8

Point Curve 1109
location is set when you release the mouse
button.
This method is probably more intuitive.
• Click-click. If you CTRL+click and then release
the mouse button, the height changes as you
drag the mouse. Clicking the mouse a second
time sets the point’s location.
This method is less prone to repetitive stress
injury.
Whileyouareoffsettingthepoint,areddotted
line is drawn between the original point on the
construction plane and the actual point offset
from the plane. You can move the mouse into an
inact ive viewport, in which case the software sets
the heig ht of the point using the point’s Z axis in
the inactive viewport. This lets you set the height
of the point with accuracy.
Snaps (page 2–38) also work w hen you change
the height of a point. For example, if you turn on
Point snapping, you can set a point to have the
same height as another p oint by snapping to that
other point in an inactive viewport.
Procedure
To create a NURBS point curve:
1.
Go to the Create p anel.
2. Turn on Shapes, and choose NURBS
Curves from the drop-down list.
3. Tur n on Point Cu r ve.
4. In a v iewport, click and drag to create the first
point, as well as the first curve seg ment. Release
the mouse button to add t he second point. Each
subsequent location you click adds a new point
to the curve. Right-click to end curve creation.
Note: If you begin the curve by clicking without
dragging, this also creates the curve’s first point.
However, if you release the mouse button more
than five pixels away from where you initially
pressed it, this creates an additional point.
Whileyouarecreatingapointcurve,youcan
press BACKSPA CE to remove the last point you
created, and then previous points in reverse
order .
If Draw In All Viewports is on, you can draw in
any viewp ort, creating a 3D curve.
To lift a point off the construction plane, use
theCTRLkeyasdescribedearlierinthistopic
under "Drawing Three-Dimensional Curves."
As with splines, if you click over the curve’s
initial point, a
Close Cur ve dialog (page
1–1237)
is displayed. This dialog asks whether
youwantthecurvetobeclosed. ClickNoto
keep the curve open or Yes to close the curve.
(You can also close a curve when yo u edit it
at the Cur ve sub-object level.) When a closed
curveisdisplayedattheCurvesub-objectlevel,
the initial point is displayed as a green circle,
and a green tick m ark indicates the curve’s
direction.
5. Adjust the curve ’s creation parameters.
6. (Opt ional.) To add a new NURBS curve
sub-object,youcanturnofftheStartNew
Shape check box, and t hen repeat the preceding
steps.
Interf ace
Thecreationparametersarethesameforboth
point cur ves and CV curves.