MAINTAINING SPLINE CURVATURE WHILE ADDING NEW CONTROL POINTS

 

Normally, during modeling when you insert a new control point into an existing spine, the curve changes shape.  To make the existing splines maintain their curvature, keep the <Shift> key on the keyboard pressed while clicking the new control point.  Beware, for the program to keep a spline’s shape, it must add bias to all the existing control points around the new control point (as many as eight new biases!)  Typically, you want to minimize bias (because if there is bias, when the control points animate, the bias will have to be animated also, a time-consuming process).

 

STITCH

 

To insert a new spline into existing geometry, called “stitching”, click the AddLock button and click on the splines where you want the new control points inserted.  To maintain the existing splines’ curvature, keep the <Shift> key on the keyboard pressed while clicking.

 

EXTENDING AN EXISTING SPLINE WITH ADDLOCK

 

On the first click of AddLock, if you click near the end of an existing spline, the new spline will join.

 

ENDING AN ADDLOCK ON A LOOSE SPLINE END

 

If during AddLock (but after the first click) you click on the loose end control point of a spline (including the new spline you are making), the two splines will join smoothly and AddLock will terminate.

 

PREVENTING JOIN DURING ADD

 

Normally, when a new control point is added to the end of a spline, it tries to “join”, continuing the smooth arc.  To prevent this, and cause the new spline to “attach” instead, keep the <Shift> key on the keyboard pressed when you click.  An attach will not terminate the AddLock.

 

TAKE NOTE:

 

The Add accelerator key (normally <A>) is now defaults to AddLock (since AddLock will do almost everything Add will, and more).  <Shift><Add> now defaults to a traditional Add. 

 

To encourage new users to model with AddLock, the original Add, Insert, and Group (because its not needed) buttons have been removed from the default Modeling toolbar.  (The functions still exist on the accelerator keys, and you can add them back to the toolbar if you want to.)