8

852 Chapter 8: Modifiers
When the Symmet ry modifier is applied to a mesh,
any edits made to the original half of the mesh will
appear interactively to the other half.
The Symmetry modifier is especially useful when
modeling characters or building ships and aircraft.
Note: The Symmetry modifier converts Editable
Mesh, Editable Patch, and NURBS objects to
Editable Meshes in the modifier s tack; however,
Editable Poly objects remain as polys.
Procedure
Example: To apply the symmetr y modifier to an
obj ect:
1.
Create a teapot in the perspect ive view port.
2. Apply the Symmetry modifier.
Theteapotwilllooklikeithastwospouts.
3. In the modifier stack, click the + button to see
the Mirror g izmo, and then select Mirror.
The m irror gizmo acts as a slice plane when it is
w ithin the boundaries of the object
4. With the Mirror Axis set to X, click and drag
the mirror gizmo along the X axis.
Dragging right slices more of the teapot until
there is nothing visible. Drag ging left c auses
a second teapot to appear. When the mir ror
gizmo is moved beyond the boundaries of the
original mesh, it acts as a mirror plane showing
you two complete teapots.
Inter face
Modifier Stack
Mirror—The placement of the mirror g izmo
delegateshowtheobjectwillbeaffectedby
symmetry. You can move or rotate, as well as
animate the gizmo.
For more information on the stack display, see
Modifier Stack (page 3–802) .
Parameters rollout
Mirror Axis group
X, Y, Z—Specif y the axis about which the symmetry
takes place. You can see the effect in the viewport
as you select the axis.
Flip—Turn on Flip if you want to flip the direction
of the symmet ry effect. Default=off.
Slice Along Mir ror—Tur ni ng on Sl ice Along Mi rror
causes the mir ror gizmo to act as a slice plane
whenitinlocatedinsidetheboundariesofamesh.
When the gizmo is outside the boundaries of a
mesh, the sy m met r ical reflection is still treated as
part of the originating mesh. If Slice Along Mirror
is turned off, the symmetrical reflection is treated
as a separate element of the originating mesh.
Default=on.
Weld Seam —Turning on Weld Seam assures
that the vertices along the mirror axis will be
automaticallyweldediftheyarewithinthe
Threshold. Default=on.
Threshold—The value of the Threshold setting
delegates how close vertices can be before being
automatically welded together. Default=0.1.
Note: Setting the Threshold value too high may
result in some distortion of the mesh, especially