Traditional cabinet pull
SketchUp is a very forgiving and plastic. It is quite possible to model a cabinet pull with a few curlicues based on a single image as the model contours can be fine-tuned throughout the modeling process.
This is 1 part sculpture : 1 part modeling.
Note: This object has some pleasant sculptural curves, but is not excessively complicated. The object has symmetry - only 1/2 needs to be modeled - joining 2 mirrored halves. But to shorten the length of this tutorial, some artistic license is used as only 1/4 will be modeled and mirrored.
draw initial layout
To help keep the alignment square, begin by drawing profiles on a cube.
TIP: Try to minimize the number of edges to the lowest number needed to form the model. This will make the model easier to manipulate and not bog down the file. If a high-poly model is needed for 3D printing or rendering, subdividing plugins can be used later.
Delete unneeded geometry.
extrude with Follow Me tool
There are three ways to set things up to use the Follow Me tool
The profile path and Follow Me face was drawn with the line tool. All edges will be visible after a Follow Me operation. There's nothing wrong with this approach. It just needs some additional steps to soften the edges with either Eraser + Ctrl (PC) or use the Soften Edges dialog.
To get a smooth looking surface, the profile path was turned into a single polyline with one of the Weld plugins, and the Follow Me tool was dragged along the polyline. This
Pre-select the path, switch to the Follow Me tool and click on the extruding face.
make handle component
For this handle, do not delete the faces at the outer edges. Allow SketchUp to detect the components as a solid. The Outer Shell tool from the Solid Tools extension will remove inner, touching geometry, making the single, hollow form at the end.
Hide the seam edges:
Use Eraser + Shift or
Select edges > Edit > Hide or
Select edges > Tools menu > Entity Info, check the Hide box.
Make mirrored component copies (copy > Scale -1) and position together.
The handle so far.
making curlicues
The way this model is shaped - with a defined, creased border on top, extruded side geometry - lends itself to copying bits of geometry to make separate parts as individual components and later merge those parts with the Outer Shell tool from the Solid tools extension. Even SketchUp Make and Web users have this tool.
Another benefit of making a model of separate components is that tight-fitting parts can be modeled separately and component copies can even be enlarged if it helps to view the workspace.
For the Outer Shell tool to work, the new curlicue component needs to be a solid. Draw some edges as shown to enclose the geometry. The two, protruding edges (which prevent the component from being detected as a solid by SketchUp) are for reference and will be removed later.
Try not to move the edges you want to merge back with the original handle component. For this tutorial, those are the highlighted edges.
Tip: Elements, like edges, that will not be incorporated into the model can be grouped. That way the edges will not move or stick and are very easy to select and delete.
Note: The Move tool is adjusting a face's bounding edges without affecting the surface plane because the adjoining faces are triangulated.
Note2: For a clean component merger, do not disturb the location of the intersecting edges.
Use the Flip Edge tool from the Sandbox extension to change edge trianulataion.
Second curlicue.
Ideally, this little, offshoot curlicue needs to begin being extruded while there still is a planar face to begin Push/Pulling.
As shown here, the Scale tool can rotate a face in addition to scaling stuff. But this may lead to reversed faces too. To reverse selected face(s), r-click on the face and choose Reverse Faces from the context menu. The color change is not just a distraction: if this model will be 3D printed or rendered, front faces need to be on the outside. To speed up reversing faces, get ReverseFaces and assign it a keyboard shortcut.
Relevant Plugins
ReverseFaces Todd Burch - Turns a left mouse clicks to reverse face
Artisan Dale Martens - Subdivision modeling with additional sculpting and soft transformation tools. Fee
Bezier Surface ThomThom - Create bezier surface with bezier patches. beta
Eneroth Fractal Terrain Eroder Enerroth3 - Nice way to break up surface into a more organic form. Free
Jacob Samuel has several bezier surface manipulation extensions on the Extension Warehouse. Fee, Free
SUbD ThomThom - Subdividing model mesh with the ability to weight an edge for controlled creasing. tutorial Fee - Windows, Mac
Subdivide Smustard - Apply a Catmull-Clark subdivision to selected surfaces. Free
SubdivideAndSmooth Dale Martens - Organic modeling toolset with a Push/Pull-like workflow. Precursor to Artisan. Fee - Windows, Mac
triangulateFaces TIG - Newer version of Triangulate Quad Faces.
Vertex Tools ThomThom - Selection tools for organic modeling. - Fee