Manipulating a Blend Surface

You can manipulate blend surfaces using handles and different mouse menu settings.

Handles are available at start and end of Rail A and Rail B and, in case of Surf Type Parallel Curves (N) at start and end of the input curves between Rail A and Rail B.

In case of blend surfaces created from surface edges, two different types of handles are available:

  • Limitation handles parallel to the rails to shrink the blend surface along the rails.
  • Offset handles perpendicular to the rails to create a Boundary Offset (uniform), see Using Explicit Controls on Blend Surfaces.

Important: With the mouse menu, the settings for parallel and perpendicular running handles are specified individually!

Before you begin: Open a 3DShape containing a blend surface created from curves and a blend surface created from surface edges.
See Also
About Creating Surfaces from Curves
Manipulating a Blend Surface
  1. Create a blend surface as described before.
  2. Move the pointer onto a handle until it is highlighted.
  3. Press Alt + right click to activate the mouse menu to define the handles' activity.
  4. Set the mouse menu to west .
    You can move the selected handle only.

  5. Set the mouse menu to east .
    You can move all shrink or offset handles synchronously at start or end of the rails.

  6. Set the mouse menu to south .
    You can move the selected handle and the handle at the opposite rail, or the handle perpendicular to the rail and the handle at the opposite rail.

  7. Set the mouse menu to north .
    You can move the selected handle row and the handle row at the opposite rail.

    Note: If you previously created a boundary offset using the mouse menu setting west or south , the behavior of north and east setting is as follows:

    • Dragging the center handle moves all three handles synchronously by the same amount.

    • Dragging one of the side handles moves the center handle by half the amount.

  8. Click one of the point handles to reverse the direction of the modified control point rows.