Edit Elements
This doc goes over editing your 3D model in detail to modify the vertices, edges, and polygons of your 3D asset.
Last updated
This doc goes over editing your 3D model in detail to modify the vertices, edges, and polygons of your 3D asset.
Last updated
All 3D models are made up of different elements such as Vertices, Edges, and polygons.
Vertex / Vertices (Red) - the 'points' of a 3D object.
Edge/Edges (Blue) - the lines that joins two vertices of a 3D object.
Polygon/Polygons (Purple) - the faces that are created when three Edges are connected.
This is usually called a triangle, or commonly referred to as a Tri.
A Polygon or Poly is usually considered a four-sided face, or two triangles sharing a common edge. These are recommended for game assets.
An NGon is a polygon made up of three or more triangles.
Creating assets is basically editing these elements to make them look how you want.
Select the Cube.
Go to 'Edit Mode' using the Pulldown at the Top Left, or press [Tab].
Press [Tab] again if you want to go back to 'Object Mode'.
Switching between 'Edit Mode' and 'Object Mode' is one of the biggest differences between Blender and other 3D Creation tools such as 3DStudio MAX and Maya. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but in the end comes with its own benefits.
Select what elements you want to edit.
Edit mode will display the selected asset in various Select Modes such as Vertex, Edge, and Polygon Mode. The hotkey is listed below:
Vertex [1] - Select Vertices.
Edge [2] - Select Edges.
Polygon [3] - Select Polygons.
Position, Rotate, or Scale selected assets in the same way as the cube using:
Position [G]
Rotation [R]
Scale [S]
X Axis [X]
Y Axis [Y]
Z Axis [Z]
Drag the mouse to cover the assets you would like, or
Hold [Shift] while left clicking multiple elements.
Select elements through the model by toggling the 'X-Ray' button at the top right of the Viewport or use [Alt+Z]. You cannot select elements on the opposite side of an asset if this mode is not one.
Selecting Polygons is done at the point in the middle of the polygon in X-Ray Mode.
If you are using Nvidia Capture tools, you may need to change this hotkey in Blender or in the Nvidia capture settings.
Select the element, such as a polygon, and press [Shift + D].
Move the mouse to reposition the duplicate to the viewport, or align the duplicate using the [X], [Y], [Z] keys.
Left click to place the duplicate or right click to reset to the original position.
Note that you will very rarely need to duplicate an edge or a vertex, you will most likely use Extrude tool for that which we will cover in the next tutorial.
Select the elements you would like to delete.
Select [Delete].
Select the element you would like to delete.
The top five will delete the elements and connected elements.
The 'Dissolve' options will delete the selected elements, but keep the other elements when possible. This will be made more clear in later tutorials.
'Limited Dissolve' will try to remove all the elements Blender thinks the asset doesn't need such as edges on flat planes.
Roll over the other options for more information.
In this tutorial you looked at the basics of editing the Vertex, Edge, and Polygon elements in an asset.
[Tab] - Switch between Object and Edit Mode.
[1] - Vertex Select Mode.
[2] - Edge Select Mode.
[3] - Polygon Select Mode.
[Alt + Z] - Toggle X-Ray Mode.
With the ability to edit elements of an asset you can certainly start modifying the box, but we need to look at tools that can add more elemnts to the box to edit! For that we need the 5 most common tools in Blender : Extrude, Inset, Bevel, Loop Cut, and Knife.
