8

642 Chapter 8: Modifiers
Edit Poly (Edge)
Selec t an Edit Poly object. > Modify panel > Selection
rollout > Edge
Select an Edit Poly object. > Mo dify panel > Modifier
Stack display > Expand Edit Poly. > Edge
Select an Edit Poly object. > Quad menu > Tools 1
quadrant > Edge
An edge is a line connecting two vertices that forms
thesideofapolygon.Anedgecan’tbesharedby
more than two polygons. Also, the normals of the
two polygons should b e adjacent. If they aren’t,
you wind up with two edges that share vert ices.
AttheEditPolyEdgesub-objectlevel,youcan
select single and multiple e dges and tr a nsform
them using standard methods. This topic covers
the Edit Geometry and Edit Edges rollouts; for
other controls, see
Edit Poly Modifier (page
1–619)
.
Procedure
To crea te a sh a pe f r om one or more ed ges :
1.
Selecttheedgesyouwanttomakeintoshapes.
2. On the Edit Edges rollout, click the Create Shape
button. This creates the shape immediately,
using default settings. Alternatively, click the
Settings button next to Create Shape.
3. Make changes, as needed, on the Create Shape
dialog that appears.
• Enter a curve name or keep the default.
• ChooseSmoothorLinearastheshapetype.
4. Click OK.
The resulting shape consists of one or more
splines whose vertices are coincident with the
vertices in the selected edges. The Smooth
option results in rounded-corner Bezier
vertices, whi le the Linear option results in
straight-line splines with Corner vertices.
If the selected edges are not cont inuous, or if
they branch, the resulting shape will consist of
more than one spline. When the Create Shape
function runs into a branching ’Y’ in the edges,
it makes an arbitrary decision about which edge
produces wh ich spline. If you need to control
this, select only edges that will result in a single
spline, and perform a Create Shape operation
repeatedly to make the correct number of
shapes. Finally, use
Attach (page 1–303) in the
Editable Spline to combine the shapes into one.
Above: Original object
Below: Object with edges selected