8

Section Spline 277
Helical spline varied only by bias settings
• A bias of –1.0 forces the turns toward the start
of the helix.
• A bias of 0.0 evenly distributes the turns
between the ends.
• A bias of 1.0 forces the turns toward the end of
the helix.
CW /CCW —The direct ion buttons set whether the
Helix turns clockwise (CW) or counterclockw ise
(CCW).
Section Spline
Create panel > Shapes > Splines > Object Type rollout
>Section
Create menu > Shapes > Section
This is a special type of object that generates other
shapes based on a cross-sectional slice through
mesh objects. The Section object appears as a
bisected rectangle. You simply move and rotate
it to slice through one or more mesh objects, and
then click the Create Shape button to generate a
shape based on the 2D intersection.
Red line shows the section shape based on the structure.
Procedure
To create a nd us e a section s hape:
1.
Go to the Create panel and choose
Shapes.
2. Click Section.
3. Drag a rectangle in the viewport in which you
want to orient the plane. (For example, create it
intheTopviewporttoplacetheSectionobject
parallel with the XY home g r id.)
The Section object appears as a simple rectangle
with crossed lines indicating its center. With
the default settings, the rectangle is for display
purposes only, b ecause the effect of the Section
objectextendsalongitsplanetothefullextents
of the scene.
4. Move and rotate the section so that its plane
intersects mesh objects in the scene.
Yellow lines are displayed where the sectional
plane intersects objects.
5. On the Create panel, click Create Shape, enter a
name in the resulting dialog, and click OK.
An
editable spline (page 1–284) is created,
based on the displayed cross sections.