You'd think a 3D modeling powerhouse like SketchUp would have a "Sphere" button right next to the rectangle and circle tools. It doesn't. Honestly, it’s one of those things that frustrates new users for about ten minutes until they realize SketchUp is built on the philosophy of "Follow Me."
To understand how to make a sphere SketchUp users often have to unlearn the way other CAD programs work. You aren't dragging a radius out from a center point in 3D space. Instead, you're performing a geometric dance between two circles. It’s basically a profile being swept around a path. If you can wrap your head around that, you can model almost anything.
The Secret is the Follow Me Tool
Most people look for a plugin. You don't need one. While extensions like "LibFredo6" or "Shapes" are great for complex geometry, the native tools are more than enough for a standard globe.
The process relies on the Follow Me tool. This tool takes a 2D face and extrudes it along a path. To get a sphere, your "face" is a circle and your "path" is another circle. Think of it like a lathe. You’re spinning a shape around an axis. If you spin a circle around its own diameter, you get a ball.
Setting Up Your Geometry
First, draw a circle on the ground plane (the Red/Green axis). This is your path. It doesn't matter how big it is, but for the sake of sanity, let’s say a 5-foot radius.
Now, here is where people usually mess up. You need a second circle. This one has to be perpendicular to the first one. It needs to stand up straight on the Blue axis.
I usually tell people to hover their cursor over the origin point. Press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key on your keyboard. This locks the circle tool to the Green or Red plane. Draw this second circle so its center point is the exact same center point as your first circle. They should look like an atomic symbol or a gyroscope.
Why Your Sphere Looks Like a D20 Dice
If you’ve tried this and your sphere looks like a low-poly nightmare from a 1990s video game, it's because of the segments. SketchUp doesn't do "true" curves. It’s all a lie made of flat faces.
By default, a circle in SketchUp has 24 sides. When you rotate a 24-sided circle around a 24-sided path, you get a very "chunk" sphere.
- Pro Tip: Before you click to start drawing your circle, type "60" and hit Enter. This changes the segment count.
- Don't go overboard.
- If you type "500," your computer might start sounding like a jet engine.
- High segment counts lead to massive file sizes and lag.
Executing the "Follow Me" Command
There are two ways to do this. The manual way and the "Pro" way.
The manual way involves clicking the Follow Me tool, clicking your vertical circle, and dragging it around the edge of the horizontal circle. Don't do this. It’s imprecise and you’ll likely end up with a weird gap at the end.
The better way:
- Click the Select Tool (Spacebar).
- Click the edge of your horizontal circle (the path). It should turn blue.
- Click the Follow Me tool.
- Click the face of your vertical circle.
Boom. Instant sphere.
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Dealing with the "Invisible" Faces and Holes
Sometimes, you’ll finish the operation and see a tiny hole at the poles. Or maybe the sphere looks hollow. This usually happens when you’re working at a very small scale. SketchUp’s engine struggles to create faces that are smaller than about 1/16th of an inch.
If you're trying to model a marble and it keeps breaking, use the "Dave Method." Named after Dave Richards, a legendary figure in the SketchUp community, the method is simple: Scale your model up by 10 or 100 times. Do the Follow Me operation. Scale it back down. The geometry stays intact once it’s created, even if it’s smaller than the "creation limit."
Cleaning Up the Mess
After the sphere appears, you’ll still see that original path circle sitting there like a hula hoop. Delete it. You’ll also notice a line running around the "equator" and the "meridian" of your sphere.
You can hide these. Use the Eraser Tool while holding the Ctrl key (Windows) or Option key (Mac). This "softens" and "smooths" the edges rather than deleting the actual geometry. It makes the sphere look like a continuous, silky surface instead of a collection of triangles.
Common Misconceptions About Spheres in SketchUp
Many users think they need to draw a half-circle to make a sphere. While a semi-circle rotated 360 degrees does create a sphere, it’s actually more work in SketchUp. If you use a full circle as your profile and rotate it around a full circle path, SketchUp just overlaps the geometry.
Actually, using a full circle is cleaner because you don't have to worry about drawing a perfectly straight diameter line to close the loop.
Another weird thing? Orientation. If your sphere looks dark or "inside out," it’s because the faces are reversed. In SketchUp, faces have a front (white/gray) and a back (blue/purple). Right-click the sphere and select Reverse Faces to fix the lighting.
Beyond the Basics: Oblate Spheroids and Domes
Once you master the sphere, you realize it's just a gateway. Want an egg shape? Use the Scale Tool on your finished sphere and pull one axis.
Want a dome? Draw a rectangle that cuts the sphere in half, delete the bottom half, and you’ve got a roof. This is how architects handle everything from Roman pantheons to modern observatories.
Technical Limitations to Keep in Mind
We need to talk about performance. SketchUp is a surface modeler, not a solid modeler like SolidWorks. Every sphere you add increases the "polygon count" of your scene. If you're building a ball pit, do not use 60-segment circles. Use 12. From a distance, they’ll look round enough, and your GPU will thank you.
Architects like Nick Sonder often preach the gospel of "just enough detail." If your sphere is a doorknob in a house model, 12-16 segments is plenty. If it's a centerpiece sculpture in a plaza, go up to 48 or 72.
Actionable Next Steps for Better Modeling
- Open a fresh SketchUp file and practice locking your circle tool to the axes using the arrow keys. This is the #1 skill for 3D accuracy.
- Test the segment count. Create three spheres with 12, 24, and 60 segments side-by-side to see the visual difference versus the performance hit.
- Learn the Dave Method. If you ever see "holes" in your geometry, immediately Group your object, Scale it up by 100x, perform the Follow Me, and Scale back down to 0.01.
- Check your face orientation. Ensure your spheres are "White" on the outside to avoid texture flickering or rendering issues later in V-Ray or Enscape.
- Explore the 'Follow Me' tool with other shapes. Try a square path with a circle profile to make a donut-like trim, or a star profile for a complex molding.