I'm making a cord for a telephone; for the straight length of cord hanging from the back of the receiver, I've used the spiral function in the spline modeler.  However, I would like the cord to loop on itself.  

I can't figure out how to extend the spiral in another direction in respect to different drawing planes.

Can someone shed some light on this?

Hi Evinrude, There is a way to do this in Carrara, but it's not the best method. This is a very complex shape. So, create both sections of the straight portion of the cord. Next, create a short section of cord that will be the bend portion. (this short section of cord wil be straight when you make it) After creating it in the spline modeler, apply a bend modifier set to 180 degrees. As a last step, you convert the shapes to Vertex and combine them as a single shape in the Vertex modeler. The easy way: If you have Hexagon, you can either create the helix in hexagon or import a vertex version from Carrara as one, long straight piece and then draw a custom bend path. Mark

Another way to make the cord bend back around on itself would be to use bones.  

Model the cord in the spline modeler as you have, then add several bones and attach the mesh to the bones.  Bend the bones and there you go.

 - Dex

Good one Dex. I've actually done that with a chain before and forgot about it. You do have to watch for folding geometry, however.