[Brian Jones]

Matrix Extrude it looks like. The directions they go seem to be controlled by the order the polygons are made in. You have to go into the Structure manager to see it but if you go into Polygon mode it shows you which order the vertexes were used in to make the polygon. You can’t influence the order in the Structure manager but if you delete a poly and remake it with the Polygon Pen tool you can make the matrix extrude go a different direction.
I tried that here with two cubes (one a copy of the other) – I removed the front face on one and remade it using the polygon pen making sure the vertexes I used were in a different order and this is the result using the matrix extrude with the same settings (the default)

I think if you are dealing with the built in objects they are made in an ordered way so the matrix extrude gives ordered results – if you are making things by hand you have to be careful about what vertex you start with and whether you are going clockwise or anti-clockwise as you make a poly. I don’t even know what the various tools (i.e. Stitch and Sew etc) do, I assume they are pretty orderly too but haven’t tested. If you don’t have too many polys to do you could just rotate them until you get what you want but if it’s a lot of them…

[Brian Jones]

the noise is just the noise, loop it and the noise loops. It’s the Shader effector which controls whether the noise is translated into position, rotation or scale… I assume I’m not understanding what your meaning is, can you post the file (or an example file)?

[Brian Jones]

Sure, most of the noises will loop – from the Help “Loop Period
This setting is available for almost all types of noise, with the exception of Electric, Gaseous, Random and Wavy Turbulence, and will loop the noise in accordance with the time in seconds defined (Animation Speed) must not be set to 0). A value of 0 will turn this effect off. Note that, internally, the animation speed can then be adjusted accordingly and therefore change.”. So as long as you are not using Electric, Gaseous, Random or Wavy Turbulence you just set the loop period to the length (in seconds) of the loop you want.

[Brian Jones]

you can’t turn an object into hair but you could replace the bristles with hair (which can render as objects) or do it with dynamics with the bristles that are there already. Check out this thread https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/19/892012#892012

[Brian Jones]

i see the same issue but I don’t know if that is a bug or a feature. Report it since it’s changed since 17. Easy to fix though (don’t drag the first point off 0 just add a new point).

[Brian Jones]

you can use the Data node but the cube needs to be in a Fracture object set to Explode Segments or Explode Segments & Connect, then the expresso becomes:
Fracture-(Object)—–(Object)-Data-(Global Matrix)—–(Global Matrix)-Target Sphere

[Brian Jones]

the Transform Space in the Plain Effector/Parameter settings needs to be Object or Effector not Node (which is the default) then it will do what you want

[Brian Jones]

it was in the Functions Menu long ago, now it’s in Mesh/Conversion menu, if the menus are different in Lite then if the Find Command thing is active try Shift-C and type ‘connect’ into the little dialog that pops up.

[Brian Jones]

ah, it’s a word, should have guessed with the B1 and B2. You can have any number of spline masks nested and could do all of what you want (probably) but there is likely a much better way – multiple splines inside each other (like the holes in the “B”) form holes in an Extrude work when they are all one spline – to combine a number of splines into one use the Connect command. Just select the objects you want to connect and right-click and choose Connect (or Connect and Delete to get rid of the original bits)

here’s an example (much simpler font) with one where the word is made of all the splines separate and a second (a direct copy) where I did nothing but select all the splines and do a Connect and Delete.

This will work for whole words or letter by letter.

[Brian Jones]

assuming the Spline Mask is the same in Lite as in studio (probably) it should be the settings in the spline mask when you have it selected. Mode for the first spline mask (which contains the Bakery spline) should be B Subtract A assuming the bakery spline is the big one you are cutting parts out from. And the second spline mask which will contain the two smaller (I assume) splines B1 and B2 should have it’s mode set to Union

Spline Mask (B subtract A)
— Spline Mask (Union)
——B1
——B2
—Bakery