8

Editable Patch (Patch) 973
Subdivision group
Subdivide—Subdivides selected patches. Select
one or more patches, and then click Subdivide.
Propa gate—When on, extends the subdivision to
neighboring p atches. Propagating the subdivisions
along all contiguous patches prevents patch cracks
where you have attached patches together.
Topology group
Cr e ate —Creates a three or four-sided patch on
existing geometry or in free space. First turn on
Create and then click geometry or free space in the
view por ts to create a quad or a t r i patch.
P atch vertices are selected by left-clicking existing
vertices. Left-clicking in free space creates a new
vertex at that location. If you digitize away from an
existing vertex then a new vertex is created and it
w i ll be included in the sequence of vertices for the
new patch. The cursor changes to white cross hairs
when selecting an existing vertex.
To create a Tri Patch: Click three times in free space
or on existing vertices. Right-click or left-click one
of the vertices in the current sequence to complete
the creation of a Tri Patch.
To create a Quad Patch: Click four times in f ree
space or on existing vertices. The Quad Patch will
be automatically created after the fourth click.
No operation w ill t ake place if you right-click or
selectavertexinthecurrentsequencewhenonly
oneortwoverticesareinthesequence.
Detach—Lets you select one or more patches
w ithin the c urrent object and then detach them (or
copy them) to form a separate patch object.
Reorient—When on, the detached patch copies
the position and orientation of the source object’s
creationLocalcoordinatesystem. Thenew
detached object is moved and rotated so that its
Local coordinate system is positioned and aligned
with the origin of the current active grid.
Co py—When on, the detached patches are copied
to a new patch object, leaving the or iginals intact.
Attach—Lets you attach a n object to the currently
selected patch object. Click the object you want to
attach to the currently selected patch object.
For further details, see
Attach .
Reorient—When on, reorients the attached patch
so that each patch’s creation local coordinate
system is aligned with the creation lo cal coordinate
system of the selec ted patch.
Delete—Deletes the selected patch or patches.
Hide—Hides selected patches.
Unhide A ll—Restores any hidden sub-objects to
visibility.
Extrude & Bevel group
These controls let you extrude and b evel patches.
Extruding patches moves them along a normal
and creates new patches that form the sides of the
extrusion, connect ing the selection to the object.
Be veling add s a second step that lets you scale
the extruded patches. You can extrude and bevel
patches by dragging or by direct entr y. You can
also hold down the SHIFT key during extrusion,
which creates a separate element.
Note: Sides created by beveling or extrusion are
assigned to smoothing group 1.
Ex trude—Clickthisbutton,andthendragany
patch to extrude it interact ively. Hold down the
SHIFT key during this operation to create a new
element.
• When the mouse cursor is over a selected patch,
it changes to an Extrude cursor.
• With multiple patches selected, dragging on
any one extrudes all selected patches equally.
• Youcandragotherpatchesinturntoextrude
themwhiletheExtrudebuttonisactive.