Tessellate Modifier

Operate On—Specifies whether to perform the tessellation on the triangular faces or on the polygonal facets (the areas bound by visible edges).

Faces—Treats the selection as a set of triangular faces.

Polygons—Divides the polygonal facets. For example, using the polygonal method on the side of a box results in cross-shaped edges using the Edge method, and X-shaped edges using the Face-Center method.

Edge—Divides the face or polygon from its center to the middle of each edge. When applied to a triangular face, it also divides unselected faces that share edges with the selected faces.

Face-Center—Select this to divide the face from the center to the vertex corners.

Tension—Determines if the new faces are flat, concave, or convex after Edge tessellation. A positive value rounds faces by pushing vertices outward. A negative value creates concave faces by pulling vertices inward. A setting of 0 keeps the faces flat. Also works with the Edge/Polygon method. Default=25.

Iterations—Specifies how many times the tessellation is applied. For example, setting Iterations to 2 is similar to clicking the Tessellation button twice in an editable mesh, except that you can easily back out at any time while using the Tessellate modifier. If you want more than four iterations, apply another Tessellate modifier.

Always—Tessellation is updated whenever the base geometry changes.

When Rendering—Tessellation is updated only when the object is rendered.

Manually—Tessellation is updated only when the user clicks Update.

Update—Click to update tessellation. Has no effect unless Manually is the active update option.