Radial Bend

Clicking on an object with the Radial Bend tool displays the deformation controls. Radial Bend deforms an object by radially bending the deformation axis, which is perpendicular to the base reference plane. The radial bend is applied to the selected end of the deformation axis, while the opposite end remains fixed. As the mouse is moved, the shape radially bends in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, following a circular bending track that is displayed and is subdivided in degrees. The orientation of the bend may be rotated around the deformation axis. This is done through the rotation handle attached at the bottom of the axis. When this control is activated by clicking on it, an additional rotational track is displayed to assist you with the positioning of the rotation.

 

 

The bending operation may be executed graphically or numerically. When applied graphically, with the tool active you click on an object and you then manipulate the different controls to produce the desired result. As you do this, the values in the fields of the Tool Options palette are adjusted to reflect the new values that resulted from the manipulation of the controls. Alternatively, you can type new values in the Tool Options fields and then click on the object with the Radial Bend tool. The object is bent immediately according to the values in the Tool Options palette. The two methods (graphic and numeric) can be freely mixed.

 

The options in the Tool Options palette are as follows:

 

Bend Angle: This value, which is in degrees, specifies the amount of radial bend to be applied. The angle can be positive or negative (clockwise or counterclockwise direction).

 

Axis Angle: This value, which is in degrees, specifies the orientation of the deformation axis. It can be positive or negative (clockwise or counterclockwise).

 

Position: The three buttons in this group of options specify the portion of the object to be bent.

Top: When this button is selected, which is the default, the top of the object is bent, while the bottom stays fixed.

 

Center: With this button on, the top and bottom of the object are bent, while the center stays fixed.

 

Bottom: The bottom of the object is bent, while the top stays fixed.

Base Reference Plane: This option allows you to specify the reference plane that will be used as the base plane. The Active Plane option is the default and uses the reference plane from the active window. The XY, YZ, and ZX options use the corresponding Cartesian reference planes. These options are useful when one wishes to work in a projection view.

 

Lower, Upper: These two text fields determine the lower and upper limits of the deformation box. The value in Lower is the percentage of the height of the object at which the lower limit is initially placed. The value in Upper likewise determines the upper limit of the deformation box. The defaults for these are 0% and 100%, respectively, which contains the entire object. A common use of these fields would be to deform just the top half of an object. To do so, you would set the lower limit to 50% and the upper to 100%. The upper and lower limits can also be specified graphically by dragging the arrow controls.

 

Show Object: This option determines whether the actual object or the bounding box is displayed during tracking. The default is to display the actual object being deformed. For large, complex objects, displaying the bounding box enhances the performance.