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1144 Chapter 9: Surface Modeling
Surface sub-object selection controls
Single Sur face—Clicking or transforming a surface
selects only a sing le surface sub-object.
All Connected Surf aces—Clicking or transforming
a surface selects all surface sub-objects that are
connected within the NU R B S object. To be
connected, two surfaces must have all the CVs on
a shared edge fused b etween them, or one surface
must be a connected dependent of the other (for
example, a blend or a cap).
Name—Shows the name of the currently selected
surface. It is disabled if you have selected multiple
surfaces.
By default, the name is the name of the surface type
("CV Surface," "P oint Surface," "Blend Surface,"
and so on) followed by a sequence number. You
canusethisfieldtogivethesurfaceanamethat
you choose.
Hide—Click to hide the currently selected surface.
Unhide A ll—Click to unhide all hidden surfaces.
Hide by Name—Click to display a Select
Sub-Objects dialog that lists surfaces by name.
Select the surfaces to hide, then click Hide.
Unhide by Name—Disabled unless there are hidden
surfaces. Click to display a Select Sub-Objects
dialogthatlistssurfacesbyname. Selectthe
surfaces to make v isible, then click Unhide.
Delete—Deletes the selected surface sub-objects.
Mak e Rigid—Makes the surface rigid. T he only
editing allowed on a rigid surface is to tr ansform
it at the Surface sub-object level. You c an’t move
arigidsurface’spointsorCVs,orchangethe
number of points or CVs.
Rigid sur faces reduce the amount of memory
used by the NURBS model. Making surfaces r i gid
improves performance, especially for large and
complex models.
When a sur face is rigid, you can’t see its points
or CVs when you are at the Point or Surface CV
sub-object levels. If the mo del has no nonrigid
surfaces and no point curves, the Po int and Surface
CV sub-object levels aren’t available at all.
To make a surface no longer rigid, click Make
Point or Make Independent. Editing the surface
with Break, Join, and so on also makes it no longer
rigid.
Mak e Loft—Displays a Make Loft dialog (page
1–1234) to convert the surface sub-object to a
(dependent) U loft or UV loft surface. Can also
change the dimension used to construct a U loft
surface.
Youcan’tuseMakeLoftifthesurfacesub-object
is in an error condition.
Tip: Make Loft creates a loft with uniformly spaced
curves. To make a loft with adaptively spaced iso
curves, manually create the curves and then loft
them with U Iso Lines, V Iso Lines, or U and V
Iso Lines.
Mak e Point—Displays a Make Point dialog (page
1–1235) to convert any kind of surface to a point
surface. You can also use Make Point to change
thenumberofrowsandcolumnsifthesurfaceis
already a point sur face.
Convert Surface—Click to display the Convert
Surface dialog (page 1–1227).Thisdialogprovides
ageneralwaytoconvertasurfacetoadifferent
type of surface. You can convert between lofts,
point ("fit") surfaces, and CV surfaces. The dialog
also lets you adjust a number of other surface
parameters.