Disconnecting Polygon Mesh Components

Disconnecting components is the opposite of welding. Components are separated from their neighbors, and new boundary edges and points are added as necessary. For example, you can select a set of polygons on a box and disconnect them to create a lid that is a separate "island" of polygons but still part of the box object.

You can disconnect points, edges, or polygons:

When you disconnect a point, a new point is created for each polygon connected to it, as well as two new boundaries for each internal edge connected to it.


Points selected before disconnecting.	Disconnecting creates new boundaries (blue edges) and points. Initially, the new components are superimposed.	Here, the superimposed components have been moved slightly to see effect better.

If you select samples instead of points, you can control how the point is disconnected.


Only one of the four samples is selected.	Disconnecting creates new boundaries and points. Again, the new components are superimposed.	Here, the superimposed components have been moved slightly to see effect better.

When you disconnect an edge, two new boundaries are created, together with any corresponding points.


Edges selected before disconnecting.	Disconnecting creates new boundaries (blue edges) and points. Initially, the new components are superimposed.	Here again, the superimposed components have been moved slightly to see effect better.

When you disconnect a selection of polygons, boundaries are created along the outline of the selection.


Polygons selected before disconnecting.	Disconnecting creates boundaries around the outline of the selection.	Again, the disconnected polygons have been moved slightly to see effect better.

With polygons, you also have the option of exploding them: this disconnects each polygon individually.


Exploding creates boundaries around each individual polygon.	Again, the exploded polygons have been moved slightly to see effect better.

Note

If you want the separate polygons to be part of a new object, you should use Create Poly. Mesh Extract Polygons (delete) instead of disconnecting them. See Extracting Polygons.
Disconnecting a single interior edge has no effect.

You cannot disconnect this edge by itself.

To disconnect polygon mesh components

Select one or more points, edges, polygons, or clusters on a polygon mesh object.
Choose Modify Poly. Mesh Disconnect Components on the Model toolbar.

If you did not select any components in step 1, you are prompted to pick them now.

The picking session defaults to Rectangle Point selection, but you can change the filter using the buttons on the Select panel and you can change the tool using the commands on the Select Tools menu or the keyboard equivalent (for example, F10 for the Raycast tool).

The selected components are disconnected.
In the case of polygons, the Disconnect Component Op property editor opens.

If desired, turn Explode Polygons on.

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License