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Topic: Adding thickness on splines  (Read 7502 times)

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  • Posts: 55
  • Edge
    • Fusion DIgital Productions LLC
February 02, 2012, 07:38:04 pm
Hi all,

I know it's possible, but why is it so difficult?

Shouldn't the workflow be - draw a spline curve, select it, click Shell or Thickness or whatever it's called and I get a rope/wire type object?

Being able to add thickness to a spline curve is seriously cool, but it shouldn't take any effort to make it happen.

Paul

  • Posts: 547
  • Administrator
  • Polygon
February 03, 2012, 03:40:42 pm
have you tried using the "slide tool" on a spline, than checking off "Tube"

but ya i agree that you should be able to use the shell tool on it, or have something like the mopRenderableCurve script in maya.

  • Posts: 55
  • Edge
    • Fusion DIgital Productions LLC
February 03, 2012, 06:16:41 pm
Yeah I realized after I posted, but I was so frustrated at that point I ended up doing the model back in Softimage.

I also have a lot of issues with how the spline curve tools work.  By far I think the best curve tools are found in MOI3D.  I was trying to create a spline that had some tight curved corners in it, but the curve shoots through the corner and creates a huge bulge.  I wasn't able to figure out how to fix it. 

Paul

  • Posts: 547
  • Administrator
  • Polygon
February 03, 2012, 09:54:16 pm
have you tried using the tweak tool on a spline vertex, you should be able to use that to move and make the tanget smaller so you can get a tight curve.

i don't mind the spline editing tools expect that ot keeps naturalizing the whole spline when i move a vertex so i lose edits to my tangent angles, and that you can really dynamically do anything with splines, using slide or lathe is a one time thing, so if you want ot change the shape you got to delete the geo and re-run the tool.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2012, 10:09:25 pm by Passerby »

  • Posts: 55
  • Edge
    • Fusion DIgital Productions LLC
February 03, 2012, 10:01:24 pm
I did not try that.  I just think MOI3D has absolutely the best curve tools out of any 3D app I've used in the past 20 years.

Check out this tutorial:  http://vimeo.com/16469983

Yes, it's not a polygonal modeler, but there's no reason Nvil can't steal such an awesome implementation of curves.  The way you can trim, join, and even bevel curves, is just phenomenal.

Thanks!

Paul

  • Posts: 547
  • Administrator
  • Polygon
February 03, 2012, 10:11:04 pm
ah there created like nurbs curves in Maya, but ya the joining, cutting and bevleing tools are cool.

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  • Posts: 232
  • Spline
February 16, 2012, 08:43:15 am
I did not try that.  I just think MOI3D has absolutely the best curve tools out of any 3D app I've used in the past 20 years.

Fwiw: The spline handling/trimming and filleting you describe from MoI is basically how any Nurbs Modeller on the Planet works...
MoI is just not as overwhelmingly feature-rich as more expensive Programs and has a slick Interface.