Well, I have set about trying the flow command Michael and in my opinion it is a brilliant routine, I tried my one on a helix as I thought it would give it a good test with relation to change in direction and twist both ways.

Big smiles at my end, here is my first test.

then "unwrapcurve" on the helix and setup the base to match the full length of the helix to get a result without distorting your little nubs there.....

You must have been reading my mind. as that is my next venture, calculating the length to set the base surface length and width to.

Amazing command though, just tried to flow a helix on a helix, and that works also, but as you say the actual length and width parameters will have to come into play with a finished size flow object.

Hi Michael, in some cases you may want to flow a curve path and then do a sweep around that deformed curve path rather than doing the sweep before the flow.

- other Michael

Just tried that method now Michael, works much better for that particular case.

Hope you realise how many more all nights you have just added to my schedule, but am very happy to explore the potential of this particular command.

Many thanks for the feedback everyone, and don't ever lose that "Moment Of Inspiration" Michael, as it has inspired so many others already.

Here is a new version of the helix on helix after using the UnwrapCurve command.

Well my last post on the test images for now, don't want to use all the forum space up.

The flow command is totally awesome!
Making swoopy sweeps is butter smooth.

Dries

Cool render and form!

Hi all

I came across a flow problem that I think is related to my lack of understanding :)
My wife asked me if I could convert a flat tree of life pendant I designed for her into a half ball
Naturally I said no problem I'll just flow it onto half sphere using surfac flow

Boy was I wrong :) I get all sorts of messed up surfaces has the flow reaches the edge of the half sphere

I'm on the train now so can't post files/images :)
Cheers stephen

Hi Steve, I may need to see your actual file or some screenshots later on in order to really give you a proper suggestion.

It's possible that you may want to make a different kind of surface than a regular sphere as the target object though - a regular sphere in MoI is a surface that squishes down into a "pole" area at the top and bottom, and things that you flow will also get squished in those same areas where the surface is collapsing down to a single point too. The deformation follows the surface structure basically.

You may need to build a custom sort of "cup" like surface using Sweep instead of using the regular default sphere-with-pole surface. Something like this I mean:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1782.4

Also if you want the deformation to work more like it's dropping down to a local area of the sphere rather than wrapping across the entire surface, there is a "projective" mode for surface-to-surface flow that can work better for that, but you would use it for getting just some curvature onto the end result not a major amount like going to a half ball. Some examples of projective mode here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5936.2

- Michael

Hmmm

Here is a screen shot of what I was getting the other night...







But tonight I'm not getting these bad surfaces.... but I deleted yesterdays file and started again now I can replicate the problem..... I must have done something wrong.....

Hi Steve, it can cause problems if you're using a sphere for the target surface and have objects that are right at that "pole" area where the sphere collapses down to a single point.

That might possibly be the problem... If it's not that I'd need to see a 3DM file with your objects in them in order to give you some better feedback on what's going on there.

- Michael