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Using blueprints with Spline Patch 2.5 & Cinema 4D
Spline Patch is a great plug-in for patch modeling a car using blueprints, but for the life of me I can’t seem to align the top, right, and front views properly so that when I place a spline (or point) in one view it shows up at the corresponding place in the other views. I’ve followed all the instructions (placing a Null Object at a common point and then moving the views by changing the Offset X or Y in the Back view in Configure but there must be something I’m missing. Any tips on best practices for working with blueprints in Cinema, with or without Spline Patch?
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5 Replies
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I think that the following steps are the best way to get blueprints aligned:-
1. Make sure you have found accurate blueprints.
2. Use a program like photoshop to cut out each view as a separate rectangular picture.
3. Put the appropriate pictures in their respective views inside cinema 4d
4. Use a cube primitive to align blueprints.
5. Start with the side view: Use scale operation on the cube to align it perfectly to the side view
6. Go to the top view: Use scale operation on the cube again to align it perfectly to the top view.
7. Once you have done 2 views, you cannot touch the cube anymore. So now you go to the front view and scale down your picture uniformly(NOT THE CUBE). If the blueprints are perfect you will see that the image will scale down to fit the cube. At max, you may need to offset the picture by some pixels.
8. Repeat step 7 for the rear view.
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Thanks so much for the tip! I think I’ve been trying for 3 years to line up points in all four views for patch modeling, to no avail, so I’ll certainly give your method a try. So you’re saying to scale up a cube in the side and top views to fit the rectangular shape of your blueprint that you’ve sized over in Photoshop. Then scale down your blueprint in the other views to match the cube. I’ll let you know if this does the trick. Thanks again!
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Yes thats correct. Just make sure that when you are cutting out individual views in photoshop, cut out the exact size that you need.
For example if this is the blueprint,
then the side view should be
Notice how i have cropped just the pixels i need (edge to edge) and no extra white space. Do the same thing while cutting out all the other views and if the blueprints are perfect then it will get aligned beautifully using the process i described 🙂
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Thanks so much, Arindam, for responding to a message I left nearly 4 years ago! It’s a problem I still haven’t solved, though I have tried several similar methods. Yours is somewhat different, though, so I’ll let you know if it finally gets through this thick skull of mine and I move further along in my C4D modeling skills.
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No worries Ron. I myself have faced similar problems while trying to align blueprints and its all because of the help I’ve received on forums like this, that I’ve been able to solve them. Just trying to give back. If u face any further problems, do let me know. I’ll try and put up a video demonstrating the idea.
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