spacing tool...max 8

fritz

hello, i'm trying to have some rivot like detail fit the contours of some armor. this should be easy w/the spacing tool and a spline right? however the little rivot peices keep there same rotational position. i would like to know if there is anyway keep them all flush w/the faces of the armor. this make sense? i'll try to wip up an image for clarity.

this is what i'm NOT wanting to happen.


i need each little cylinder to snap to the large peice of geo so it comes out like rivets flush with it. please excuse the crude nature of the example

cheers

Rhinokey

i did something like this at work yesterday to line a bunc of skulls around a giant blood fountain, i made the spline , selected the object then in the animation tab >constraints>prath constraints, selected the path, if you scrub the animation slider you should see it follow the path, theres some controlls in the modify pannel, to make it follow the path, and for banking, mess with those. oh also the pivot of your object has a lot to do with how it snaps to the spline to follow it,

after the piece is zoomin around the path alligned properly , go tools, then snapshot, and mess with that to get it to clone the object at intrivels around the path.

there may be an easy way but this is how i've always done this. and its quick enough for me

fritz

thanks Rhinokey. i will try that first thing in the morning.

cheers man!!!!!!

fritz

OK...actually i went ahead and gave it a try. everything works just like you said...except, i get lost where you mentioned the "controls in the modify panel. everything works fine...however the shape(rivot) still retains its local rotation ie: the cylinders are still staight up and down.

CodeFather

The important option in this case is "Fallow" (in both spacing tool and path constrain), it should be turned on ...Try the different axis. If it still retains the same orientation...I don't know, try to put reset Xform on the objects