Curve Clone

The Curve Clone tool allows you to quickly clone geometry by clicking down control points for a curve. The cloned element is determined by the settings of the Source option of the Clone Effector. As the curve is created, the specified geometry duplicates itself along the curve in real-time (depending on system performance). You may want to begin with a pre-created curve; simply put the curve in a visible, but deselected Mesh Item, prior to activating the tool (also known as a Background item). Once the second vertex of the curve has been created with the tool, the clone effector creates geometry along it, using the various controls.

Note:  In addition to editing the control points in the 3D viewport, you can also edit them in the Render Display.

The following properties are available for the Curve Clone tool.

Path Steps Generator

Automatic

Forces a computed number of clones based on the Smoothing Angle value, such that a clone is placed along the path to maintain a level of smoothness at or above the user-set level (determined by the Smoothing Angle).

Steps

Active only when the Automatic option is disabled. The defined Steps value determines the number of particles generated along the curve path that feed into the Effector, essentially controlling the number of clones.

Smoothing Angle

Determines the angle along the curve where a clone is created when the Automatic option is enabled.

Align to Path

When enabled, the generated particles include rotation information so the newly-created clone aligns to the path vector direction at the location where it is created.

Align to Normal

When enabled, the generated particles include rotation information so the newly-created clone aligns with any stored normal direction for a vertex, such as for a curve extracted from geometry.

Start at Source

Often a curve used for cloning has its initial control knot imperfectly aligned with the geometry to be cloned. With Start at Source active, the curve is used as a relative guide using the original geometry as the true starting location. Disabling this option may cause the newly-created geometry to move away from the intended original location.

Curve Path

Mode

By default, the mode is set to Add. In the Add mode, clicking on a curve point and dragging edits the curve's position. Clicking anywhere in the 3D viewport other than the handles create a new curve control point. To avoid creating new control points when dragging existing points around you can set this mode to Edit. The Delete mode allows quick removal of control points by simply clicking on them.

Point X/Y/Z

The XYZ position of the currently selected knot. You can interactively edit the position by clicking over the knot indicated by the cyan dot. It turns yellow and you can now drag its position around in the viewport, or manually enter a position by editing any of the data fields.

Bank Angle

For each path position, a bank angle can be defined that controls the rotation angle of elements cloned through that position.

Twist

Works just like the Bank Angle option, but instead of being calculated per knot, the rotation amount is defined across the entire length of the curve, where the Twist value represents the amount of twisting rotation from the first knot in the curve to the last knot.

Closed

Causes the curve to become a closed loop, connecting the end point to the start.

Start Control

Enabling this toggle causes the first knot in the curve to become a control point, but not an actual segment of the curve. This provides a simple method for changing the curvature at the start of the curve.

End Control

Enabling this toggle causes the last knot in the curve to become a control point, but not an actual segment of the curve. This provides a simple method for changing the curvature at the end of the curve.

By Length

Forces the newly-created geometry to be evenly distributed across the entire length of the curve rather than spacing based on the control knots.

Create Curve Polygon

Generates a curve type polygon that remains after the tool has been dropped. This is useful if you want to re-use the curve you create with the current tool, with additional curve-based tools later in your project.

Flip Polygon

Invert the faces of the generated polygons.

Make UVs

When this toggle is active, the tool populates the current UV map with data for the generated polygons.

Clone Effector

Replace Source

When this option is enabled, Modo removes the source geometry and position it at the first Point in the path.

Invert Polygons

When enabled, this option inverts the normal direction of the cloned geometry.

Merge Vertices

When enabled, this option merges coinciding vertices into a single vertex (based on a specified Distance value).

Distance

Used in conjunction with the Merge Vertices option, the Distance value determines the maximum distance between vertices where merging occurs. Vertices outside this value remain unchanged. A value of zero only removes collocated vertices.

Source

Determines the mesh that is cloned along the Pen tool path.

Active Meshes - uses the currently-selected geometry as a clone source.

Specific Mesh - allows you to specify a specific Mesh Item as the clone source using the Mesh Item option below.

All BG - combines all the currently-visible background items, cloning them as a single mesh.

Random BG - chooses a random background item from all the currently-visible background items at each clone position.

Preset Shape - allows you to clone Profile shapes from the Preset Browser. Open the Preset Browser (F6) and select a profile before activating the tool.

Mesh Item

Works when the Source is set to Specific Mesh and allows you to set the mesh to be cloned.

Curve Instance

With the Curve Instance clone you can create instances of a geometry by clicking down control points for a curve. To activate the tool, right-click the Curve Clone tool icon in the Duplicate sub-tab of the modeling toolbox, and select Curve Instance.

In addition to the PathSteps Generator and Curve Path properties described in the Curve Clone topic, the following properties are available for the Curve Instance tool:

Item Effector

Parent

Determines how Modo treats instanced items in the Item List.

Instance

When enabled, each cloned item is an instance of the source mesh. Instances contain no physical geometry, but they reference a source layer and are represented in 3D Viewports by pink wireframes. (This is enabled by default.)

Bounding Box

When enabled, the resulting instances display as bounding boxes rather than wireframe meshes. This may provide a 3D viewport performance increase when Modo generates many instances.

Hierarchy

Source

Determines the source mesh that Modo clones onto the curve.

Item

Specifies the item to be cloned. This is only relevant if you set Source to Specific Item.

Mesh Presets

Meshes

Opens the Preset Browser, where you can select a mesh preset to use as the Source.

Curve Replica

The Curve Replica tool works like the Curve Clone tool, but creates replicas instead of actual meshes. To activate the tool, right-click the Curve Clone tool icon in the Duplicate sub-tab of the modeling toolbox, and select Curve Replica.

In addition to the PathSteps Generator and Curve Path properties described in the Curve Clone section, the following properties are available for the Curve Replica tool:

Replica Effector

Source

Determines the source mesh that Modo clones onto the curve.

Item

Specifies the item to be cloned. This is only relevant if you set Source to Specific Item.

Mesh Presets

Meshes

Opens the Preset Browser, where you can select a mesh preset to use as the Source.

Curve Transform

With the Curve Transform tool, you can organize your existing geometry along the path of a curve. To activate the tool, right-click the Curve Clone tool icon in the Duplicate sub-tab of the modeling toolbox, and select Curve Transform.

Using the Curve Tansform

The Curve Transform tool moves selected geometry along the path of a curve that you draw in the 3D viewport. The tool repositions all selected geometry, providing the number of items does not exceed the Steps value. If you try and move more items than the Steps value, the extra items will not be repositioned.

The following steps are illustrated by transforming a series of spheres.

1.   Select the geometry that you want to transform.

2.   Select the Curve Transform tool.
3.   Click in the 3D viewport and draw the curve using a series of clicks to lay control points.

4.   Edit the tool parameters. See Curve Clone for details.

For example, to evenly space out the items along the curve, set the Steps value to equal the number of items.

5.   You can alter the curve by clicking and dragging the blue control points.