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Chapter 12: Drawing and Editing 2D Splines and Shapes

Tutorial: Using Connect Copy to create a simple flower
Connect Copy is one of the features that you’ll use and wonder how you ever got along without it. For this
tutorial, you create a simple flower from a circle shape using the Connect Copy feature.
To create a simple flower using the Connect Copy feature, follow these steps:
1. Select Create ➪ Shapes ➪ Circle, and drag in the Top viewport to create a simple circle shape.
2. Right-click on the circle, and select Convert to ➪ Editable Spline to convert the shape.
3. In the Modifier Stack, select the Segment subobject mode (keyboard shortcut, 2) and enable the
Connect option in the Connect Copy section.
4. Select one of the circle segments, and with the Shift key held down, drag it outward away from
the circle. Then repeat this step for each segment.
Figure 12.29 shows the results. With the Connect Copy option, you don’t need to worry about the
connecting lines.

FIGURE 12.29
The Connect Copy feature joins newly copied segments to the original.

Surface Properties
For segment and spline subobjects, you can access a Surface Properties rollout that lets you assign a
Material ID to the subobject. These Material IDs are used with the Multi/Sub-object Material available in the
Material Editor. For example, suppose you’ve created a road from a bunch of splines that are part of the
same object. You can assign one Material ID for the lines at the edge of the road that will be the curb and a

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