Array follow a mesh?

DarthNater

I feel stupid for asking such an elementary question but how do you make an object follow the surface of a mesh? For example say I wanted to rivet a piece of airplane, I would create the rivet mesh, create an array of that rivet and have it follow the metal plate mesh perfectly.

I've seen it done before, but I forget what its called... Let the flaming begin :P

glib

Which package?

DarthNater

Max 2010

Sorry I posted that on my phone and could barely make out what I wrote, forgot I didn't mention...

Ark

You can extract a spline from the mesh you want the model to follow, then use the snapshot tool to duplicate the object along the spline.

DarthNater

Thanks Ark, I'll try that. I thought I saw a video tutorial once where a guy was moving a cube around the surface of a sphere though... .Looks like all he did was had a modifier on the cube. I'll have to do some searching.

Mark Dygert

Depends on how you want them placed and if you plan on editing the geometry after they're placed.

Option 1: Align Tool, Normal Align.
- Select the rivet,
- Click Align set it to Normal Align.
- Click drag on the surface of the rivet this will give you a blue arrow, think of this as needle part of a thumbtack the arrow will stick into the mesh of the desenation object.
- Then click drag on the surface of the destenation object and its placed but not attached and you'll have to use Align again to reposition it or just nudge it around like normal.

Option 2: Attachment Constraint (look this one up in the help file)
Applying the attachment constraint on the rivet will allow you to pick a surface, and the rivet will stick it to, you then define the position on the mesh. It will forever follow that spot on the mesh unless the mesh geometry changes or you break the constraint. You can use the same trick Ark talked about "snapshot" if you're happy with the placement and want to break the constraint.
- To place more rivets you clone the first (which copies the attachment constraint also) and set a new position. Not as tedious as the Align Tool but still a little manual.

Option 2: Object Painter script.
This is my personal favorite.
You add objects to a "paint with" library and then add objects to a "paint on" library. Then click place it rivet by rivet or set the spacing and paint strips of rivets along the surface.
Neil Blevins has a great set of scripts one of them is a great object painter script.

DarthNater

THANK YOU VIG!

It was attachment contraint that I saw perviously.

Here is the video I saw if anyone is interested: http://3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/video_attachment_constraint/constraint.php

Thanks again, vig. I'll have to check out that paint script too, it sounds a lot easier