So, every time i think I know which direction the outline will “go” I am wrong and have to undo and do the opposite (i.e. +4 vs. -4)
Is this just arbirtary or is there a way to know before committing?
I can’t seem to always be right and it is annoying to have to backtrack (even a little step) so much when outlining splines.
Thanks in advance.
cant you select the spline and choose ‘reverse’?
yes…it’s just for when I want to outline a line by e.g. 6" I select my spline (in sub-object mode) and type in “6” in the outline text box and hit enter. Now at that point, seems my odds are 50/50 whether it goes to side A or side B. Just trying to avoid the guesswork and accompanying corrections.
Not a problem if I’m just eyeballing the outline amount.
Sorry if this is not clear…I will put up a pic.
Thanks!
Its based on the UV direction of the spline (where spline’s start and where its finish), i.e. if you drew spline left to right (in the side view) then the positive direction will be +Z
ah, ok
Yeah I don’t know if there’s a way to set all splines to go a certain direction - in this situation of outlining multiple splines, I click and drag to create the outline first, to see what directions they’re going. right click to cancel. For any that are going the opposite direction, I select and ‘reverse’, until they all act the same.
good question though..
Okay, that’s exactly what I do! And would love to avoid the randomness because whenever (almost every time?) I use the outline for a specific value, I end up doing twice the steps I feel necessary.
So, outlining 30 splines becomes +/- 60 movements instead of just 30.
Thanks again for your inputs.
sounds like if you’re tracing, then keep the tracing consistent, either clockwise or counterclockwise for all of them to maintain the same directional properties.
Oh, then it is similar to AutoCAD…well, I’ll keep trying and thanks for the tips guys.
You could turn on “Display-Show vertex numbers” this would tell you which way the spline was going; cw or ccw. That would give you a clue but I’ll admit it doesn’t really streamline the workflow 
I guess a clever scripting bod could write a “unify spline direction” script…
Would be nice to somehow RESET it
Sometimes I have a bunch of spline segments as one spline for curbs or islands on a road. Select all segments one shot and outline. Some segments goes inwards and at the same time others go outwards
You can reset it by creating a single segment spline, attach your spline, delete the other subobject. There are prolly scripts to do that i guess. If you do that on a bunch of splines using the same input spline you should end up with all beeing equally oriented.
Regards,
Thorsten
Cool thanks for the tip Thorsten!
For me, I wish it would behave as AutoCAD. You type “O” for offset, press “enter”, next enter your offset value, click mouse on the side you want it to go toward…Finished. Maybe it’s too simple for Max 
Yes loft is also much better in AutoCAD than max. Can do things with it that max was never able to
Yeah, I miss having AutoCAD. Oh well, eventually…
