8
Editable Spline 287
R end er er—
Turn this on to specify Radial or
Rectangular p arameters for the shape as it w i ll
displaywhenrenderedorviewedintheviewport
when Enable in Viewport is turned on.
Radial—Displays the 3 D mesh as a cylindrical
object.
Thick ness—Specifies the diameter of the viewport
or rendered spline mesh. Default=1.0. Range=0.0
to 100,000,000.0.
Splines rendered at thick ness of 1.0 and 5.0, respectively
Sides—Sets the number of sides (or facets) for
thesplinemeshntheviewportorrenderer.For
example, a value of 4 results in a square cross
section.
Angle—Adjusts the rotational position of the
cross-section in the viewport or renderer. For
example, if the spline mesh has a square cross
section you can use Angle to position a "flat" side
down.
Rectangular—Displays the spline’ s mesh shape
as rectangular.
Aspect—Sets the aspect ratio for rectangular
cross-sections. The Lock check box lets you lock
the aspect ratio. When Lock is turned on, Width
is locked to Depth that results in a constant ratio
of Width to Depth.
Lengt h—Specifies the size of the cross–section
along the local
Y
axis.
Width—Specifies the size of the cross–section
along the local
X
axis.
Angle—Adjusts the rotational position of the
cross-section in the viewport or renderer. For
example, if you have a square cross-section you
can use Angle to position a "flat" side down.
Auto S mooth—If A uto Smooth is turned on,
thesplineisauto-smoothedusingthethreshold
specified by the Threshold setting below it. Auto
Smooth sets the s moothing based on the angle
between spline segments. Any two adjacent
segmentsareputinthesamesmoothinggroupif
the angle between them is less than t he threshold
angle.
Threshold—Specifies the threshold angle in
degrees. Any two adjacent spline seg ments are put
inthesamesmoothinggroupiftheanglebetween
them is less than the threshold angle.
Interpolation rollout
The Interpolation controls set how the program
generates a spline. All spline curves are d ivided
into sm all straight lines that approximate the true
curve. The number of divisions between each
vertexonthesplineiscalled
steps
.Themoresteps
used, the smoother the curve appears.
Splines used in above l athed objects contained t wo steps
(left) and 20 steps (right)
Steps—Use the Steps field to set the number of
divisions, or steps, the program uses between each
ver tex. Splines with tight curves require many
steps to look smooth while gentle curves require
fewer steps. Range=0 to 100.