8

1202 Chapter 9: Sur face Modeling
control lattice if the curve is a CV curve. You can
now transform or otherwise change the points
or CVs as if you were at the Point or Curve CV
sub-object level. To finish editing the curve, click
to turn off Edit Curve.
When you turn on Edit Curves, all applicable
rollouts for the selected curves are displayed,
including the Curve Common rollout, the CV
or Point rollout (depending on the curve type),
and the CV Curve or Point Curve rollout. These
rollouts appear beneath the U Loft rollout. They
let you edit the loft curves and their points or CVs
without having to switch sub-object levels.
Tip: WhenyoueditcurvesinaUloft,turningoff
display of the U loft itself can make the curves
easier to see and improve performance. Use
CTRL+D (while the
Keyboard Shortcut Override
Togg le button (page 3–912)
is on) to toggle display
of dependent sub-objects, including U Lofts.
UV Loft Sur f ace
SelectNURBSobject.>Modifypanel>CreateSurfaces
rollout > Dependent Surfaces group box > UV Loft
Select NU RB S object. > Modify panel > NURBS toolbox >
Create UV Loft Surface button
A UV loft surface is similar to a U loft surface, but
hasasetofcurvesintheVdimensionaswellasin
the U dimension. This can give you finer control
over the lofted shape, and require fewer curves to
achieve the result you want.
Using p erpendicular curves to create a UV loft surface
If the U and V curves intersect, the UV loft
surfaceinterpolatesallthecurves. Ifthecurves
don’t intersect, the lofted sur face lies somewhere
between the U and V cur ves. In general, UV loft
works best if the ends of all the curves in one
direction lie on the two end curves in the other
direction, as in the i llustration. UV loft does not
work well if the curves in both directions are
closed.
Note: The Make Loft (page 1–1235) dialog
(displayedbytheMakeLoftbuttonontheSurface
Common rollout for surface sub-objects) now lets
youconvertasurfacetoaUVloftaswellasaU
loft. In addition, you can use point curves instead
of CV curves for the new loft lattice. If you use
point curves for a UV loft, turning on the Fuse
Points option g uarantees that the U and V curves
intersect.
Automatic Cur ve Atta chment
When you create a UV loft, you can select curves
that are not already sub-objects of the active
NURBS model. You can select another curve or
spline (p age 1–261) object in the scene. When you
select that curve, it attaches to the current object as
if you had used the
Attach button (page 1–1121) .