps and show them in Preview mode and display a warning message before generation of the geometry.

   

4. Edge properties: there is an additional control for edges bordering the corners.

   

Release History

RoundCorner 3.4a - 31 Mar 24: Future compatibility

RoundCorner 3.3a - 18 Dec 18: maintenance release

RoundCorner 3.2g - 01 Apr 18: maintenance release (bug for non ascii username on Windows)

RoundCorner 3.2f - 18 Mar 18: maintenance release (bug for edge properties)

RoundCorner 3.2e - 25 Oct 17: maintenance release (bug for French set up on Mac)

RoundCorner 3.2d - 12 Aug 17: maintenance release (compatible hi-res screens)

RoundCorner 3.2c - 12 Aug 17: maintenance release (bug with non-ascii username)

RoundCorner 3.2b - 24 Jun 17: maintenance release (bug when adding edges interactively in some situations)

RoundCorner 3.2a - 03 Jun 17: maintenance release. Certification for SU2017

RoundCorner 3.1b - 04 Sep 16: maintenance release. Fix a bug preventing to create sphere and dome from a cube.

RoundCorner 3.1a - 13 Nov 15: maintenance release

RoundCorner 3.0b - 17 Jul 15: Fix a major bug preventing RoundCorner to work in SU13 and earlier versions

RoundCorner 3.0a - 09 Jul 15: Major refresh of the plugin with updated user interface, overlap detection and few other features

RoundCorner 2.7a - 19 Oct 14: Important release for support of non-ascii username in SU14

RoundCorner 2.6a - 27 Nov 13: Release for future Sketchup compatibility

RoundCorner 2.5a - 30 Aug 13: Major release with new naming conventions. Otherwise, as v2.4, should fix the frequent problems related to insufficient permissions in the Plugins directory. Otherwise, no functional changes. Start of Release post

RoundCorner 2.4c - 06 Jul 13: Major release with new naming conventions. Also, should fix the frequent problems related to insufficient permissions in the Plugins directory. Otherwise, no functional changes. Start of Release post

RoundCorner 2.3a - 26 May 11: Fixes a problem of performance (slow navigation) which was reported by some Mac users.

RoundCorner 2.2c - 23 Feb 11: Fixes a small bug in 2.2b.

RoundCorner 2.2b - 23 Feb 11: Release without the traces that were in 2.2a.

RoundCorner 2.2a - 12 Jan 11: Technical release along with LibFredo6 3.6 and SU8. No functional changes, but it is advised to upgrade for support.

RoundCorner 2.1c - 11 Nov 09: Stable version