Editable Poly (Polygon/Element)

See Editable Poly > Selection rollout for information on the Selection rollout settings.

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, as well as 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.

At the element sub-object level, this rollout includes commands that are common to both polygons and elements, plus, at the polygon level, some that are unique to polygons. The commands available at both levels are Insert Vertex, Edit Triangulation, Retriangulate, and Flip.

Note: The availability of Flip at the Polygon sub-object level is in 3ds max 5.

Some commands in this rollout were available previously from the Edit Geometry rollout; others (marked with the icon) are new in 3ds max 5.

Note: To delete polygons or elements, select them and press the DELETE key. A dialog might appear asking if you want to delete isolated vertices, which are vertices that are used only by polygons or elements that are to be deleted. Click Yes to delete them; click No to retain them.

Insert Vertex—Lets you subdivide polygons manually. Applies to polygons, even if at the element sub-object level.

After turning on Insert Vertex, click a polygon to add a vertex at that location. You can continue subdividing polygons as long as the command is active.

To stop inserting vertices, right-click in the viewport, or click Insert Vertex again to turn it off.

Note: In previous versions of the software, this command was called Divide.

Extrude—Lets you perform manual extrusion via direct manipulation in the viewport. Click this button, and then drag vertically on any polygon to extrude it.

Extruding polygons moves them along a normal and creates new polygons that form the sides of the extrusion, connecting the selection to the object.

Following are important aspects of polygon extrusion:

Chamfer box showing extruded polygon

Extrude Settings—Opens the Extrude Faces dialog, which lets you perform extrusion via interactive manipulation.

If you click this button after performing an extrusion, the same extrusion is performed on the current selection as a preview and the dialog opens with Extrusion Height set to the amount of the last manual extrusion.

Outline—Lets you increase or decrease the outside edge of each contiguous group of selected polygons.

Outline is often used after an extrusion or bevel to adjust the size of the extruded faces. It doesn't scale the polygons; only changes the size of the outer edge. For example, in the following illustration, note that the sizes of the inner polygons remain constant.

Click the Outline Settings button to open the Outline Selected Faces dialog, which lets you perform outlining by a numeric setting.

Extruded polygons (top), outline expanded (middle), outline reduced (bottom)

Note that size of inner polygons doesn't change.

Bevel—Lets you perform manual beveling via direct manipulation in the viewport. Click this button, and then drag vertically on any polygon to extrude it. Release the mouse button and then move the mouse vertically to outline the extrusion. Click to finish.

Polygon beveled outward (left) and inward (right)

Bevel Settings—Opens the Bevel Selection dialog, which lets you perform beveling via interactive manipulation.

If you click this button after performing a bevel, the same bevel is performed on the current selection as a preview and the dialog opens with the same settings used for the previous bevel.

Inset—Performs a bevel with no height; that is, within the plane of the polygon selection. Click this button, and then drag vertically on any polygon to inset it.

Inset Settings—Opens the Inset Selected Faces dialog, which lets you inset polygons via interactive manipulation.

If you click this button after performing a manual inset, the same inset is performed on the current selection as a preview and the dialog opens with Inset Amount set to the amount of the last manual inset.

Retriangulate—Lets the software automatically do its best triangulation on the polygon or polygons currently selected.

Flip—Reverses the directions of the normals of selected polygons, hence their facing.

Hinge From Edge—Lets you perform a manual hinge operation via direct manipulation in the viewport. Make a polygon selection, click this button, and then drag vertically on any edge to hinge the selection. The mouse cursor changes to a cross when over an edge.

Hinging polygons rotates them about an edge and creates new polygons that form the sides of the hinge, connecting the selection to the object. It's essentially an extrusion with rotation, with the exception that, if the hinge edge belongs to a selected polygon, that side is not extruded. The manual version of Hinge From Edge works only with an existing polygon selection.

Tip: Turn on Ignore Backfacing to avoid inadvertently hinging about a backfacing edge.

Hinge Settings—Opens the Hinge From Edge dialog, which lets you hinge polygons via interactive manipulation.

If you click this button after performing a manual hinge, the dialog opens with Angle set to the extent of the last manual hinge.

Extrude Along Spline—Extrudes the current selection along a spline.

Make a selection, click this button, and the select a spline in the scene. The selection is extruded along the spline, using the spline's current orientation, but as though the spline's start point were moved to the center of each polygon or group.

Extrude Along Spline Settings—Opens the Extrude Polygons Along Spline dialog, which lets you extrude along splines via interactive manipulation.

Edit Triangulation—Lets you modify how selected polygons are subdivided into triangles by drawing internal edges.

To manually edit triangulation, turn on this button. The hidden edges appear. Click a polygon vertex. A rubber-band line appears, attached to the cursor. Click a non-adjacent vertex to create a new triangulation for the polygon.

Repeat Last—Repeats the most recently used command.

For example, if you extrude a polygon, and want to apply the same extrusion to several others, select the others, and then click Repeat Last.

Note: Repeat Last does not repeat all operations. For instance, it does not repeat transforms. To determine which command will be repeated when you click the button, check the button's tooltip. If no tooltip appears, nothing will happen when it is clicked.

Constraints—Lets you use existing geometry to constrain sub-object transformation. Use the drop-down list to choose the constraint type:

Note: The Constraints setting persists at all sub-object levels.

Create—Lets you create polygons from isolated vertices and border vertices. All vertices in the object are highlighted. Click three or more existing vertices in succession to define the shape of the new polygon. (The cursor changes to a cross when it is over a vertex that can legally be part of the polygon.) To finish polygon creation, double-click the last vertex. You can also finish creating the polygon by clicking any vertex of the new polygon a second time. You can also create new polygons at the Element sub-object level, and at the Object level.

You can add vertices in this mode by SHIFT+clicking in an empty space; these vertices are incorporated into the polygon you're creating.

You can start creating polygons in any viewport, but all subsequent clicks must take place in the same viewport.

Tip: For best results, click vertices in counter-clockwise (preferred) or clockwise order. If you use clockwise order, the new polygon will be facing away from you, and you won’t be able to see it unless you’ve turned on Force 2-Sided or are using a two-sided material.

Collapse—Collapses groups of contiguous selected polygons by welding their vertices to a vertex at the selection center. Not available for elements.

Attach—Lets you attach another object in the scene to the selected editable poly. You can attach any type of object, including splines, patch objects, and NURBS surfaces. Attaching a non-mesh object converts it to editable-poly format. Click the object you want to attach to the currently selected poly object.

For further details, including a description of Attach List, see Attach.

Detach—Detaches the selected polygons/elements as a separate object (the default) or detach a polygon as an element. The Detach As Clone option copies the polygons/elements rather than moving them.

You're prompted to enter a name for the new object. Detached faces leave a hole in the original object when you move them to a new position, unless you use the Detach As Clone option.

These knife-like tools let you subdivide a poly selection with new edges. Also see Full Interactivity.

Slice Plane—Creates a gizmo for a slice plane that can be positioned and rotated where you want to slice the edges. Also enables the Slice and Reset Plane buttons.

As you transform the slice plane, you see a preview of where the slice will occur in the polygon selection. To perform the slice, click the Slice button.

Split—When on, the Slice and Cut operations create double sets of vertices at the points where the edges are divided. This lets you easily delete the new polygons to create holes, or animate the new polygons as separate elements.

Slice—Performs the slice operation at the location of the slice plane. Available only when Slice Plane is turned on. This tool slices the poly just like the “Operate On: Polygons” mode of the Slice modifier.

Reset Plane—Returns the Slice plane to its default position and orientation. Available only when Slice Plane is turned on.

QuickSlice—Lets you quickly slice a selection without having to manipulate a gizmo. Make a selection, click QuickSlice, and then click once at the slice start point and again at its endpoint. You can continue slicing the selection while the command is active.

To stop slicing, right-click in the viewport, or click QuickSlice again to turn it off.

Cut—Lets you create edges from one polygon to another or within polygons. Click at the start point, move the mouse and click again, and continue moving and clicking to create new connected edges. Right-click once to exit the current cut, whereupon you can start a new one, or right-click again to exit Cut mode.

MSmooth—Smooths the selection using the current settings. This command uses subdivision functionality similar to that of the MeshSmooth modifier.

MSmooth Settings—Opens the MeshSmooth Selection dialog, which lets you specify how smoothing affects editable polys.

Tessellate—Subdivides selected polygons based on the Tessellation settings.

Tessellation is useful for increasing local mesh density while modeling. You can subdivide any selection of polygons. Two tessellation methods are available: Edge and Face.

Tessellate Settings—Opens the Tessellate Selection dialog, which lets you specify how smoothing affects editable polys.

Make Planar—Forces all selected polygons to become coplanar. The plane's normal is the average surface normal of the selected polygons.

Tip: One application for Make Planar is making a flat side on an object. Normally, you would use a contiguous selection set. If the selection includes polygons on various parts of the object, the polygons are still made planar, but with distorting effects on the rest of the geometry.

View Align—Aligns selected polygons to the plane of the active viewport. In the case of orthographic viewports, this is the same effect as aligning to the construction grid when the home grid is active.

When aligning to a Perspective viewport (or Camera and Light views), the polygons are reoriented to be aligned to a plane that is parallel to the camera's viewing plane. (Perspective viewports have invisible camera planes.) In these cases, the selection of polygons is not translated but only rotated.

Top: Selected polygons in Perspective view

Bottom: Same polygons aligned to Front view

Grid Align—Aligns the selected polygons to the current construction plane. The current plane is specified by the active viewport in the case of the home grid. When using a grid object, the current plane is the active grid object.

Hide Selected—Hides any selected polygons or elements.

Unhide All—Restores any hidden polygons or elements to visibility.

Hide Unselected—Hides any unselected polygons or elements.

Lets you copy and paste named selection sets of sub-objects between objects. Start by creating one or more named selection sets, copy one, select a different object, go to the same sub-object level, and then paste the set.

Note: This function uses sub-object IDs, so if the target object's geometry differs from that of the source object, the pasted selection will probably comprise a different set of sub-objects.

Note: For more information, see Named Selection Sets.

Copy—Opens a dialog that lets you specify a named selection set to place into the copy buffer.

Paste—Pastes the named selection from the copy buffer.

Full Interactivity—Toggles the level of feedback for the Slice and Cut tools, as well as all settings dialogs.

When turned on (the default), the final result is always visible as you use the mouse to manipulate the tool or change a numeric setting. With Cut and QuickSlice, when Full Interactivity is turned off, only the rubber-band line is visible until you click. With Slice Plane, the final result is visible only when you release the mouse button after transforming the plane. Similarly, with numeric settings in dialogs, the final result is visible only when you release the mouse button after changing the setting.

The state of Full Interactivity doesn't affect changing a numeric setting from the keyboard. Whether it's on or off, the setting takes effect only when you exit the field by pressing TAB or ENTER, or by clicking a different control in the dialog.

Show Cage—Toggles the display of the orange cage that covers half the mesh when working with an editable poly to which the Symmetry modifier is applied, and for which Show End Result is turned on.

These controls let you work with material IDs, smoothing groups and vertex colors.

ID—Lets you assign a particular material ID number to selected polygons and elements for use with multi/sub-object materials and other applications. Use the spinner or enter the number from the keyboard. The total number of available IDs is 65,535.

Select by ID—Displays a Select By Material ID dialog that you use to enter a material ID number. Clicking OK selects the faces assigned that material ID. If Clear Selection is on, any previously selected faces are first deselected. If Clear Selection is off, the new selection is added to any previous selection set.

Use these controls to assign selected polygons to different smoothing groups, and to select polygons by smoothing group.

To assign polygons to one or more smoothing groups, select the polygons, and then click the number(s) of the smoothing group(s) to assign them to.

Select By SG (Smoothing Group)—Displays a dialog that shows the current smoothing groups. Select a group by clicking the corresponding numbered button and clicking OK. If Clear Selection is on, any previously selected polygons are first deselected. If Clear Selection is off, the new selection is added to any previous selection set.

Clear All—Removes any smoothing group assignments from selected polygons.

Auto Smooth—Sets the smoothing groups based on the angle between polygons. Any two adjacent polygons will be put in the same smoothing group if the angle between their normals is less than the threshold angle, set by the spinner to the right of this button.

Threshold—This spinner (to the right of Auto Smooth) lets you specify the maximum angle between the normals of adjacent polygons that determines whether those polygons will be put in the same smoothing group.

Use these controls to assign the color, illumination color (shading), and alpha (transparency) values of vertices on selected polygons or elements.

Color—Click the color swatch to change the color of vertices on selected polygons or elements.

Illumination—Click the color swatch to change the illumination color of vertices on selected polygons or elements. This lets you change the illumination without changing the vertex's color.

Alpha—Lets you assign an alpha (transparency) value to vertices on selected polygons or elements.

The spinner value is a percentage; zero is completely transparent and 100 is completely opaque.

See Subdivision Surface rollout for information on the Subdivision Surface rollout settings.

See Subdivision Displacement rollout for information on the Subdivision Displacement rollout settings.