3D Tube design using splines.

[anthony_balducci]

Hi, so I am trying to lay out some flexible tubing for a concept design.

I've tried to watch some tutorials on Youtube on how to do this, starting with a 3D sketch and a spline-- followed by either a pipe or a sweep as appropriate.

However, I'm having a hell of a time trying to move my vertices around in a sane way in 3D space. In the end I want neatly curved tubing-- not some roller coaster ride.

One thing that might help, rather than 'graphically selecting it', once I select a vertex to move, is there a key command to tell it whether I am moving on the X/Y/Z plane ?

Also, it doesn't seem to allow me to move the end points for my spline at all (??) 

If anyone has any suggestions and/or links to good tutorials that would really help.

Best,

-A

[wersy · Accepted solution]

Did you watch this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x08j2GguhI

[anthony_balducci]

@wersy Hmmm... no actually I hadn't. I had been mostly looking for pipe/tubing tutorials, but since this is conceptual anyways wire is the same thing (Adafruit is great BTW).

But yes, this helped a lot, especially the mention of creating specific end points for the spline to start with. Also, not mentioned in the video, in certain cases I also had to make sure to remove any plane constraints to make sure all my vertices were fully editable.

Result is looking 'more sane' now:

Thanks a lot.