All about Shape Bender for Sketchup

Below clipped from the Official Sketchup blog SketchUpdate

Ever wish that you could warp and bend stuff more easily in SketchUp? You can -- with the right plug-in. Ruby scripts for deforming your geometry abound; I wrote about FredoScale just recently. This time, I thought I'd mention Shape Bender by Chris Fullmer. You'll wonder how you got along without it.What Shape Bender does is actually pretty straightforward: It takes any 3D object in your model and bends/stretches it along a pre-drawn path that you select. Simple, but unbelievably powerful. Take a look at the following examples.

The straight, blue text is what I started with. The bent, yellow text is the result of my Shape Bender operation. The bending path (above left) is a 3D spiral. The possibilities are endless.

Here are the facts:

• Visit the Shape Bender thread at SketchUcation to learn about and download the script for free

• SB works on PCs and Macs, just like most SketchUp Ruby scripts
• SB is currently available with English and French UI (user interface)
• After you download the script, put both the Ruby file (it ends in “.rb”) and the folder in your SketchUp 7 Plugins folder

Here's my best attempt at a basic, getting-started set of Shape Bender instructions:

1. Make sure the thing you want to bend is either a group or a component.
2. Rotate it (if necessary) so it's lined up lengthwise along the red axis.
3. Use the Line tool to draw a straight edge parallel to the length of the thing you want to bend. Make sure it's parallel to the red axis.
4. Draw a curved edge that represents the bending path (that's my term, not Chris') for your forthcoming bent shape.
5. Select the group or component to be bent.
6. Choose Plugins > Chris Fullmer Tools > Shape Bender to activate the tool.
7. Click once on the straight edge you drew in Step 3 (make sure it's highlighted before you click on it).
8. Click once on the curve you created in Step 4.
9. Wait for SketchUp to think. Depending on how zippy your computer is, maybe get some coffee.
10. Take a look at the green preview to see what you're about to get. If it looks backwards, press the Up Arrow key on your keyboard to reverse the direction of the bending path. You can also press the Down Arrow key to reverse the direction of the straight edge you created in Step 3.
11. When the preview looks the way you want it to, press Enter to finish the transformation.

Chris' video above does a great job of explaining the process: