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Lathing a Spline:

Page 6

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If any of these options are not available, apply an Edit Spline Modifier.

Fig 1.

You may already be familiar with the concept of lathing. An ornate chair leg or a candlestick are good examples of lathed objects. Follow this exercise and you'll see what I mean...

In this exercise were going to make a vase by lathing a Spline.

• First we need to create the profile of the vase using the Spline tools.

• Starting with the bottom point, try to copy the Spline I have created below. 

Don't worry if it's a bit different, unexpected results are often the best results!

• Enter Sub-Object Spline Mode 

• Scroll down to the Outline button, in the Geometry rollout. 

• Enter a value of about 5 in the field next to the Outline button and press enter.

• (Alternatively, you can click and drag on the toggle buttons next to the field or click and drag on your Spline with the Outline button depressed. Both these methods allow you to see the alteration interactively in the viewport).

• Your Spline should now have thickness:

• Zoom into the top end of your Spline.

• (The easiest way to do this is with the Region Zoom Tool located with the View Controllers. With this tool selected, you can simply click-drag a rectangular region in a viewport and it will zoom in to that region). 

• Go to the Vertex Sub-Object Selection level.

• Click Refine in the Geometry rollout.

• The Refine tool is used to refine the Spline by adding Verticies to it.

• Move the cursor over the Spline. You will notice it changes, ready to add a Vertex.

• Add 4 new Verticies like I have:

• Now, using one of the Selection Tools, select and delete the 2 verticies that were there originally. (Select them one at a time and press Delete on the keyboard. You should be left with something like this:

• Now right-click on the two end verticies (see fig 1)  and change their corner type to Smooth.

• We have now finished editing the Spline at Sub-Object Level, so exit Sub-Object Mode by clicking Sub-Object.

• Click Zoom Extents All to centre all your views.

• Make sure that your Spline is selected and that you are not in Sub-Object Mode.

• Click on the Modify Tab:

• Click on "Lathe".

• The result should look something like this:

I know what you thinking, it doesn't look much like a vase does it? The reason is that the axis of rotation is in the wrong place.

• In the Modify Panel, under Align, Click on Max.

Have a look at your vase in the Perspective viewport. Some of you might notice that parts of your vase seem to be transparant. Even if they are not, you should all try the following exercise.