Caps
These options can be used to define which caps surfaces should be generated. If no caps surfaces are generated, no bevels can be made. Caps surfaces can generally only be generated in conjunction with closed lines. Note also that for the following options for creating caps surfaces and their chamfers, lines generated via Scene Nodes do not contain any intermediate point interpolation or tangents. Legacy spline objects can, however, be used in conjunction with a Classic Object Import Node.
This option can be enabled if you want to define different bevel settings for Start and End. A second set of parameters will be made available. Otherwise, the same bevel will be made at Start and End.
The transition from caps surfaces to the hull can be rounded in almost any way. Here you can select from the following options:
- Round: The transition will be rounded (the Radius can be defined via the Shape Depth setting, even until it is concave (negative value.
- Curve: The transition will be defined using a freely definable curve (see below).
- Step: The transition will be stepped. The number of steps is defined using the Segments value.
- Solid: This will not actually create a bevel as such but will create subdivisions – defined using the Segments value – in the bevel region defined by the Size value, which will create a rounding in conjunction with a generator in a Subdivision Surface object.
Here you can define the subdivision within the bevel. Depending on the complexity of the bevel shape, this value will have to be increased in order to produce a clean result. A value of 1 will produce a straight chamfer (exception: Bevel Shape set to Step).
If this option is enabled, the caps surfaces will be extruded by the value defined for Height.
If this Shape is selected, the curve can almost be defined freely. Here are a few examples:
This setting defines the curvature of the bevel surface. Negative values will create a concave and positive values a convex surface. If set to 0% (or Segments = 1), a miter will be generated.
If Height and Size are set to 0, the following effect will result: The caps surface will be extruded outwards and the Shape Depth defines the curve’s amplitude.
This setting defines the subdivision for the bevel. Depending on the complexity of the bevel shape (e.g., Shape is set to Curve), this value might have to be increased in order to produce a better result. A value of 1 will produce a straight miter (exception: Shape is set to Step).
If this option is enabled, Phong break edges (see Phong break selection) can be created at the start and end of the bevel surface. The transitions from hull/caps to the bevel surfaces will then be somewhat more accentuated.
This rather inconspicuous option provides a very practical functionality. If you remember what caps/roundings looked like in previous versions you will know that larger roundings often resulted in intersections in the mesh, which made them unusable. In the rare event that this should occur, this option can be enabled to avoid this.
Here you can define how the mesh should shape the caps surfaces.
Quadrangles/Triangles represent the Cinema 4D modes prior to R21, which generated quads (if possible) or triangles, respectively. N-Gons will generate a single polygon, which will look like Quadrangles internally.
The first 3 modes will not generate any new points on the caps surfaces. The result: long triangles will be created that can be problematic for shading or deformations.
As a rule of thumb: If the caps surface will not be deformed you can use n-gons, otherwise use Delaunay. Note also the subdivision of the splines that can be affected by their Intermediate Points setting. It is often useful to set this to Uniform, which will also subdivide linear spline sections, which is imperative for deformations.
Delaunay will add a mesh to the caps surfaces with similar inner angles, which will prevent long, bothersome triangles from being generated. These types of meshes can be easily deformed without producing unwanted atefacting.
If Regular Grid is selected, the Size setting will be made available. This value defines the size of the polygons on the caps surface.
When creating caps surface triangles, the triangles’ size on the outer and inner edges is initially defined by the subdivision (Intermediate Points) of the base spline as long as they work with Spline objects. Lines generated in the Scene Editor are otherwise always interpolated linearly. Therefore, in these cases, the distribution and size of the random polygons only depend on the distance between the spline points.
The triangles can increase in size approaching the interior (in some cases they can become smaller). As usual, it’s a good idea to have as few polygons as possible. The following distribution of polygons results from a uniform spline subdivision:
Enable this option to generate 4-sided polygons. No caps surface points will be modified. Some triangles, however, will be generated so that you will not only have 4-sided polygons.