Troubleshooting

This section covers common issues and their solutions when working with the Mesh Spline Tool.

Terrain Conformity Issues

Meshes not conforming to terrain

Problem: Objects are floating above or below the ground surface.

Cause: Vertical offset settings or conform to terrain feature disabled.

Solution:

• Check that vertical offset is set to zero
• Ensure the “Conform to Terrain” button is enabled
• If the problem persists, the mesh bounding box may not match the mesh content
• Check the mesh in Blender for geometry issues

Component Spacing Problems

Objects too close or far apart

Problem: Meshes are not evenly spaced along the spline.

Cause: Spacing settings incorrect or mesh dimensions don’t match content.

Solution:

• Adjust the spacing slider in the tool window
• Check that the mesh bounding box matches the actual mesh content
• The tool uses the largest edge length of the mesh for spacing calculations
• If a mesh is much longer than it is wide, gaps may appear when placed wide-ways
• Reorder meshes in the component list (make another one the main component)

Last mesh extends past the final node

Problem: The final mesh in the spline extends beyond the last node.

Cause: Fixed-size meshes (TSStatics) don’t always divide evenly into the spline length, leaving a remainder.

Solution:

• This is normal behavior with fixed-size meshes
• The tool places meshes based on spacing, not exact spline length
• Adjust the spline length by moving the last node to better accommodate the mesh size
• Use start/end caps to properly finish the spline ends
• Consider adjusting the spacing to minimize the remainder

Orientation Issues

Meshes facing wrong direction

Problem: Objects are oriented incorrectly along the spline.

Cause: Mesh rotation settings not configured properly.

Solution:

• Use the rectilinear prerotation controls (0°, 90°, 180°, 270° around Z-axis)
• These controls are available in both Mesh Spline and Assembly Spline tools
• Check that the mesh’s forward direction is correctly oriented in the source file
• Adjust the orientation settings in the tool window

Start/End Cap Problems

Start and end caps missing

Problem: Beginning and end of the spline are not properly capped.

Cause: Cap checkboxes disabled or inappropriate meshes selected.

Solution:

• Ensure start/end cap checkboxes are enabled
• Select appropriate cap meshes from the component list
• Check that cap meshes are properly sized for the spline
• Verify cap meshes don’t have geometry problems

Mesh Quality Issues

Mesh import or display problems

Problem: Meshes don’t load properly or have visual artifacts.

Cause: Mesh file corruption or unsupported features.

Solution:

• Check the mesh file for corruption
• Verify the mesh is in a supported format
• Look for geometry issues in Blender or other 3D software
• Check console for import warnings or errors
• Ensure mesh bounding box accurately represents the geometry

Performance Issues

Tool becomes slow with many meshes

Problem: Tool becomes unresponsive when working with complex splines.

Cause: Too many mesh instances or very long splines.

Solution:

• Reduce the number of mesh instances along the spline
• Break long splines into shorter segments
• Simplify complex mesh geometries
• Reduce the number of different mesh types

Spline Visibility Issues

Mesh spline disappears

Problem: Spline becomes invisible or can’t be found.

Cause: Spline may be underground, off-screen, or have color/lighting conflicts.

Solution:

• Use the “Go To Spline” button to locate and focus on the spline
• Check if the spline is underground or positioned off-screen
• Adjust lighting or color settings if there are visibility conflicts

Session Management

Mesh splines disappear between sessions

Problem: Work is lost when restarting the tool.

Cause: Splines are designed not to persist between sessions by default.

Solution:

• Use the round-trip recovery system to import existing splines
• Select mesh objects in the scene tree to estimate spline parameters
• The tool can recover splines from scene meshes automatically

When to Report Bugs

If you encounter any of these issues, they may indicate a bug:

• Tool window freezing without performance cause
• Mesh import completely failing
• Undo/redo history not working properly
• File corruption or unreadable data

Recommendation: Reload the tool and try again. If the problem persists, check the console for error messages and report the issue with specific steps to reproduce.