Creating a Spined Surface from more than two boundaries

Once you have started the Spined Surface command, you can proceed as follows.
Please note that you can follow this step-by-step example by loading file: "spsrf_multi_4.e3".



1 To obtain an associative surface, that is an open solid — a Skin —  retaining a link to its base curves, so that if you modify such curves the surface will be modified accordingly, check the Associative Mode box. See " Associative Surfaces (Skins)" for details.
2 Select the spine curve (or chain of curves) and end selection by right-clicking and selecting Continue in the context menu.



To change the selected spine curve (for example if you selected the wrong one by mistake), right-click on Spine in the selection list, select Reset and perform selection again.
3 Select the boundaries and end selection by right-clicking and selecting Continue in the context menu.



To change the selected boundary curve (for example if you selected the wrong one by mistake), right-click on Boundaries in the selection list, select Reset and perform selection again.

About boundaries
All boundaries must consist of the same number of curves. For this purpose, you can use the Join Curve and Split Curve commands.
For example, the 4th profile in the above illustration was obtained using the Join Curve command on the three original lines.

A preview is immediately displayed:



For the surface to extend in the opposite direction, select the Invert check box.

Two boundaries
When you select just two boundaries, you can specify the weights of each of the two boundaries in the 1st Weight and 2nd Weight boxes respectively. Weights are values in the range (0,1): the higher the weight, the more affected by the corresponding boundary the resulting surface will be.


4 Select the drive curve and end selection by right-clicking and selecting Continue in the context menu.



To change the selected drive curve (for example if you selected the wrong one by mistake), right-click on 1st Drive in the selection list, select Reset and perform selection again.
5 Click More Options to display additional options.
  • You can choose whether to obtain a single surface or as many surfaces as the number of subsequent couple of boundaries. Select one of the options in the Surfaces drop-down list. See "Setting the number of resulting surfaces" for further details.
  • You can define the orientation of the boundary curve along the spine, by selecting an option in the Orientation drop-down list. See "Setting the Orientation of a Spined Surface" for further details.
  • You can control the shape of the surfaces which will form the final surface at the boundaries. Select the type of blending to be applied to the surfaces along the boundaries in the Blending drop-down list under More Options. The following illustrations show previews for the Linear blending rule and for the Hermite blending rule respectively:


    Linear


    Hermite
6 Click or to confirm your selections and create the surfaces.



Click to discard your changes.
Ticks and Trips