A disclination line populated with point defects that break the translational symmetry forms near a free nematic (N) interface in a confined geometry. The disclination line is, however, absent in the smectic-A phase (SmA). We use this fact to control the formation of point defect distributions on a disclination line by directional melting of the SmA phase in a temperature gradient. A threshold velocity ( v
th) exists below which a defect-free disclination line is formed. The frequency of nucleation of point defects increases steadily for v > v
th and exhibits a remarkable regularity. We derive an empirical scaling for v
th in terms of the experimental tuning parameters. We propose a simple model that allows to understand the formation of the point defects.