Extrude along a path... CAN'T DO IT!?

Sorry if this isn't posted in the correct Board.

Guys i need some help please with a problem i'm having, whereby i need to create an incremental extrude along a path/spline. I can't seem to get the results i want... in fact... i can't get ANY results at all for this.

Here's the rundown...
I'm creating a basic animation of a welding torch burning through a wall of sorts, blowing sparks forward toward the viewer. The effect i need assistance with is the part whereby the weld leaves a hot trail of cut material. Get what i mean? The torch burns through the opposite side of the wall and should leave a path where the wall has been cut, and is slightly red hot, leaving a visible trail of where the torch has been. The effect of the glowing path must follow right behind the arc weld as it moves along the spline path.

My idea...
Extrude a very thin illuminated cylinder along the same spline as the torch is following, positioning it just behind the torch light. As the cylinder get's extruded incrementally it appears to create the effect of being the cut line in the wall.

Problem...
I've tried Extruding along the spline that the arc weld follows, i've also tried Piping and Sweeping... all with no results at all. Is it really so hard to extrude/sweep a circle spline or cylinder shape along a spline, 'incrementally', and record it? I don't know?! I'm stuck here!

Can anyone help me understand this effect? Please?

Thank you for you time.

Hard to say what the problem is without more info. It's a pretty basic operation--just animate the growth parameter of the sweepNURBS. Possible problems:

* the axis of your profile spline (circle) isn't on the XY plane (i.e., the Z axis must point towards the direction of travel along the spline);
* err, that's all I can think of.

Yeah, that's what i thought too... this is a fairly simple operation. I just can't get it to work for some reason. DOH!

Hey never thought of that. I'll give that a go and see if it flies.

Thanks for your time Adam.

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