3.Components #

This asset features two main components: Spline Curve Mesher and Spline Fill Mesher

They share some commonalities outlined here.

All the parameters have tooltips to explain their function. Which is why they aren’t covered here.

Mouse over to view them (outside Play mode)

Toolbar

1: Visualize wire frame
2: Utilities/settings dropdown
3: Open help window

Main properties

Input/output

Spline Container: This specifies for which splines the meshes are created.

Root: The object where the generated spline meshes get placed. If left empty, they are created in the scene root (not recommended)

Regarding prefabs
For prefab instances, the Root object cannot be a prefab.

Deleting objects from prefabs is not allowed in Unity. Deletions may happen when fewer mesh segments are required.

Solution: For prefabs, assign a separate, non-prefab, root object from the scene

Rebuild Triggers

This dropdown provides control over when the spline mesh is to be regenerated.

Option	Description
Via scripting	Rebuilding only occurs when calling the Rebuild() function on the instance from a script
On Spline Change	Whenever a Spline within the container is altered in any way
On Spline Added	When a Spline is added to the container
On Spline Removed	When a Spline is removed from the container
On Start()	Rebuilds the spline mesh on the components Start() function. This will be required when prefabbing the component, since this will result in all the mesh geometry being lost. Meaning it’s required to regenerate it when the prefab loads at runtime
On UI Change	When any parameter is changed in the inspector
On Transform Change	When either the component, root or spline container’s position/rotation/scale is altered
On Mesh File Change	If the input mesh’s source file is altered, the mesh is also rebuild. Use this when making external adjustments to the source mesh and have changes reflected when switching back to the editor

Spline Change Mode

This option determines when the On Spline Change rebuild trigger is fired.

Option	Description
During Changes	Fires whenever changes are made to any of the splines
After Changes	Debouncing behaviour, will ignore rapid changes made to the spline within 100ms. Triggers a change after this delay. Use this option when the Spline has many meshers associatedwith it and editor performance is paramount.

Option

Description

During Changes

Fires whenever changes are made to any of the splines

After Changes

Debouncing behaviour, will ignore rapid changes made to the spline within 100ms. Triggers a change after this delay.

Use this option when the Spline has many meshers associatedwith it and editor performance is paramount.

Output

Readable checkbox

This option can be important to some users, as having it disabled will result in an (fully written) error in these cases:

An external script wants to read out the generated mesh’s vertices/triangles (eg. Mesh Combine Studio)
The generated mesh(es) need to be accessible in a build.

Note: Collider meshes are always kept readable, since the Mesh Collider component requires this.

Lightmapping

Lightmapping requires meshes to have lightmap UVs (stored in the 2nd UV channel). These can be auto-generated using the same method being the “Generate Lightmap UV” checkbox on model assets.

Mark the output Root transform as “Static” if you need lightmap UV’s generated for the generated meshes.

Lightmaps will be generated once baking starts, because this operation is fairly slow. You can change this behaviour in Project Settings->Splines->Spline Mesher

After light baking has finished changes made to the mesh will invalidate the lightmap UV again, similar to making changes to a regular mesh. So it’s best to not touch any spline(meshes) after baking.

Lod Count

Set to 0 by default, you can otherwise specify a maximum LOD count to be generated using MeshLOD (available in Unity 6.2+). This occurs when the spline mesh was altered and the scene is saved.

You can change this behaviour in Project Settings->Splines->Spline Mesher

Events

It’s possible to call functions from other components, either before the mesh is being rebuild and/or after. This is achieved using standard Unity events.

For example, you may want to update other aspects of your workflow once a mesh is finished rebuilding:

If a fence makes up an enclosure for animals, you may want to update a navmesh after it has been changed.
If segments need to be breakable, a script can ensure they are set up for it (eg. adding custom components).

See the Scripting section for details about script-based events.

Rebuild with

This is a list of Spline Meshers you can use to rebuild with.

For example, if a Spline Mesher uses the Conforming feature and needs to conform to another spline mesh. You’d want changes to be reflected as you make them.