Odd CP direction

[flashawd]

As you can see I am on my next project and the questions are already rolling in. When I try to add a new cp to the current mesh to extend a line, sometimes the cp is going in the wrong direction so I click on "shift" and it puts it in the right direction. This caused the side of the mesh to have obvious lines running through it as you can see from the pic below. When I detach one of the cps and try to reattach it - it is pointing in the wrong direction again, so I would have to click "shift" to make it correct - but it looks like that is causing the problem. Is there a way to switch the direction or do I have to delete the whole side and start over. I hope I am explaining the problem clearly. Thanks - Eric

 

[Eric2575]

I'm not sure what you are decribing, but there are a couple of thoughts that come to mind. First off, make sure all splines are smoothed, by selecting them and hitting "O". Next, select one of the cp's on an affected spline and hit "," this will select all the cp's on that spline. If the spline just ends somewhere in the middle of a run, then you know you have two splines intersecting. These intersections in the middle of a run cause some of these anomalies. You then need to select the last highlighted cp and disconnect it from the run by hitting "shift +K". Now left click the cp and while you hold down the left mouse button, right click the mouse. This will reattach the cp to the next spline joining them to make one continuous spline. One problem you may encounter during this is if there are more than two splines meeting in the affected intersection. In this case, you need to disconnect the splines and move them slightly to see what is connected and what is not. Then join as needed.

 

I just did an experiment and added a spline to a mesh holding down the shift button. I believe this is causing all your problems. It seems holding the shift button and adding a spline adds a new spline to the mesh without making a continuous spline. This will give you lots of discontinuous splines and lots of anomalies. I never use that shift function. As a beginning modeler, I suggest you stay away from it also until you understand spline flow and order better.

 

You can correct these problem areas with the method I described to you above.

[flashawd]

That worked perfect thank you - I had used the "shift" attach on a couple and then extruded them, so it ran all the way down the side of the char head - so I detched them like you suggested and reattached then in the right direction. Thank you for taking the time to write the explanation - much appreciated. -E

[Eric2575]

Eric helping Eric

 

No problem, glad I could help.