Gap Shuffle
shortcut yg
in edit curve mode, and depending on your menu keymap
The Gap Shuffle tool is used to move the gap between a spline's two end points to a different position within the spline, without changing any of the spline point's locations.
By default the tool will make a spline cyclic, if it isn't already.
Gap Shuffling is especially useful when using Blendulate with cyclic splines, but may have other use cases too.
If there are existing radii/arcs/blends on the active spline, the tool will attempt to find the outlier segments - based on their length - and will prioritze them, when cycling through and previewing the new gap location.
Selection
- an active POLY spline
Statusbar
The statusbar at the bottom of Blender - after invoking the tool - provides all the info you need in regards to what keys you can press to modify the tool's behavior.
Using Gap Shuffle
here's a cyclic spline with its gap at the bottom
- Scolling with the mouse wheel or using the
1
and2
keys, the gap location within the spline can be changed- the original gap is drawn in yellow, and can not be selected
- the new gap is previewd by a black line and two highlighted points
- With two more more outlier segments present, they will be highlighted, and only they will be shuffled through
- With two or more outlier segments present, outlier shuffling can be toggled with the
Q
key- Without outlier segements present or with outlier shuffling disabled, any other segment, except the original gap, can be chosen as the new gap location
- Spline cyclicity can be toggled using the
C
key
with gap re-positioned, the bottom corners can be blendulated too
and even though it makes no difference, you can bring the gap bac back to where it was initially