Drag the control points. Notice how the grouped mesh inside smoothly deforms in real-time response to your movements. Step 4: Finalize the Shape
The community quickly adopted it. So much so that when development slowed down, the baton was passed to other legendary SketchUp scripters like , who maintained and optimized the code. More recently, development was taken over by mind.sight.studios (Mindsight Studios), bringing classic FFD functionality into the modern SketchUp era. sketchy ffd sketchup plugin
Create a group or component you want to deform (e.g., a simple cylinder or cube). Drag the control points
Works on any selected group or component, making it ideal for modifying architectural elements, furniture, or organic forms. So much so that when development slowed down,
takes a fundamentally different approach: instead of deforming an object interactively with control points, it asks you to select a target curve, and then it bends the object to follow that curve. This is ideal for creating paths, railings, or curved architectural elements with predictable outcomes. However, Shape Bender offers very little manual control once the deformation is applied. Sketchy FFD, by contrast, gives you complete freedom to push, pull, and tweak any region of the shape until it matches your creative vision.
On the monitor, a ghostly cursor hovered over the control point attached to his digital head. Click and drag. What's the next project we should write a weird tale about?
| Feature / Aspect | Sketchy FFD (SketchyFFD) | FredoScale (by Fredo6) | Artisan / SubD | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | "Cage" based deformation (Pull points to stretch). | Mechanical transformations (Bend, Twist, Taper, Stretching). | Subdivision Surface (SubD) modeling / Sculpting. | | Best Use Case | Organic morphing, concept sculpting, fluid shapes. | Precise architectural bending (e.g., bending a building facade). | High-poly organic detail (e.g., furniture, terrain, characters). | | Learning Curve | Low. Very intuitive (grab and pull). | Medium (many options, requires practice). | High (requires understanding of quad topology). | | Price | Free (Classic version) / Donation-ware. | Paid (Pro version), though older free versions exist. | Paid (Artisan is $20 – considered a bargain). | | Precision | Medium (Best for visual/artistic results). | High (Excellent for numerical control of bends). | Medium/High (Depends on mesh density). | | Deforming Nested Groups | Can be tricky; often requires flattening groups. | Handles nested groups and components well. | Not applicable; you work with a unified mesh. |