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Adding Curves

The Curve tool allows you to create a spline curve by clicking down a series of control points through which the curve is interpolated. This is a hermite curve type, which can be very useful for creating modeling guides, quickly roughing out a shape, or setting up an outline for lofting with the extrude, lathe, or other multiply tool.

Activating the Curve Tool

1.   Activate the Curve tool in one of the following ways:

• In the Basic sub-tab of the modeling toolbox, right-click the Pen tool to reveal additional tool options, and select Curve.

• In the Curve sub-tab of the modeling toolbox, click Curve.

• In the menu bar, under Geometry > Curve Palette, click Curve.

2.   Click in the 3D viewport to position your control points.

Adding new control points to the curve is simple. Click anywhere on the screen without selecting an existing control point. This adds a new control point to the curve.

Note:  The new control point is added after the currently-selected point, so if you want to add a point to a specific location on the curve, first select the point before it.

3.   Once you have created several control points, you can click directly on an existing control point to drag it around, allowing you to change the shape of the curve.

Tip:  To create a closed curve, right-click on the first control point. Modo adds a curve segment between the first and last control points.

4.   Drop the tool by pressing the Space key.

Editing a Curve

Once you drop the tool, interactive editing within the tool itself is lost but you can re-activate the editing ability by selecting the curve in Polygons selection mode.

For more information, see Polygon Selection Mode

Tip:  You can convert selected curves to either a Adding Curves, B-Spline, or Bezier curve type. For more information, see Curve Convert

Curve Properties

You can find the Curve tool's properties in the bottom left of the UI.

Curve Panel

Mode

Allows you to change the behavior of the cursor. The following options are available:

• Add - Adds a curve. This is the default setting.

• Edit - click-and-drag any of the control points along the curve to change the look to the desired shape.

• Delete - Click any of the control points along the curve to remove it from the B-Spline.

Point X, Y, Z

The X, Y, and Z values of the currently-active point can be set precisely by typing in the desired 3D coordinates.

Closed

When enabled, adds an automatic curve segment between the first and last control point positions, producing a closed curve.

Filled

When the Closed option is enabled, you can enable the Filled option to create a renderable flat surface that is defined by the outlining curve itself. The resulting surface can be tagged as a polygon for adding material definitions.

Start Control

Converts the first point in the curve to a control point that does not contribute to the actual curve length, but acts as a handle so that the curvature at the new first point can be modified. When activated, the curve length from the control point to the next point is drawn in the handle color to indicate that it's no longer part of the geometry but simply a handle.

End Control

Converts the last point in the curve to a control point that does not contribute to the actual curve length, but acts as a handle so that the curvature at the new end point can be modified. When activated, the curve length from the control point to the next point is drawn in the handle color to indicate that it is no longer part of the geometry but simply a handle.

Make UVs

Activates auto-generation of UV texture coordinates along the curve.