2013

Table Of Contents
About Mesh Modeling
You can work with mesh objects in the following ways:
Add smoothness. Increase or decrease smoothness levels to round the
overall shape of the model. The underlying density of the mesh facet grid
increases as the mesh object smoothness level increases
(MESHSMOOTHMORE and MESHSMOOTHLESS).
Refine the object to reset the baseline smoothness level. Refine a
mesh object to convert the underlying facet grid to editable faces.
Refinement also resets the lowest level of smoothness that can be applied
to the object (MESHREFINE).
Refine a face. Restrict the refinement to a specific mesh face. This method
avoids resetting the smoothness baseline.
Crease an edge. Remove the smoothness from specified edges. You can
also remove an existing crease (MESHCREASE).
Split or merge faces.Divide an existing face into separate components
along a specified path. Merge two or more faces to create a single face
(MESHSPLIT and MESHMERGE).
Collapse vertices. Alter the mesh model by collapsing the vertices of
adjacent faces to a single point (MESHCOLLAPSE).
Spin edges.Spin the shared edge of adjacent triangular faces to alter the
shapes and orientation of the faces (MESHSPIN).
Extrude a face.Extend a specified face by extruding it into 3D space.
Unlike 3D solid extrusion, a mesh extrusion does not create a separate
object (MESHEXTRUDE).
Repair holes.Close a gap between faces by selecting the surrounding
edges. Holes in mesh objects can prevent you from converting a mesh
object to a solid object (MESHCAP).
Use Grip Editing with Mesh
Grips, as described in
Use Grips to Edit 3D Solids and Surfaces (page 420), are
not available with meshes. However, you can manipulate the entire mesh
model or individual subobjects using the following methods:
Subobject selection and editing. Select faces, edges, and vertices the
same way you select 3D solid subobjects. Press and hold Ctrl while selecting
a subobject. The subobject highlighting indicates what is selected. Press
and hold Shift and click again to remove the selection from a subobject.
By turning on the Subobject Selection Filter, you can restrict selection to
456 | Chapter 8 Work with 3D Models