was just playing with the tutorial for the light saber, (remaking it into a regular sword) i wanted to do the angled handle but it wont let me... made the envelope free.... didn't work... just bent everything up....(picture attached) what am i missing?? is a Mac thing? is it just something stupid i missed?

here's what i have so far ... by the way....

The same thing happened to me (a Windows user). I must have missed something also.

Not quite sure what you mean by bent. If you mean you want an oblong handle, start with an oblong frontal cross section. If you want the handle to bent along the sweep path, uncheck the snap option in the grid and move your sweep path points. Don't fuss with the envelope. -Kix

I believe we are both referring to this attached image. Instead of getting the nice angle as shown, the end portion of the profile curves up.

yup... that's it... for some reason i can't get the angle to work, what did i miss?

Ok, I think I understand. Once you move the sweep path up, you need to change to a free style envelope and reset the envelope points by hand back to the correct locations. So, First I created the shape straight (pipelined, and symmetric). Then I bent up the sweep path. Set the extrusion envelope to free. Then I moved the envelope points to the locations to make them straight again. I don't think this would work with the ribbed components very well. You're probably better off trying something in the vertex modeler or performing a boolean operation and crossing your fingers if you're going to shoot for a bent ribbed section. -Kix

Thanks Kixum......I got it to work now.

it's the pipline... that is what i was missing... thanks!!

Ok I must be missing something very simple but I can't get it right. Here's what I'm doing: Creating Spline object Setting to Pipline & symmetrical Creating shape with oval tool Adding points Bending sweep path setting extrusion env to free Restting end points and that gives me the nice bevel, BUT... when I go back to move the other points I can only move them vertically! ?? So I can't create the shape. I set it back to transition, but that screws up everything. What am I doing wrong...I think I take the bonehead prize Thanks, Chris

Someone else asked about this issue. It's a strange thing in C (and clearly annoying!). You can move points horizontally but only when you move the relative sweep path point. The envelope points won't move horizontally (weird but true). You're not a bonehead, just another C user who's whacked their head bones through their monitor! I've been there lots of times and we have outstanding company! -Kix

Oh and BTW, this is just a thing that happens when you set the extrusion to pipeline.

Sorry about forgetting that little detail.

-Kix