cool use of the spline modify tool.

this is just something i seen done before with a max modifier plug-in called smooth edges, and i realized it was already possible with the spline modify tool in VW.





all i did was select a edge loop and created a spline out of it, than simplified the spline a bit than used to to edit the original edge loop i selected with spline modify, found it gives a very cool and interactive way to edge meshes, and in some cases can be better than soft selection.

Hi Passerby,

Could you please show where the option is to create a spline from a selected edge loop.

Regards,

- Steve

select a edgeloop

than got "geometry> create open spline".

im my case since i use it a lot i have it in one of my custom radial menus

Ah right,

I had not realized that was an adaptive menu.

Thank you.

Regards,

- Steve

ya most tools and menus are aware of the selection type and change based on it.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.

I can understand context sensitive(adaptive) menus, but I am finding it somewhat irritating having to look through 4 different areas (visual tools, right-click menus, smart-tips, and geometry drop-down) trying to find what tools are actually available.

I am also finding some tools that work "sometimes" and poor handling of meshes above 10k polygons. I also keep getting the rear (main view) clipping plane moving forward when zooming in after using various tools and having to constantly "best fit all" to reset the rear clipping plane.

I probably just expected the application to be a little more mature than it is.

Regards,

- Steve

im pretty sure all tools are aviable in the menus, and the right click menus, and streamline tools are just there for the user to customize to there liking.

and yes i find it has problems with large amounts of polys, my scene slows down around 50k polys.

and ya the clipping plane problem is annoying, i wish the app had a way to set the far plane to a higher value.

i tend to use the best fit on component selections to zoom in quickly to areas im working, and best fit all, i have them on f6 and f7 for quick use.

im pretty sure all tools are aviable in the menus, and the right click menus, and streamline tools are just there for the user to customize to there liking.

With my being a new user, I simply do not know which menu should contain which command, certainly when they are context sensitive with some commands/tools being in one meuu but not others.

and yes i find it has problems with large amounts of polys, my scene slows down around 50k polys.

I was not referring to a slow_down in view(when rotating etc), but on such as paint (MMB) selection, where there is a delay(drag) behind the cursor and actually highlighting of selection. It makes user selection errors too easy.

and ya the clipping plane problem is annoying, i wish the app had a way to set the far plane to a higher value.

Not sure how that would help. The rear clipping plane should be moving away as you move the view in, but the clipping plane actually moves forward as you move in.

i tend to use the best fit on component selections to zoom in quickly to areas im working, and best fit all, i have them on f6 and f7 for quick use.

I can understand having to use a "best fit" when center of focus is lost/changed, but when that focus is unchanged, but then a need to reset due to clipping plane error, then I would hope it is something that will be fixed.

Regards,

- Steve

I like this approach. It's practical to be able to control the smoothness through the spline. What I played around with is to enable softselection before applying the splinemodifier. When you click the little "E" icon next to apply, you're still able to manipulate the tangents of the curve. But you need to be careful about one thing: place the axis spline at exactly the same spot as the path spline (snap), otherwise you will get strange results when manipulating tangents. When you're done Geometry-> Finalize Spline Modifier.

I think this is, what the spline modifier might be intended for, but another cool use is to use it for making tires. First model the profile out in flat, maybe add the sides, create the axis spline to match exactly the dimensions of the mesh in length, then create a circular spline, and apply the spline modifier to the vertices of the mesh.

for tires i would take the approach of using 2 splines a profile and a path, with the spline extrude tool.

Either I don't get how you would do it, or you mean a simpler version of a tire. Below is an image of what I meant. It's just a quick test that I did to evaluate this process. I'm interested if there's another way of getting to a similar result with other approaches in Nvil. But that may be topic to another thread.