array "follow spline"
hi, what a hack to do an array of an object along a spline. in 3dsmax its a one click thing , even "get object rotation from spline". in blender you have to match origins, do array modifier, do curve modifier or even instance objects to get it done at edges.
why not an easy to handle "follow spline" value in the array modifier
that would be great.
thanks a lot for your great work!
7 Comments
You should look into using geometry nodes instead.
This is a good idea, in my opinion, I agree. Array modifier already has 3 different offset types, and you can get pretty crazy, albeit circular, "curves" with the object modifier.
Geometry nodes feature does exist, but it's quite unwieldy, compared to just throwing on the modifier for making one thing into many things, checking a box, and specifying a curve.
One doesn't have to build a complex node setup each time you want to do a thing. There are tons of prebuilt setups out there, which can be used as a simple drag-drop modifier with settings available.
...And that implies needing to be going out, finding, downloading, and accumulating a personal collection library of this stuff from random third parties on the internet. First time around you need to do this specific task, you probably wouldn't have the geometry nodes setup downloaded for this yet; and at a later time you might fail to find it within the dropdown across many other things you have accumulated also.
I'd rather have Blender itself be more feature complete, rather than argue for stagnation because presets on the internet exist.
I feel like this kind of a function, as suggested in the post, would mesh well with what the array modifier already has?
That is a requirement, yes.
And given that Blender is focusing more on extending the nodes feature, and not worrying with the legacy modifiers, it's best if one gets comfortable with it. In addition, the work currently being done to include more asset setups within Blender by default will make this somewhat easier in the future.
That's fair, I guess. I sure hope so! The convenience of this limited, well marked and named set of modifiers, compared to a big ol' pile of random nodetrees of varying quality from the internet, is something I hope will be preserved into the future.
look into instance on points/curve gn tutorials