In 3ds Max I could make splines (curves) and they were renderable with various settings such as number of sides and sub divisions. Is there a way to do that in blender? Maybe lifting splines or something?
What about importing splines? Dae and fbx don’t seem to import them. They come in as empties.
If you create a curve in blender you have the options of setting just that. The bevel depth and the resolution then once it has geometry you can make it an editable mesh as well with alt+c.
You can select half, front, back, and full for the sides on the “spline” and from there you can select the depth you want the sides to be, then select the resolution you want them to be as well.
Once happy with your curve and you no further need to change it’s curved shape you can then make it a mesh with alt+c mesh from curve, that will now make the verticies in the curve able to be manipulated individually.
Also another handy tip that may relate. If you have a curve object, set its object view mode to wire and all wires. Then you can preview the mesh that it’ll actually create when converted. Useful for dialing in your U and bevel resolution settings, as well as seeing how the curves control points affect density. In some cases you can get things to line up for welding or at least bridge in a way that produces nice quads.
