Paths & Lathing
| Paths allow a sequence of operations (a macro) to be be applied to other polygons. The Path Library stores these macros for later use. | |
 Path: |
Left-clicking on the Path button creates a path on the current object based on all the sweep operations that were just applied to that object. |
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Right-clicking on the Path button brings up the macro panel. |
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Paths are created by first applying a series of sweep operation on an object
or polygon. Once you're happy with the finished product, left-click once on
the Path button. Caution: Make sure that you do not deselect the last face of the object! |
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| A path matching the sweep operations
performed on the object is created. The path is anchored on the top face of
the object. Click on the image for a larger view. |
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| Once the path is created, it is loaded in
memory and can now be used on other objects. To apply the path to a new object, create a new object, polygon, or spline. Select the Point Edit: Context or Point Edit: Face tool and select the top face of the object. Left-click once on the Path tool. The path in memory will be added to the center of the selected face. At this time, you can rotate the path around the z-axis only. |
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| Left-click a second time on the Path
button and the face will be extruded along the loaded path. Click on the image for a rendered view. |
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| Paths can also be applied to any face of a
primitive. Here, three nonconcurrent faces of a sphere have been selected using ctrl-click. |
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| After left-clicking on the Path button, the path in memory is applied to the center of the last polygon selected. |
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| Left-clicking again on the Path
button extrudes the selected faces along the loaded path. Click on the image for a rendered view. |
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| And the same path applied to concurrent faces of a sphere |
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| Does this: |
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Rendered views: |
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| Applied to a spline: |
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| Does this: Click on the image for a rendered view. |
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Path Library: |
If you really like a path, you can save it to the Path Library. When you want to use it again, simply select it from the library. |
