Modeling with Subdivision Surfaces/ Adding New Points and Faces

Adding New Points and Faces

 

Copying points

You can add new points to a SDS object by using the standard Ctrl + drag method. In other words, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging a vertex with the left mouse button.


Two points duplicated by dragging them while holding down the Ctrl key

This duplicates and moves all the selected points.
 

Creating faces through existing points

To create new faces through existing points:

1. Switch to the 'Point' editing mode.
2. Select three or more points in the order in which you want them to be inserted to the new face.
3. Click the 'Add' tool.


Add face tool


A new face added to the selected vertices
 

Copying faces

You can copy faces similar to points - hold down the Ctrl key while dragging a face.

This duplicates and moves the selected vertices or faces.


A new face created by dragging an existing face with the Ctrl key
 

Adding new faces through edges

You can create new faces also through existing edges by using the 'Add' tool. The tool creates a new face through the selected edges. For example, to connect two edges belonging to separate faces:

1. Switch to the 'Edge' mode.
2. Select the desired edges.
3. Click the 'Add' tool.

 
Two edges selected on the left, 'Add' face applied on the right
 

Creating new faces on the fly

The 'Add' face tool allows you to add new faces through existing edges or points. However, sometimes there are no suitable points or edges from which the new faces could be created.  You can solve this problem by first creating the points (by dragging existing points with the Ctrl key as described earlier) and then using the 'Add' tool to create a face through the points.

The 'Faces' tool speeds up this process by allowing you to enter new points and faces simultaneously. This tool also allows you to snap to existing points.


'Faces' tool

For example, if you have a 5x2 SDS mesh and you would like to make it 6x2 mesh by inserting a new face to the tail of the mesh:

1. Select the mesh to be modified.
2. Click the 'Faces' tool of the control bar.
3. Click the left mouse button twice to create two new points for the SDS mesh. Then press down the Alt key and move the mouse near the existing edge points to attach the remaining two points. By holding down the Alt key, you can snap to existing points and no new points will be inserted to the selected SDS object.


A new face under construction

4. When all the four points are inserted, select Accept to terminate the face creation.

Note: if you want to create several faces which all will have equal point count, you can use the 'Auto Accept' mode. For example, to create faces with four points, set 'Points per face' to 4. A new face is created every 4th entered point.


A new face is created automatically after every 4th entered point

Note: if you only want to insert new points to the selected object (not faces), reset the 'Create Face' option.