How do I extend surfaces in v2? Say I've created a cylinder, and all I want to do is extend ONE surface side. For this example it could be the back end of a pipe that needs to be longer, so the other end MUST stay where it is.

I've tried selecting the end cap and moving, select the edges and moving. Select the surfaces and scale 1D. Nothing.

My workaround is select the cap and extrude then boolean union. This still leaves a seam edge though which I don't like.

Suggestions?

Hi Jason,

Try the Edit size when you have the cylinder selected See PNG file:




Try the Scale 1D command under the transform tab. This is what I usually use. See PNG file:




Michael T.

Hi Jason, usually the method is to just delete your current surface and then create a new one that has the length that you want.

In general with trimmed NURBS surfaces you can't just pull edges around as you can in a poly modeler, because often times the edges you see are not the natural edges of the "underlying surface", but instead are trim curves that are marking different areas of the surface as cut away areas like holes.

There is some description of this in this FAQ answer here:
http://moi3d.com/wiki/FAQ#Q:_Why_does_show_points_work_for_some_objects_but_not_others.3F

That has some illustrations that show what an "underlying surface" means and what trim edges are.


If the edge that you want to move does actually correspond to a natural edge of the underlying surface (which will actually be the case for a cylinder end), then you can move it by editing the surface's control points. To make the surface control points visible, you'll need to use Edit > Separate on your object to make the surface a single independent surface not joined to anything else, then the "Show pts" command will work on it (this is described in the FAQ link above as well) and then you can grab the end set of points and move them around. If you have any cuts in the middle of the cylinder those cuts will deform and pull with the control point editing though. That's why just drawing in a new surface is often the way to go. Also in v2 there is the size editor (which Michael T shows above) that should recognize that a surface is a cylinder and let you edit its length, and also Scale1D can do the same thing also. With Scale1D make sure to set the origin point of the scale at the end that you want to keep fixed in place. If you're having problems with this then please post your model file so I can show you a demo on your particular model.

In the future I do want to have an extension mechanism that would let you pull some faces around without deforming holes - this is a somewhat difficult thing to set up though.

If you are still having problems could you please post the 3DM model file so that I could see exactly what your particular situation is and possibly give some more targeted advice? That actually helps in general if you would post the 3DM file along with your question so I can see exactly what you've got.

- Michael