Spline Modeling from Splines to Surface to Patch

Experiment with the click/start [initial] and drag [move with mouse down] types.

The shift key will ‘break’ the bezier handles into a corner bezier.

You might need to use move axis constraints to wake up the handles ... F5 thru F8

Under Selection rollout you can “Lock Handles” so a corner angle will move together, so to speak.

Make sure Area Selection is On. By default it is off.

When Weld Coincident Endpoints is On, and 3D Snap is On, you can attach one endpoint vertex to another by dragging it to the second vertex.

Right click properties to show Vertex Ticks.

Angle Snap – you can use Vertex or Endpoint to fuse lines you are creating.

After building out your “Cage” convert all the created corner points to Smooth.

Make a reference Clone of your cage.

Apply surface Modifier ... make the threshold 1.0 or less. This is related to the scale of the object.

Patch Topology: make 2.0. this sets up the number of subdivisions of the surface ... we do not want more than is required.

Create lines to make 3 or 4 sided in the original spline and observe the surface reference copy build out.

You can convert your stack to an Editable Patch, or, Add an Edit Patch modifier to the top of the stack.

Here, you will be able to use the handles sub-object mode, and, under the Geometry Rollout, set the surface steps [topology] and view interior patches.

A tip on aligning the center vertices

Select all the center vertices in Front View

Set to Non-Uniform Scaling, Transform to Use Selection Center

Scale X to 0%

A tip on aligning to axes

You will be constantly using these shortcut keys:

F2 wireframe on and off so you can see below the surface

F5, F6, etc. to constrain handles to an axis.

Look in all viewports

Just like poly modeling, you can easily get lost on what is happening unless you can see the movements of handles in 3d space.

A tip on limiting the number of confusing vertices you see

Make a ‘blocker box” to intersect the middle of the model, so you can only see the side you are working on.

Relax!

Add a relax modifier, it will help ... or better yet ...

Add an Edit Patch modifier and use Relax under the surface properties rollout ...

The Relax Value will probably be 1, depending on what sort of something you are looking for ... the iterations have a subtle effect, do not use anything higher than you need.

You can also Patch Smooth ...

Control your surface View and Render Steps ... the highest number is not always the best ...