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492 Chapter 7: Creating Copies and Arrays
The Spacing Tool distributes the vases along the sides of the
curved street. The vases are all at the same distance from each
other; fewer of them appear on the shorter s ide.
For details on the Spacing Tool parameters, see
Spacing Tool (page 1–455).
To dis tr ibute obj ects a long a pa th:
1.
Select one or more objects to distribute.
2. Choose Spacing tool from the Array
flyout or the Tools menu.
Note: TheArrayflyoutisontheExtrastoolbar,
which is off by default. You can toggle display of
this toolbar by right-clicking an empty area on
the main toolbar and choosing Axis Constraints
from the Customize Display right-click menu
(page 3–787).
3. On the Spacing Tool dialog, click Pick Path or
Pick Points to specify a path.
If you click Pick Path, select a spline from your
scene to use as the path.
If you click Pick Points, click a sta rt point a nd
an end point to define a spline as the path.
When you’ re finished with the Spacing Tool,
3dsMaxdeletesthisspline.
4. From the drop-down list at the bottom of the
Parameters group, choose a spacing option.
The parameters available for Count, Spacing,
Star t O ffset, and End Offset depend on the
spacing option you choose.
5. Specif y t he number of objects to distribute by
entering a Count value, or by using the spinner .
6. Depending on the spacing option you choose,
adjust the spacing and offsets.
7. In the Context group, choose one of the
following:
• Edg es specifies that spacing be determined
from the facing edges of each object’s
bounding box.
• Centers specifies that spacing be determined
from the center of each object’s b ounding
box.
8. To alig n the insertion points of the distributed
objects to the tangent of the spline, t urn on
Follow.
9. IntheTypeOfObjectgroup,choosethetypeof
object to output (copy, instance, or reference)
and click Apply.