Sprue Curve

Sprue Curve

The Sprue Curve command wraps a single piece in a runner that follows its own outline: the top-view silhouette of the model is offset outward, smoothed, and swept into a frame tube, with connectors reaching in from the frame to the piece and an injection post feeding the frame from outside.

It is the sprue for flat, irregular pieces — a pendant, a brooch, an openwork plaque — where a straight sprue would reach some parts of the outline and miss others.

ArtisanSprueCurve

Selection

• The piece — one mesh, required. It is locked in the document while the panel is open, so stray clicks cannot drag it.
• Custom perimeter curve — optional. If you pick one it replaces the automatic silhouette entirely; the selector’s delete button reverts to the automatic one. The current perimeter is drawn in cyan in the viewport.

Perimeter

• Width / Height — the elliptical cross-section of the frame tube. Height also sets the diameter of every connector and of the injection post where they meet the frame, and how high the frame floats — its underside rests on the piece’s floor.
• Offset — how far outside the piece the automatic silhouette runs.
• Smooth — smoothing iterations on the automatic silhouette, to round off pointy necks the offset would otherwise pinch.

Connections

• Number — how many connectors are seeded, spaced evenly around the perimeter.
• Object Diameter — the connector’s diameter where it touches the piece; it tapers from the frame’s Height down to this.
• Add / Remove / Clear — Add lets you click new connections directly on the perimeter (Enter to finish); Remove highlights the connection under the cursor and deletes it on click; Clear asks for confirmation and removes them all.
• Symmetry — None, X, Y, or Quad: connections are seeded in one sector and mirrored, and the mirrors follow when you drag the originals.
• Inside — how far the connector base sinks into the frame tube.

Every connection carries two gumballs: an orange one that slides its frame end along the perimeter, and a full 3-axis one at the tip that moves the contact point on the piece. Changing Offset, Smooth, Number, or Symmetry re-seeds the connections and discards manual edits; the diameters and Inside values can be tuned freely without losing them.

Injection

• External Diameter — the free-end diameter of the injection post, tapering from the frame’s Height.
• Length — how far the post reaches out from the frame.
• Inside — how far the post base sinks into the frame tube.