Path deformation for modelling not animation

[Anssi]

Hi,
there is a Extrude Along Spline in Editable Poly
if you are in Face selection level. The small
square next to the button gives you some level of
control over the extrusion...you can even change
the face selection or take multiple faces when
the settings window is open.

Anssi

[FETTMOPS]

depending on what version of max u are using there is a way to render splines. after making the spline renderable you are able to work with editpoly mod ( or as a mesh). In this stage you could define all special thing on your pipe.

hope it was what you are looking for. i never use this path deform thing as object space mod, but i know there is an option in the world space version to align it to your path automaticly.

[marque-pierre]

But making a spline renderable and then a mesh, that is a far cry from having a cylinder primitive to work with in edit mesh/poly mode. I mean then you need to make it thick and cylindrical as well, or am I missing something?

[marque-pierre]

Tried it like you said, and it works nicely. Thanks a million!:thumbsup:

[FETTMOPS]

ok i was thinking i misunderstood you so much :thumbsup:

[peekoot]

you can use path deform as modeling tool.. bare in mind that there are two versions of path deform, regular and world space version (WSM).. the latter you can't convert directly to poly, but you can use tools>snapshot which will yield same result..

the other way around is to use loft compound object.. it has really a lot of tools that can get you where you want to go..

probably not what you need but editable poly object has 'extrude along the spline' tool.. useful in some situations..

[marque-pierre]

Thanks even more. Will try that. What I don't like (the only thing though) about using renderable splines is the way you have no control over the density of your mesh. The subdivisions along the splines lenght is beyond your controls... Which is a big deal if you are modelling for games...

[peekoot]

every vertex will add one 'ring' to the tube and number of sides you can control via spinner..

but really, if you're looking for bit more advanced tool- work with loft.. you can control subdivisions precisely, mix different shapes along path, apply different scales, twists and whatnot :)

[soulburn3d]

every vertex will add one 'ring' to the tube and number of sides you can control via spinner..

And the "steps" of the spline also control the subdivisions along the spline.

As for your original question, I use path deform all the time for modeling, make sure you use the world space modifier, since it has the move to path feature, also, it's best if your object you're deforming has it's creation axis aligned with the world, which you can do by reseting xform in the utility panel before applying the path deform. Then once your object is deformed, just convert to an editable poly to bake in the deformation, or just leave it as is, bound to the spline, which will give you more editing options.

- Neil

[marque-pierre]

But Neil, I did do that, and the thing is, it will not bake in completely the path deform modifier keeps on top of the editable poly/mesh in the stack. I want it down to a barebones mesh so I can attach and weld it to another mesh, making them watertight and solid.Anyway, now I am using the snapshot tool to cure the deformed mesh, which completely bakes in the deformations, and that works great for me. Thanks all of you.

[soulburn3d]

Weird, I was sure I had used that technique to collapse them before. But I tried a test and it does seem to keep the world space modifier. Ah well, snapshot definately does reduce it to a mesh only, so you're all set.

- Neil

[shadewind]

To add some small things:

The density can be controlled in the interpolation rollout of the spline as someone maybe have pointed out already.

Renderable splines can also be converted to editable polys or meshes :)

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