## Overview
The Curve Extract tool offers a fast and effective method for extracting curves from geometry tubes, cards, or selected edges. As a Groom artist, we often need to work with proxy models. When these models are thoughtfully constructed as tubes or cards, the tool can significantly speed up your workflow. All Proxy/Geometry tools in Groomer's Tool, such as Curve to Proxy Tube, Curve to Proxy Card, Curve to Proxy Twist, Hair Tube Builder, and the Braid Tool, generate geometries that is compatible and can be extracted using the Curve Extract tool.
The curve extract tool allows extraction from:
* Tubes - polygons tubes (open ends) and are quads in equal rows/column alignment.
* Cards - polygons cards that are flat and are quads in fairly equal rows/column alignment.
* Edges - edgeloops of selected edges.
***
{% embed url="" fullWidth="false" %}
Extract From Tubes/Cards demo video
{% endembed %}
{% embed url="" %}
Scatter Fill Update 0:0 - 0:54
{% endembed %}
{% hint style="success" %}
A safety measure to check for the geometry type has been added in V.15.0 +. The tool will first check to see if a geometry is a tube or card before doing anything. This will greatly reduce the chances of freezing your machine when accidentally selecting the wrong type of geometries.
{% endhint %}
## Tubes
#### **Extract Type**
* Custom
* CV Count: Define a custom CV count to the length of the curve extracted
* \# of Curves: Define number of curves to be extracted
* Geo Topology
* Number of CV count per curve and number of curves extracted will be based on the geo topology
* Retain Curvature - Only available with Topology mode. When checked, it will keep the curvature from poly tubes.
* Example: when extracting from a twisty twist (from the Twist Tool), use this mode to keep the extracted curves from smoothing.
* Geo Center
* Extract a curve from the average center of the tube.
* Volume Fill
* ****Fills each selected tubes with layers of curves.
* Scatter Fill
* Fills each selected tubes with curves in even spaced fashion.
## **Cards**
#### **Method**
* SubDiv: Will work on all card geometry. However, in **Custom, Geo Topology, and Sides mode,** the 'corners' will be rounded and the side edges will be shrunk. This is due to the subdivision process.
* Traverse: Use this option to retain the edges/corners. However, depending on your card geometry, this method will not always extract successfully. In those cases, use **SubDiv** method instead.
#### **Extract Type**
* Custom
* CV Count: Define a custom CV count to the length of the curve extracted
* \# of Curves: Define number of curves to be extracted
* Geo Topology
* Number of CV count per curve and number of curves extracted will be based on the geo topology
* Geo Center
* Extract a curve from the average center of selected card(s)
* Sides
* Extract the side curves from selected card(s)
***
**Hide Mesh**
* Enabling this option hides the mesh after the extraction
**Flip Direction**
* If the U and V directions on a surface are incorrect, the extracted curve may form a loop. Use the 'Flip Direction' option and extract again.
{% hint style="info" %}
You can hit the repeat key (default Maya 'G' key) to repeat the extraction.
{% endhint %}
***
## Edges
{% hint style="warning" %}
If the selected edge is on a geometry border, it will extract the entire loop.
{% endhint %}
{% embed url="" %}
Extract from edges demo video
{% endembed %}
* Select multiple 'single' edges on geometry to extract edgeloops.
* For example, you can select the edge rings and batch extract the edgeloops.
***
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