How do I make a 3D rope border that follows my own border shape?

The idea

You do not model the rope. You take one short rope link component and let Extrude and Weave repeat it along a vector, with each copy overlapping the last so the twists run together. The rope link ships in the clipart library and is only available in Aspire.

Steps

1. Draw or import the closed border vector. Smooth curves work best. If the shape has sharp corners, round them with the Fillet tool first, because the links distort badly around a sharp corner.
2. Open the Clipart tab, go to the border folder and double-click the rope link to add it to the job.
3. Size the link. Press T for the transform tool, keep X and Y linked and Auto Scale Z on, and set its height. The height of the link in the 2D View becomes the width of the finished rope.
4. On the Modeling tab open Extrude and Weave. Select the border vector and click Use Selection.
5. Choose Use a Component and pick the rope link from the drop-down list.
6. Choose Fill with multiple copies and enter an Overlap. A published educator tutorial uses 60% as a starting point. Adjust it if the twists look stretched or bunched.
7. Leave Flip alternate copies unchecked, and leave the weave option off unless the rail crosses itself.
8. Set the combine mode to Merge, name the component and click Apply.

Why the overlap matters

The official documentation explains that each copy overlaps the previous one by the percentage of its length that you enter, and the overlapping pieces are merged together. At 0% the copies sit end to end and look like separate beads. More overlap packs the twists closer.

Pro tips

• The component flows along the rail in the direction of its own X axis, so keep the link lying left to right before you start.
• If the rope runs the wrong way around the border, right-click the rail and choose Reverse Rail.
• When you are finished you can delete the single rope link from the Component Tree, or keep it to make another border.