This is what I have always done. I think there are other ways.
- create a simple 'set motion' animation as follows:
Place a cylinder at the origin 0, 0, 0 (this is a must) then plot out a CV curve. In the 'set motion' option box, enter the # of cylinders you require in the End Frame field to, say 30 as in my example. Pick the cylinder first then go to Anim > 'set motion' to activate the tool. If done correctly, the colour of the cylinder should change to magenta. Next, as prompted, select the curve A. You should see that the cylinder has moved to the beginning of the curve. You can go to the main menu Animation > Playback to ensure that the set motion animation has been created.
- now go to Surface > Swept surfaces > Anim sweep and pick the animated curve with the obj. The Anim sweep tool takes a snapshot of the curve at each step of the animation, creating a series of cylinders, in this case 30 cylinders. Voila!
You can delete the curve afterwards and be left with the cylinders.
Edited by: Don Estabrooks on Mar 30, 2009 7:38 PM