Set up the Rail surface tool

How to prepare your model and set the options to use the Rail surface tool.

Prepare to use the Rail surface tool

Create one or more generation curves. Generation curves define the profile of the surface as it is swept out along the rails. The generation curves should point in the same direction.
Create one or more rail curves. Rail curves define the path of the generation curve as it sweeps out the surface. The rail curves should point in the same direction.
Make sure the generation curves intersect the rail curves.
See Make curves intersect

Set up the options for the Rail surface tool

The Surfaces > Swept Surfaces > Rail Surface tool has options that control how many Generation Curves and Rail Curves it expects.

You can open the tool’s option box and change those options depending on how many curves you have whenever you use the tool.

Or, you can set up multiple custom versions of the tool on a shelf, corresponding to the different combinations of Generation Curves and Rail Curves options. See the section Create custom tools for more information.

Tip

Custom versions of the Rail surface tool corresponding to the different Generation Curves and Rail Curves settings are included on the default shelves that ship with Alias.

Note

Alias automatically assigns different icons to different custom versions of the Rail surface tool depending on how the Generation Curves and Rail Curves options are set.