# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Spin Tool Introduction

|previous=Modeling with the Spin Tool
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## How the Spin Tool Works

The Spin tool works by making copies of the selected vertices in a
radial array around an axis indicated by the 3d cursor. Each copies of
vertices are connected to previous vertices that corresponds to it with
necessary geometry, i.e. edges and planes.

A picture explains this more clearly.

!Selected vertices before using the Spin
tool{width="603"}

!Result after using the Spin
tool{width="562"}

Note that the copied vertices are arranged in a radial array around our
3d cursor and parallel to our view plane.

## Typical Work Flow

1\) Make half of the outline of our object with connected vertices. If
you want to model a wineglass, make the half of the outline of the
wineglass.

2\) Spin our outline. After this the Spin tool would complete our
object.

3\) Clean up the resulting mesh. The mesh created by the Spin tool is
not so perfect so we had to \"clean\" it up.

#### Modeling Half of the Outline

To start we make half of the outline. Here we do it by creating
vertices.

Open Blender. Don\'t remove the default cube since we are going to use
it. If you don\'t have any object after you open Blender (like mine),
add a mesh object. Any of them will do. I tend to use the plane. At this
time it is good to give your object a proper name. Name it sensibly,
like \"wineglass\" if we are modeling a wineglass. This will help us
locate it if there comes a time when we have a lot of objects in our
scene. We don\'t want to have all objects to be called cube.001,
sphere.003 or something. That could get confusing.

Hit Tab key to enter Edit Mode, if we are not in there yet. Select all
vertices by hitting AKey, then delete them with XKey -\> Vertices. Then
go to the front view by hitting Num1.

Now, we are going to make the outline by creating vertices. Press and
hold CtrlKey then click the left mouse button. A new vertex will be
created. Click the left mouse button again, another vertex will be
created but this time it is connected to the previous vertex by an edge.
Click again to add more vertices. We are going to use this to create our
outline.

You might notice that the 3d manipulator (red, green and blue arrows)
could get in the way. Deactivate it by hitting Ctrl+Space Bar, then
select Enable/Disable, or by clicking the white pointing hand icon in
the 3d view window.

Let\'s start making the outline. Delete our previously created vertices
first. Using what we have learned, let\'s create vertices again but this
time let\'s add them to form some sort of outline. Let\'s be creative
here. It could be anything you want. Here I\'ve made two to illustrate
two situations that we might encounter when modeling with the Spin tool.
That is, modeling objects that are hollow or non-hollow.

!Half outline of a drinking
glass{width="315"}

The first one is an outline of a glass. Here, we are modeling an object
that is not hollow. We had two vertices that are located in the center
of our would-be glass bottom. We need to align the two central vertices
perfectly along the z axis. Select this two vertices then scale it along
the x axis to zero (SKey, xKey, 0Key, Enter).

!Half outline of a napkin
ring{width="341"}

The second one we will make into a napkin ring. This time our outline is
closed and no vertices are located in the center of our would be napkin
ring. Here we are modeling an object that is hollow.

To make the closed outline, select the two vertices on the open side
then press FKey. The two vertices will be bridged by an edge, thus
closing the outline.

Adjust vertices when necessary.

For those who may like to have an image in the background to guide them.
Upload a background image by selecting the View menu from the 3d View
Window then select \"Background Image\". A new internal window will
appear. Click \"Use Background Image\" Button, then click \"Load\".
Navigate to where the Image is located, select it, then click \"SELECT
IMAGE\". Our image will appear on the 3d Window as a background. Bellow,
I used a picture of a wineglass.

!Half outline of a wineglass with a background image as a
guide{width="362"}

#### Spinning Our Outline

Now that the outline is finished, we are ready to use it with the Spin
tool

Two things you must know is that the Spin tool is dependent on the
location of the 3d cursor, and view where we activate our Spin tool.

!Setup with an arbitrary
shape{width="362"}

Here is our setup with the vertices all selected. In the nest pictures
are results when this shape is spun with the 3d cursor at different
locations.

!Shape spun with 3d cursor at the
origin{width="362"}

!Shape spun with 3d cursor at another
location{width="362"}

Here we have the same shape but is spun around in different views.

!Shape seen in top
view{width="362"}!Shape
spun in top
view{width="362"}

!Shape seen in an arbitrary
view{width="362"}!Shape
spun in an arbitrary
view{width="362"}

Note that its important only to place the 3d cursor properly relative to
the view where you are going to use the Spin tool

###### Placing Our 3d Cursor

We can see that the location of our 3d cursor is very important in Spin
modeling so we need to know how to place it properly. If you prepare it
to be, the cursor would already be in position after we make our outline
but accidents happen and we accidentally misplaced our 3d cursor. Here
are some ways we could make our 3d cursor go to the place where we want
it to be.

###### Snapping

Snapping the 3D cursor is a quick and simple way to place our 3d cursor
to its proper location. In the 3d window, hit Shift + SKey. A list of
options would appear. We are interested with the last three options,
namely the cursor snaps options. They are the Cursor-\>Selection,
Cursor-\>Grid and Cursor-\>Active. The name are pretty descriptive but
we\'ll give a short description here.

Cursor-\>Selection places the cursor to the exact location of our
selected element or elements. In case of multiple selected elements, our
cursor is placed on the median of the selected elements. In edit mode,
select a vertex and use Cursor-\>Selection snap to it. Our 3d cursor
would jump to the exact place where our selected vertex is located.

Cursor-\>Selection snapping is especially useful when modeling non
hollow objects because there are vertex or vertices located at the
center of our model to snap to. Just select one central vertex and snap
to it.

!Here our 3d cursor is not at the center of our drinking glass outline.
We select one of the central vertex and do Cursor-\>Selection
snapping.{width="298"}

!Result after doing the Cursor-\>Selection
snap.{width="293"}

Cursor-\>Grid snaps the cursor to the nearest cross of the visible grid.
Try clicking at a center of a square in our Blender\'s grid and use it.
See its effect.

Cursor-\>Grid snapping is useful for spin modeling hollow models.
Usually if you are careful, our object outline would be on a plane that
contains one of the axises. If we make our outline in front view as
advised, go to the top view (or side view depending on what we are
modeling). If you are doing okay, you will see all our vertices aligned
perfectly along the x axis. It just a matter of LMB close to a cross on
the grid that contains our objects center then snap to it.

Cursor-\>Active might not be so helpful in spin modeling.
Cursor-\>Active snaps the cursor to the active element (usually the
element that is last to be selected). Try it by selecting several
vertices, then do Cursor-\>Active snap. The vertex where the 3d cursor
goes is the active element in your selection.

###### Spin Tool Parameters

The spin accepts two parameters to execute its function. These are
Degrees (degr) and Steps.

image:BlenderDegr.jpg

**Degrees** specifies the angle at which the selected geometry will be
rotated from its initial position around the axis. It accepts values in
degrees. A 360 degrees value being a whole turn around the axis. Values
lesser than 360 produces something like a wedge is sliced from the side
of the form.

none

**Steps** specifies the number of \"copies\" of the selected geometry
the spin tool makes that it arranges in a radial array around the 3d
cursor. A higher value result in much rounder form.

#### Cleaning Up the resulting Mesh

After using the spin tool, a little clean up work might be necessary,
especially if you specified a 360 degree turn. Though the mesh looks
clean to the eye, the tool actually make geometries (vertices) that are
in the same blender position as another one. So what might look like one
vertex may actually be two. A simple way to clean up our mesh would be
to select the whole geometry then activating the \"remove doubles\" from
the specials menu ( Wkey(Specials Menu) -\> remove doubles or
Wkey-\>6key). This would remove these problem geometries, finds vertices
that are too close to each other and merging them to one.

## Post Modeling

After the lathe able parts are done it would be ready to adding non
latheable parts. For example a cup may have a bowl-like body, that we
could use the spintool. Alas the handle can\'t be so we had to put it
there after. Depending on the geometry added. This geometries could be
formed from the mesh itself or be adding in a separate mesh.

