Sweep a profile along a path

00:00

If I want to take a profile shape and sweep it along the path curve, I've got three tools I can use, Rail, Extrude, and Profile.

00:10

And I'll start with Profile, as it's the most flexible tool.

00:14

And to use it in its simplest form, I'll just choose a natural profile orientation.

00:19

The prompt line's asked me to select the curves for the profile.

00:22

So, I can just drag a box across these multiple curves, say Accept to say that I've finished that,

00:29

And then I have a choice: I either want to select a second profile, in which case I'll do another Accept;

00:36

or, if I'm ready to choose the path, I can just say Done, and then it'll ask me to choose the rail path.

00:42

And I've got three curves there.

00:44

But because I've got Chain Select on, it picks them all in one go, and that will build that simple swept surface.

00:53

Another tool I can use is Extrude.

00:55

Now this is a legacy tool that it has an option window, which means I need to choose my options and then say Go.

01:03

And it doesn't have any chain select or drag select for the profile curves.

01:09

So, the way I typically use it is, first of all, to pick the curves that I want for the profile, if there's more than one,

01:14

and then go and use the Extrude tool that will keep those selected, so I can just do a Go and then Extrude the path.

01:23

So, it's a much simpler tool, and it can only extrude along one path curve at a time, but it does a perfectly good job.

01:31

And then finally, the Rail tool.

01:34

So, when I choose One Generation curve, it switches to Monorail Mode, which is a sweep mode,

01:41

and I can choose my generation curve, my rail curve, and it will do the sweep as I'd expected.

01:48

I've got some different options with rail, so I can choose which curve positions the surface in space.

01:55

And I can add some rotation or twist into the surface here, or I can scale it up or scale it down as it goes along the path.

02:05

So, the rail surface works when I've got a single profile curve.

02:10

When you've got multiple curves in the profile, use the Extrude tool for simple shapes, or the Profile tool to have more control.