Spline extrude

I wanted to draw out a spline curve in the top view, then simply extrude it along the Y (up) axis.  I read the docs and the only thing supported is Lathe and Slide and neither gave me the results I was expecting.

I should simply draw a curve, hit extrude and then drag it (or use a numerical value) along the axis or direction I want.

Also, if you use Slide and the Tube checkbox (which is totally confusing to me - I already don't understand why it's called "slide" but then what the heck is a slide/tube??) the Radius arrows don't work and the Twists box has 2 sets of arrows.

Paul

slide too takes the shape of 1 spline and extrudes it down the path of a other,

so to accomplish what your trying to do, just make 1 spline going straight up and down on the y axis, than create the shape you want with a other spline, select the shape you want and use the slide tool and select the first spline you made for the path curve box.

bit more involved than it should be, would be nice to be able to extrude out, or loft.

the tube option is for just making a tube, equivalent to renderable curve in maya, or renderable spline in max.

just make one spline select it it a radius and segmeants, and you got a tube that follows the spline.

Yep, I get all of that.  But... as my wife would say "mendokusai" - which is a Japanese word that doesn't exactly translate perfectly, but essentially means "what a pain in the @ss".

It should be extrude, and it should not be under the points menu.  It should not require 2 splines to do such a super-simple task.  Tube makes no sense under that menu at all (I'm the one who suggested the feature over on the other message board because it's a cool feature Hexagon has).  I never would have found it except for finding it by accident.

I would either consider curves to be edges or create a menu for splines and consolidate the tools under that.

Just my opinions & suggestions.

Thanks!

Paul

would be nice to just extrude as a new tool, but i want something like the existing slide tool also, since sometimes your going to want to extrude a shape across a multi point spline.

and yes tube could be somewhere else, maybe with more options associated with it.

Well, I see it as 2 extrudes.  One is a spline path extrude and the other is a directional extrude.  I've never heard the term slide for extruding things & to my ear I think of a skin sliding feature for animation.

I think in Softimage it would be curves to mesh, but I'm not sure because I hate the spline tools in Softimage.  I like how MOI 3D handles it - very simple, very fast.