9.5.2

250 • CHAPTER 7
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 251
If the tangents of two neighboring points have zero length, the
segment that runs between the vertices will be linear. Thus, you can
mix linear segments with curved spline shapes.
If you double-click on a Bezier vertex with the Move, Scale or Rotate
tool active, a dialog opens that allows you to accurately enter
both the position of the vertex (in the spline’s object coordinates)
and the position of the tangent end points (relative to the vertex)
numerically. If you convert a Bezier spline to a different type of
spline, all tangent settings will be lost. If a spline is converted from
a non-Bezier type to a Bezier type, all tangents will be assigned
default positions and orientations.
Close Spline
Each spline segment can be closed or open. If a spline is closed, the start and end points are connected.
There is a big difference between closing a spline (and interconnecting the start and end points) and
simply positioning the start and end points together. In the rst case, the transition from the start to
the end point is soft, in the second case it is abrupt. To close the spline, Ctrl-click the start point.
Close Spline enabled (left) and disabled (right).
Intermediate Points, Number, Angle
Here you can dene how the spline is further subdivided with intermediate points. This affects the
number of subdivisions created when using the spline with NURBS objects. Even after you select the
Interpolation type from the menu for the Intermediate Points, you can still make changes.