Hi jpaluck - basically flow will map the same relationship your object has to the line on to the new curve.

So if you have some margin area like the line sticking out past the end of the object by some bit, you will have a corresponding margin on the target curve.

To avoid that, reposition your line so that it is ending flush with your object, then the object will have the same relation flush to the target curve as well.

Also in your example model, you've got your object pointing upwards - remember I wrote previously in this thread that there's a bug you can run into currently unless you've got both curves to use in Flow positioned to be down in the world x/y plane - so if you run into a problem try rotating your currently vertical object and line 90 degrees down so that it is in the world x/y plane. The bug actually does not seem to be kicking in for this particular case though anyway.

Another thing is that you generally want to have the line traverse the entire length of your object - if you select your line, you can see that you've only got it going partway along the object and not all the way:



Think of the line as if it was the "spinal column" of your object - a spinal column should run the entire length of the object, not just sticking a little ways through it.

Then the result of flow is that it remaps your object on to a different spinal column, with the new deformed object being in relation to the new spine the same as it relates to the base spine.

There are also 2 different modes for curve-to-curve flow - the default mode maps "distance traveled along base spine" to the same distance traveled along the target spine.

The other mode is matching "percentage of curve length traveled along base spine" to percentage along the other one - that's controlled by the "Stretch" checkbox which is one of the options that you can turn on or off in the final stage of the Flow command.


It sounds like you want to map your object to fit within the entire length of the target curve, so to do that make sure your base line is traversing the entire length of the object instead of only sticking halfway through it, and then set the "Stretch" option so that the line will be mapped to the entire length of the target curve.

Does that help? Please let me know if you are still stuck.

- Michael