CP alignment within a single plane?

[lafnjack]

Hi. I've got a rudimentary question. I'm making a head. Given that I don't have a steady hand, my CP's aren't aligned the way I like. So I've selected a spline, and used "," to select all CP's within that spline. Now what I'd like to do is have them all aligned in the same Z plane.

 

I've modified Pivot Z, but that didn't seem to do anything.

 

I've modified Translate, but that seems to move them all by whatever # I enter, so they're moving within relation to each other, rather than to a single objective coordinate.

 

I suspect I can look at the Pivot coordinates of each and subtract them from one another (1 at a time) and then modify translate with the difference. But I was wondering if there was a batch solution.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[itsjustme]

Select the CP's, then scale them to "0" on the axis you want them aligned.

 

Hope that helps.

[Rodney]

Unless I'm misunderstanding your specific criteria I'd say the key to CP alignment for you will be to use Scale.

 

Try it with a simple test model until you get a good feel for it.

 

Create your multiple CP splines.

Select those you want to align.

Whack the S key to engage the Scale Manipulator

Rotate the manipulator as needed

Scale Manually or via typing in the Scale into the onscreen Manipulator Properties dialogue box.

 

(Hard to imagine all of this via text so will try to post a video tutorial later)

 

 

Edit: David's more concisely worded suggestion should work well in the majority of cases.

[lafnjack]

Thank you VERY much gentlemen. That was a big help. In retrospect, scaling makes perfect sense. I just kept envisioning scaling occuring in 2 to 3 planes simultaneously (so things would grow or shrink), rather than a single plane which would do EXACTLY what I needed.

 

Thank you! It works like a charm...

[robcat2075]

I just kept envisioning scaling occuring in 2 to 3 planes simultaneously

 

Silly Earthman, still thinking in 3 dimensions!

[lafnjack]

Okay...an addendum to my previous question...

 

The coordinates I manually type in (or when I drag) are typically either in relation to their present position (ie: offset by 5), rather than an objective coordinate (ie: [x,y,z]). When I manually do it, that works fine too, but I'm not getting to a single objective point (although the previous solution get's me to move them to a single point quite well).

 

Let's say I have a buncha points that are (as JUST an example):

[4.1, 5, 10],

[4.2, 15, 15],

[3.9, 30, 20],

[3.8, 9, 15]

 

Let's say I want all my X coordinates to be aligned on 4.0. How do I do that? Can I do that in batch?

 

Sorry again. I'm sure there's an easy solution to this. I'm just missing it. I appreciate the help. My main focus on this is when I want to align everything on a single plane for a copy/flip/attach. But I'd also like to see my points aligned exactly where I want them to avoid bubbling in my mesh.

 

Thanks,

lafnjack

[mtpeak2]

Turn ON the manipulator properties. Then select the cps and turn ON the scale manipulator (S key). Set the X-Pivot to 4, then set the X-Scale to 0.

[lafnjack]

Turn ON the manipulator properties. Then select the cps and turn ON the scale manipulator (S key). Set the X-Pivot to 4, then set the X-Scale to 0.

Sounds like that will solve it! Thank you!