
	Points and Curves: Editing Curves

Figure 58. Curve Edit

Figure 59. Splitting Curves

Split is used to split a single continuous curve into two separate curves. First click on Split, then pick the curve by clicking on it with the left mouse button, then hit <Space>. Next pick the point where you want the split to be, then hit <Space>. The two new curves will share the picked point, creating a sharp corner where there was once a rounded continuous shape (see Figure 59). Now you can pick another curve to split, or hit <Enter> to return to the Edit menu.

Figure 60. Joining Curves

Join does the opposite; it creates a rounded continuous shape where there's a sharp corner. First click on Join, then pick all the curves you want to join, then hit <Space> (see Figure 60). Now you can pick more curves to join, or hit <Enter> to abort the join operation.

Figure 61. Closing a Curve (Before and After)

A curve can be closed, to create a continuous rounded loop, by joining it to itself (see Figure 61). Just pick that one curve when doing the Join operation.

Figure 62. Blending Curves

Blnd is used to make one curve out of two by averaging each matching pair of shape points. First click on Blnd, then pick the two curves you want to blend, then hit <Space>. The end point of each curve is pre-selected. If the curves were drawn in different directions, then these pre-selected end points won't match; toggle points on/off with the left mouse button so they do. Hit <Space> and the two curves will be blended into a single curve.

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Figure 63. Pulling Curves Back

Back is used to pull curves back from a multi-curve intersection. Figure 63 shows an example of this; after the intersection point is picked and <Enter> is hit, curves that start or end at the selected point are pulled back. Curves that pass thru the selected point aren't modified; use Split before Back is you want to pull these curves back as well.

Divisions

Division points are small red dots placed along the network curves; they determine the UV dimensions of the adjoining patches, and how they interact with each other at their boundaries.

Figure 64. Division Points and Divisions

To add or remove divisions from a curve segment (i.e. any piece of curve between 2 shape points), position the mouse pointer over the segment and hit the <-> or <=> keys on the keyboard. The number of Divisions is always 1 greater than the number of Division Points (see Figure 64).

Figure 65. Divisions

There are three ways to quickly change the number of divisions for all visible curves (see Figure 65).

(1)

Type a number into Num Div, followed by <Enter>, to change the number of divisions for each visible segments.

(2)

Type a distance into Div Spacing and all visible segments will be divided as close to that spacing as possible.

(3)

Type a percentage into Mult Div and the number of divisions on all visible segments will be reduced or increased by that amount.

When Free is enabled, only visible curves that aren't a matched boundary are affected (i.e. blue curves). Matched boundaries (i.e. magenta curves) are untouched.

When All is enabled, all visible curves are modifed.