- [Instructor] In NX, we have a tool called Studio Spline.
Within Studio Spline, under the Curve tab,
we have a couple of ways that we can create splines.
We have Through Points and By Poles.
With the Through Points option, I'm going to come in,
specify the plane that I want to draw on.
This case, it's going to be the XY plane.
And once I've done that,
I can begin dropping points out in space
where I want those through points to go.
Now, you'll notice that I get these hard corners
through those points on that spline,
and the reason is, is because I have a Degree set to 1.
With this, if I increase that Degree,
I'm increasing the amount of math
per each one of those segments.
And with that, I'm able to get a smoother spline
running through those points.
If I come in now, select this down arrow, and say By Poles,
you'll notice I get a little message that pops up,
and it's telling me that the spline cannot be constrained
in the prior manner that it was.
The math has changed.
I have six poles, it's a three-degree,
so I know it's a multiple segment spline.
So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn on Single Segment,
and you can see that,
as soon as I go into Single Segment with those six poles,
it radically changes the shape of that spline.
The reason behind it is, is because forcing a spline
that once had multiple segments,
those invisible segments across knot points,
to now be removed and form a single spline.
And with that, this is the simplest,
smoothest possible condition for this spline.
If I reduce the Degree,
I'm going to remove some of those control points,
and now I have a third-degree
or a fourth-order spline.
You can see I can move those control points around.
I can go down to a second-degree or a third-order spline.
Move that control up around.
And again, it's constrained to that plane.
And here, if I begin to increase,
you'll notice that it adds those control points.
If I right-mouse-click on a control point,
I can also add the degree here.
I can insert a pole, Previous or Next.
So, if I go Previous, you'll see it puts it in between
the prior pole and itself.
And once again, I have that kind of control more localized
because I have a lot more of those control points
to that area.
And again, it's constrained to that plane,
so I don't have to worry of it coming off of that plane.
Going to select OK.
If I rotate the part a little bit
and I go back into Studio Spline,
specify the plane that I want to draw on,
and this time, I'll just start out with By Poles,
leave Single Segment turned on and drawing away,
you'll notice that I don't get
those little hard points, those corners.
It knows it's a single segment.
It knows, based off of how many control points
I've created or picked,
that it's going to be, in this case, a third-degree.
If I select another control point,
you'll see that it ups that Degree.
So, there's a lot of things going on
automatically within the tool
based off of your selections.
So, if you want a third-degree curve,
you have to either change this to be a multi-segment spline,
which adds a lot of complexity,
or remove one of those control points
to take it back down to that third-degree.
So, it's one of those things.
You're going to have to find a balance
as you're working through that spline operator.