Editable Poly

For more information on the Stack Display, see Modifier Stack.

Show End Result—Normally, if you apply a modifier such as Symmetry to an editable poly object and then return to the Editable Poly stack entry, you cannot see the effect of the modifier on the object's geometry. But if you turn on Show End Result while in sub-object level, you can see the final object as a white mesh, the original sub-object selection as a yellow mesh, and the original editable polymesh as an orange mesh.

The Selection rollout provides buttons for accessing different sub-object levels, display settings, and information about selected entities.

When you first access the Modify panel with an editable poly selected, you're at the Object level, with access to several functions available as described in Editable Poly (Object). You can toggle the various sub-object levels, and access relevant functions, by clicking the buttons at the top of the Selection rollout.

Clicking a button here is the same as selecting a sub-object type in the modifier stack display. Click the button again to turn it off and return to the Object selection level.

Note: You can now convert sub-object selections in two different ways with the use of the CTRL and SHIFT keys:

Vertex—Turns on Vertex sub-object level, which lets you select a vertex beneath the cursor; region selection selects vertices within the region.

Edge—Turns on Edge sub-object level, which lets you select a polygon edge beneath the cursor; region selection selects multiple edges within the region.

Border—Turns on Border sub-object level, which lets you select a sequence of edges that borders a hole in the mesh. Borders are always composed on edges with faces on only one side of them, and are always complete loops. For example, a box doesn't have a border, but the teapot object has a couple of them: on the lid, on the body, on the spout, and two on the handle. If you create a cylinder, then delete one end, the row of edges around that end forms a border.

When Border sub-object level is active, you can't select edges that aren't on borders. Clicking a single edge on a border selects that whole border.

You can cap a borders, either in Editable Poly or by applying the Cap Holes modifier. You can also connect borders between objects with the Connect compound object.

Polygon—Turns on Polygon sub-object level, which lets you select polygons beneath the cursor. Region selection selects multiple polygons within the region.

Element—Turns on Element sub-object level, which lets you select all contiguous polygons in an object. Region selection lets you select multiple elements.

By Vertex—When this is turned on, you can select sub-objects only by selecting a vertex that they use. When you click a vertex, all sub-objects that use the selected vertex are selected.

Ignore Backfacing—When on, selection of sub-objects affects only those facing you. When off (the default), you can select any sub-object(s) under the mouse cursor, regardless of their visibility or facing. If there are more than one sub-object under the cursor, repeated clicking cycles through them. Likewise, with Ignore Backfacing off, region selection includes all sub-objects, regardless of the direction they face.

Note: The state of the Backface Cull setting in the Display panel does not affect sub-object selection. Thus, if Ignore Backfacing is off, you can still select sub-objects, even if you can't see them.

Shrink—Reduces the sub-object selection area by deselecting the outermost sub-objects. If the selection size can no longer be reduced, the remaining sub-objects are deselected.

Grow—Expands the selection area outward in all available directions.

For this function, a border is considered to be an edge selection.

Ring—Expands an edge selection by selecting all edges parallel to the selected edges. Ring applies only to edge and border selections.

Loop—Expands the selection as far as possible, in alignment with selected edges.

Loop applies only to edge and border selections, and propagates only through four-way junctions.

At the bottom of the Selection rollout is a text display giving information about the current selection. If 0 or more than one sub-object is selected, the text gives the number and type selected. If one sub-object is selected, the text gives the identification number and type of the selected item.

Soft Selection controls apply a smooth falloff between selected sub-objects and unselected ones. When Use Soft Selection is turned on, unselected sub-objects near your selection are given partial selection values. These values are shown in the viewports by means of a color gradient on the vertices, and optionally on the faces. They affect most types of sub-object deformations, such as the Move, Rotate, and Scale functions and any deformation modifiers (such as Bend) applied to the object. This provides a magnet-like effect with a sphere of influence around the selection.

The Soft Selection rollout has changed slightly for Editable Poly objects. For more information, see Soft Selection Rollout — Editable Poly.

The Edit (sub-object) rollout provides sub-object-specific functions for editing an editable poly object and its sub-objects. For specific information, click any of the links below:

Edit Vertices rollout

Edit Edges rollout

Edit Borders rollout

Edit Polygons/Elements rollout

The Edit Geometry rollout provides global functions for editing an editable poly object and its sub-objects. For specific information, click any of the links below:

Editable Poly (Object)

Editable Poly (Vertex)

Editable Poly (Edge)

Editable Poly (Border)

Editable Poly (Polygon/Element)

Applies MeshSmooth-style subdivision to the object, so you can work on a lower-resolution "cage" mesh and simultaneously see a smoother, subdivided result This rollout is available at all sub-object levels, as well as at the object level, and always affects the entire object.

Use NURMS Subdivision—Applies smoothing via the NURMS method. See NURMS.

Smooth Result—Applies the same smoothing group to all polygons.

Iterations—Sets the number of iterations used to smooth the poly object. Each iteration generates all polygons using the vertices created from the previous iteration. Range=0 to 10.

Tip: Use caution when increasing the number of iterations. The number of vertices and polygons in an object (and thus the calculation time) can increase as much as four times for each iteration. Applying four iterations to even a moderately complex object can take a long time to calculate. You can press ESC to stop calculation and revert to the previous iteration setting.

Smoothness—Determines how sharp a corner must be before polygons are added to smooth it. A value of 0.0 prevents the creation of any polygons. A value of 1.0 adds polygons to all vertices even if they lie on a plane.

Applies a different number of smoothing iterations and/or a different Smoothness value to the object at render time.

Tip: Use a low number of iterations and/or a lower Sharpness value for modeling, and higher values for rendering. This lets you work quickly with a low-resolution object in the viewports, while producing a smoother object for rendering.

Iterations—Lets you choose a different number of smoothing iterations to be applied to the object at render time. Turn on Iterations, then use the spinner to its right to set the number of iterations.

Smoothness—Lets you choose a different Smoothness value to be applied to the object at render time. Turn on Smoothness, then use the spinner to its right to set the smoothness value.

Smoothing Groups—Prevents the creation of new polygons at edges between faces that don't share at least one smoothing group.

Materials—Prevents the creation of new polygons for edges between faces that do not share Material IDs.

Sets manual or render-time update options, for situations where the complexity of the smoothed object is too high for automatic updates. Note that you can also choose Iterations under the Render group to set a greater degree of smoothing to be applied only at render time.

Always—Updates the object automatically whenever you change any MeshSmooth settings.

When Rendering—Updates the viewport display of the object only at render time.

Manually—Turns on manual updating. When manual updating is selected, any settings you change don't take effect until you click the Update button.

Update—Updates the object in the viewport to match the current MeshSmooth settings. Works only when you choose When Rendering or Manually.

Specifies surface approximation settings for subdividing the editable poly. These controls work like the surface approximation settings for NURBS surfaces. They are used when you apply a displacement map to the editable poly.

Note: These settings differ from the Subdivision Surface settings in that, while the latter are applied at the same modifier-stack level as the mesh, subdivision displacement is always applied at the top of the stack, when the mesh is used for rendering. Thus, a Symmetry modifier applied to an object using surface subdivision would affect the subdivided mesh, but would not affect an object that uses subdivision displacement only.

Subdivision Displacement—When on, polygons are subdivided to accurately displace the poly object, using the method and settings you specify in the Subdivision Presets and Subdivision Method group boxes. When off, the poly is displaced by moving existing vertices, the way the Displace modifier does. Default=off.

Split Mesh—Affects the seams of displaced poly objects; also affects texture mapping. When on, the poly object is split into individual polygons before it is displaced; this helps preserve texture mapping. When off, the poly is not split and an internal method is used to assign texture mapping. Default=on.

Tip: This parameter is required because of an architectural limitation in the way displacement mapping works. Turning Split Mesh on is usually the better technique, but it can cause problems for objects with clearly distinct faces, such as boxes, or even spheres. A box's sides might separate as they displace outward, leaving gaps. And a sphere might split along its longitudinal edge (found in the rear for spheres created in the Top view) unless you turn off Split Mesh. However, texture mapping works unpredictably when Split Mesh is off, so you might need to add a Displace Mesh modifier and make a snapshot of the poly. You would then apply a UVW Map modifier and then reassign mapping coordinates to the displaced snapshot poly.

The controls in these two group boxes specify how the program applies the displacement map when Subdivision Displacement is turned on. They are identical to the Surface Approximation controls used for NURBS surfaces.