Align and eventually space a selection of objects of any type along a NURBS curve.
How to use
1. Select the objects you want to align. Make sure that all objects are not a part of a Construction Tree.
2. Click the Align to Curve icon (in the Transform tab) or chose the Tools > Transform > Align to Curve menu command.
3. Pick the NURBS curve along which to align the selected objects.
4. Set the parameters of the modeling tool to obtain the desired result.
5. Press the Go button in the modeling tool panel to apply the alignment.
Pictures below show the alignment of various objects along a NURBS curve. Lights can be aligned like any other objects.
Note I: Selected objects must not be part of a Construction Tree. If you want to align such objects you must perform a Collapse Construction tree command on them.
Note II: Random transformations to the aligned objects are applied in the following order: scaling, rotation, translation.
Options
Go
To perform the alignment with given parameters.
Modeling Tool panel. Press the Go button.
Alignment Curve
To change the alignment curve.
Modeling Tool panel. Switch the Replace check button on and pick another NURBS curve in the scene.
Alignment Options
To set a default point of the object that will be considered the pivot point for the alignment.
Modeling Tool panel. Switch the chosen radio buttons on. Options are: Axis Origin, Bounding box and Center of bounding box. If you choose Bounding box, the Justification section offers more options.
Justification
To specify whether the objects should be aligned to the top (B. box max) or to the bottom (B. box min) of the bounding box.
Modeling Tool panel. This parameter is active only if the B. box radio button in the Alignment Options parameter has been checked.
Direction
To specify how the aligned objects will be oriented with respect to the alignment curve.
Modeling Tool panel. Switch the chosen radio buttons on. Options are:
Original. No changes on object orientation are made. Objects will be only translated.
Align to Normal. The local Z axis will be aligned to the curve normal.
Align to Tangent. The local Z axis will be aligned to the curve tangent.
Align to Binormal. The local Z axis will be aligned to the curve binormal (i.e. the direction perpendicular to the plane defined by the tangent and the normal to the curve).
Spacing
To specify positioning of the objects along the curve.
Modeling Tool panel. Switch the chosen radio buttons on. Options are:
No spacing. Eeach object is projected to the nearest point on the curve (with respect to its original position).
Fit to curve. Objects will be evenly spaced along the curve so that the first selected object is positioned at the start of the curve and the last selected object is positioned at the end.
Custom. Objects will be spaced at a constant distance (defined by the Step option) from the start of the curve.
Step
To set the distance along the curve between two consecutive objects. This option is enabled only if the Custom spacing option is enabled.
Modeling Tool panel. Set the value either by moving the slider or by typing it in the data field and pressing Enter.
Translation noise
To apply a random effect on translation of each aligned object.
Modeling Tool panel. Type values in the XYZ data fields and confirm them by pressing Enter.
Rotation noise
To apply a random rotation around the local axis of each aligned object compared to the default resulting position.
Modeling Tool panel. Type values in the XYZ data fields and confirm them by pressing Enter.
Scaling noise
To apply a random effect on scaling for each aligned object.
Modeling Tool panel. Type values in the XYZ data fields and confirm them by pressing Enter.