Adding thickness on splines

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

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.

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

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.

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

ah there created like nurbs curves in Maya, but ya the joining, cutting and bevleing tools are cool.

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.