Help: Getting a corkscrew shape spline to follow a path?

[danb4026]

I have to make a curtain that is composed of a series of corkscrew shaped metal wires falling from the ceiling to the floor. My thinking is the create the curtain shape from vertical spines that I shape the way I want them and then take a helix spline and have it follow those lines as paths.

 

Is there a way to have the corkscrew splines follow the spine paths so that the corkscrews maintain their radius's throught the length of the splines. If I increase the length of the path, the corkscrews follow and just become longer without deforming?

 

Hope I explained that ok. See image of metal mesh

 

[Scott Schroeder]

Create the shape you need and the path you want it to follow, then get the railclone lite (or pro if you have the extra money) plugin. (http://www.itoosoft.com/railclone.php)

 

Or, you can create your shape and path, then use the spacing tool. Though, railclone is far superior to the standard spacing tool in max.

[danb4026]

Hey Scott, I actually own Railclone Pro, but don't know how to utilize it for this.

[Scott Schroeder]

It's fairly simple. You can either create a single helix or a sheet of them. I tested this with a single helix and it worked pretty well though a sheet would probably look a little more realistic. It all depends on the look you want to go for. Once you get your helix created, create the shape of the curtain.

 

Use railclone as you normally would, except do not use your helix under default. Change default to none and use your helix shape under "Evenly" and use it in the segment. Set your evenly distance to what you need. For example, I created rings 4" wide, so my distance was 3" which gave me a little overlap to show the metal was interconnected.

[Stephen Thomas]

Make it on the flat, then use a path deform modifier to make it follow the spline.