Collapse Utility

Utilities panel > Utilities rollout > Collapse button

Menu bar > Modify > Collapse

The Collapse utility lets you collapse the Stack of one or more selected objects into an Editable Mesh and, optionally, perform a Boolean operation on them at the same time.

Important: You can't undo changes you introduce in the scene using the Collapse utility. Before you use it, save a copy of your work file, or use Hold.

Procedure

To collapse the stack of an object into an editable mesh:

On the Utilities panel, click the Collapse button.
Select the object that you want to collapse.
Click the Collapse Selected button.
All modifiers are removed from the modifier stack and the object becomes an editable mesh.

Interface

Selected Object group

Displays the name of the current selection. If more than one object is selected, "Multiple Selected" displays.

Collapse Selected—Collapses the selected objects. The method of collapse depends on the settings of the options below this button.

Output Type group

Specifies the type of object that results from the collapse.

Modifier Stack Result—The resultant object will be the same as if you had collapsed its stack. In most cases, this results in a mesh object, as when using the Mesh option. However, if the object has an Edit Patch modifier so that its stack produces a patch, then the result will be a patch object rather than a mesh. Likewise, a shape with Edit Spline modifiers becomes an editable spline. When this option is used, the Collapse To options are unavailable, and all selected objects remain independent objects.

Mesh—All selected objects become editable meshes regardless of their type before they were collapsed.

Collapse To group

Specifies how the selected objects are combined. These options are available only when you choose the Mesh option.

Multiple Objects—Collapses each object in the selection but maintains each as an independent object. When this option is selected, the Boolean options are disabled.

Single Object—Collapses all selected objects into a single, editable mesh object.

Boolean—Performs Boolean operations on the selected objects. During the Boolean calculation, a progress bar appears along with a Cancel button. If any objects in the Boolean operation fail, that object is skipped, but the Collapse proceeds. The result is not a Boolean compound object, but a single editable mesh. The type of Boolean is specified by the following option.

Union—Combines the several objects, removing intersecting geometry.

Intersection—Removes all but the intersecting geometry.

Subtraction—Maintains the first object selected while subtracting the subsequently selected objects. For example, to subtract several cylinders from a box, click to select the box, hold down CTRL, and region-select the cylinders.

Close—Exits the Collapse utility.