Extrusion Property Editor (Curve along Curve)

 
 
 

Creates a surface or polygon mesh by running a profile curve along a guide curve.

To apply: See Extruding Curves along Curves [Data Exchange].

To redisplay: Select the extruded object then choose Edit Properties Modeling Properties and click the Extrusion tab.

Inputs

Hide/Unhide

Hides all the inputs for the generated object to simplify the display of your scene in the 3D views, or unhides the inputs when you need to modify them.

Delete

Freezes the generator and deletes the inputs. This simplifies the scene once you are satisfied that you won't need to modify the inputs again.

Automatic Uvs

Generate

Automatically generates explicit texture UV coordinates. The UVs created in this way are evenly spaced according to the number of segments (edges or knot curves) in each direction.

The UV generation is "live". If you change the number of subdivisions set in the generator operator, the UV coordinates are automatically updated. If you change the number of subdivisions after you have manually edited the UVs, you probably won't get desirable results because the UV indices have changed. If you freeze the UV coordinates, the generator operator is frozen as well.

Clicking this button multiple times does not generate multiple UV projections.

Subdivisions

Subdivision Type

Determines how you specify the number of subdivisions in the result.

  • Per Span uses the "natural" subdivisions as determined by the shapes of the inputs. You can subdivide each segment further using the U and V span sliders.

    In this case, discontinuities resulting from multiknots in the inputs are preserved in the generated objects.

  • Absolute allows you to set the total number of subdivisions using the U and V abs sliders.

U, V span

The number of subdivisions corresponding to each segment of the inputs, when Subdivision Type is Per Span.

U, V abs

The total number of subdivisions, when Subdivision Type is Absolute.

Open/Close

Specifies whether the extruded surface is open or closed in U and V. These option work only if the corresponding input curves are open. If the input curves are closed, the surface will always be closed in the corresponding direction.

Extrusion

Start, End Pos.

The percentages along the length of the guide at which the extrusion starts and stops. Note that Start Position is available only if Snap to Profile is off.

Start Pos determines the first tangent and binormal that will be propagated along the curve. Changing this value changes the initial binormal. Changing End Pos. does not have this effect.

Previous versions of Softimage used Length instead of End Pos. If you have a scene saved from a previous version, you must delete and reapply the extrusion to get the new behavior.

From Center

Controls how the profile is aligned on the guide curve. At 0, the profile's center is aligned on the guide, and at 100 the minimum U boundary is aligned. Values in-between align a point between the center and the minimum U boundary; values below 0 and above 100 extrapolate beyond these points. This option is not available if Snap to Profile is on.

Snap to Profile

When on, the extruded surface is created at the position of the profile curve. If it is off, it is created at the position of the guide curve.

Rotate Profile

When on, the profile curve is rotated as the tangent of the guide curve changes, following the guide as it turns and twists.

Align Profile to Path

Rotates the profile to align it with the start of the path. If this is off, the profile is not rotated.

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