Interface

PolyDraw panel on minimized ribbon

PolyDraw panel on maximized ribbon, with expansion

PolyDraw panel floating, with expansion

Drag

With the Drag tool you can move individual sub-objects around on the surface or grid. The options are:

• Normal Move vertices by dragging them.
  NoteWhen you use Drag at the Vertex sub-object level, moving the mouse cursor around automatically selects the vertex that will be moved when you drag the mouse.
• Shift Move edges by dragging them.
• Ctrl Move polygons by dragging them.
• Shift+Ctrl Move edge loops by dragging them.
• Shift+Ctrl+Alt Move elements by dragging them.

You can also use Drag to move sub-objects in screen space; that is, perpendicular to the current view direction. You do not need to change the active coordinate system to use this method.

• Alt Drag vertices to move them in screen space.
• Alt+Shift Drag edges to move them in screen space.
• Alt+Ctrl Drag polygons to move them in screen space.

Conform Brush

The Conform brushes let you mold a conform object into the shape of of a target object while moving the conform object's vertices toward the target. You can base the conform direction on the normals of the conforming vertices, or on a line between the target surface and the view plane. Possible modeling applications include painting a moustache object onto a character's face or a road onto a hilly terrain.

To see an example of using the basic Conform brush to mold a plane onto a character's face, play the following video:

When any Conform Brush tool is active, the Conform Options panel opens. Use its settings to control the tool behavior and brush properties.

In addition to the basic Conform Brush tool, four transform-based variants are available:

• Move Conform BrushMoves vertices within the spherical brush volume along the target surface while conforming vertices to the target surface.
• Rotate Conform BrushRotates vertices within the spherical brush volume about the brush center while conforming vertices to the target surface.
• Scale Conform BrushScales vertices within the spherical brush volume about the brush center while conforming vertices to the target surface.
• Relax Conform BrushApplies a relax effect to vertices within the spherical brush volume while conforming vertices to the target surface.

Step Build

With Step Build you can build and edit a surface vertex by vertex and polygon by polygon. Works at the object level and all sub-object levels. Right-click to exit the tool.

Following are the different functions of the tool, depending on which keyboard keys are pressed:

• Normal Click to place vertices on the grid or surface.
• Shift Drag over freestanding vertices to fill in the gaps with quad polygons. This always creates a polygon from the closest four vertices.
• Ctrl Click a polygon to delete it. The vertices remain so that if you accidently create a face in the wrong place it's easy to delete the face and draw again closer to the vertices you want.
• Alt Click a vertex to remove it.
• Ctrl+Alt Click an edge to remove it.
• Ctrl+Shift Click to place and select vertices, or to select existing vertices. Each time you place and/or select four vertices, Step Build automatically creates a polygon. It includes the last two vertices from the previously created polygon in the new selection, so you need only click twice to create the next polygon. To clear the selection, release the keys.
• Shift+Alt Move the mouse cursor (without dragging) over vertices to select them, and then click to create a polygon from the selected vertices. Useful for creating non-quad polygons. To clear the selection, release the keys.
• Ctrl+Shift+Alt Drag to move a vertex around on the grid or surface. At the Vertex sub-object level, a vertex highlights when you move the mouse near enough to start dragging it.

NoteWhile Step Build is active, vertex ticks are always visible for the selected object. If you don’t see them at levels other than Vertex, make sure the object’s display properties are set to By Object.

Extend

With the Extend tool you can work on the open edges of the object; those on the border of the surface that have only one polygon attached. Following are the different functions of the Extend tool:

• Normal Drag a border vertex to create a polygon.
• Shift Drag a border edge to create a polygon.
• Ctrl+Shift Drag an edge to extend the entire loop on which the edge resides.
• Ctrl+Alt Drag between two edges to create a polygon.
• Ctrl Click to delete a polygon and its isolated vertices.
• Ctrl+Shift+Alt Drag a vertex to move it around on the grid or surface.

You can also use Extend to edit the object in screen space, thus moving sub-objects perpendicular to the view direction. You do not need to change the active coordinate system to use this method.

• Alt Drag a border vertex to create a polygon in screen space.
• Alt+Shift Drag a border edge to create a polygon in screen space.

Optimize

Optimize meshes quickly by sketching away details. The tool options are:

• Normal Click edges to collapse them, combining two vertices into one.
• Shift Drag from one vertex to the next to target-weld the two, combining the first with the second. If you continue dragging to further vertices you can weld several vertices with a single stroke.
• Ctrl Drag between vertices to connect them with edges.
• Alt Remove a vertex by clicking it.
• Shift+Ctrl Remove an edge loop by clicking an edge on the loop.
• Shift+Alt Remove an edge ring by clicking an edge in the ring.
• Ctrl+Alt Remove an edge by clicking it.
• Shift+Ctrl+Alt Move a vertex by dragging it.

Draw On:

From the drop-down list, choose the entity type to draw on:

• GridPolyDraw creates geometry on the grid of the active viewport.

  This drawing mode is particularly suited to orthographic viewports, but also works well in perspective viewports.

• SurfacePolyDraw creates geometry on an object that you specify.

  Click the Pick button and then select a different object to draw on. The button then contains the name of that object. Use any of the PolyDraw tools (Strips, etc.) to draw on the object. To change the surface, click the button again and choose a different object to draw on.

• SelectionPolyDraw creates geometry on the selected object.

Pick

Designates an object to draw on for the Draw On: Surface option (see preceding).

After setting the Draw On option to Surface, click the Pick button, and then click an object to draw on. To remove the object, click the button again.

Offset

The distance that PolyDraw uses for creating geometry on (or moving it across) the grid or object surface (depending on the Draw On setting).

Shapes

Draw polygon shapes on the grid or a surface.

Drag to set the polygon outline on the grid or an object surface. After drawing a polygon, optionally use Solve Surface to create a workable mesh from the shape.

While Draw Polygon is active, the following keyboard alternatives are available:

• Ctrl Click to delete a polygon.
• Ctrl+Shift+Alt Drag to move a polygon.

Topology

Draw lines that form a grid of quads. As you draw eligible quads, Topology fills them in with polygons, creating a mesh from the grid. Right-click to exit the tool.

Left: Starting to draw the grid

Center: Completing the grid, with polygons created

Right: The result of using Topology (after right-clicking to exit)

If Auto Weld (see following) is on, the software automatically attaches the created mesh to the selected object and welds border vertices that are close together. This way you can continue adding to the surface of the selected object.

When Auto Weld is off, drawing with Topology always creates a new object.

The Minimum Distance value determines the resolution of the lines. If the value is too small some faces might be missed in the polygon creation. The default value, 10.0, with the unit type set to pixels should work well in most cases.

While Draw Topology Pattern is active, the following keyboard alternatives are available:

• Shift Drag to continue a line from the closest existing endpoint.
• Ctrl Click to delete a line.

Auto Weld (on Topology drop-down)

When on, automatically attaches the mesh that you create with Topology to the selected object and welds border vertices that are close together.

When off, drawing with Topology always creates a new object.

Splines

Draw splines on a surface or grid. You can then make these splines renderable or use them in a lofting operation to create quick details.

Set the Draw On option, click Splines, and then drag to draw the splines on the desired base. All splines are combined into a single, separate object.

While Splines is active, the following keyboard alternatives are available:

• Ctrl Click to delete a spline.
• Ctrl+Shift+Alt Drag to move the closest spline.

Strips

Paint strips of polygons that curve to follow the mouse direction.

The Strips tool lets you quickly lay out the topology foundation for a mesh object.

While Strips is active, the following keyboard alternatives are available:

• Shift Starts painting from the closest existing edge.
• Alt While drawing, press and drag to an open edge in the current object (but not on the same strip) to add a polygon between where you press Alt and the edge you drag to.

  Alternatively, press Alt before drawing and then drag between two open edges to connect them with a new polygon.

Surface

Drag to paint a surface onto an object or the grid.

The following options are available:

• When Quads is on (see following), the surface is made up of four-sided polygons. When Quads is off, Surface uses triangles.
• To set the size of the surface polygons, adjust the Minimum Distance setting.
• To start the surface from an existing border edge, hold Shift before starting to draw. This prevents drawing overlapping polygons.
• To delete a polygon and any resulting isolated vertices while Surface is active, Shift+click it.

Quads (on Surface drop-down)

When on, drawing with the Surface tool (see preceding) creates quadrilateral polygons. When off, Surface creates triangular polygons.

Branches

Paint multi-segmented extrusions from polygons with optional tapering to form "branches.”

Note Drawing branches always starts from the selected object; it doesn’t use the Draw On: (Grid/Surface/Selection) setting.

The extrusions are aligned to the screen. The Branch Taper value (see following) determines the difference in size between the first and the last polygon in the branch, while Minimum Distance lets you set the distance between segments in the extrusion.

Activate the tool and then drag from polygons on the selected object to draw branches.

While Branches is active, the following keyboard alternatives are available:

• Normal Drag to draw extruded branches from the polygon closest to the mouse.
• Shift Drag to draw extruded branches from all selected polygons.
• Ctrl Click to select a polygon (at the Polygon sub-object level only).
• Ctrl+Alt Click to select/deselect additional polygons (at the Polygon sub-object level only).

Branch Taper

The amount by which branches taper as you draw them. A negative value makes the branch dwindle in size; a positive value makes it get thicker, and 0 keeps it the same size as the starting polygon.

A value of -1.0 makes the end of the branch as small as possible, while values lower than -1.0 cause the branch to shrink to the minimum partway through and then enlarge the rest of the way.

New Object

Creates a new, “empty” editable poly object and accesses the Vertex sub-object level while keeping the current PolyDraw tool active.

Immediately after clicking New Obj you can use the PolyDraw tools to add geometry to the new object.

Solve Surface

Takes a polygon shape such as one painted with the Shapes tool and tries to create a workable mesh, adding edges so that the result is a clean shape composed mainly of quadrilateral polygons. Or, if Solve To Quads (see following) is off, the result is mostly triangles.

TipSolve Surface works best when the starting shape is mostly in the form of "strips," where the two sides of the polygon are fairly close together.

Angle

Affects the way Solve Surface connects vertices. With flat shapes, the default value of 35 works best. With curved surfaces, however, Solve Surface might produce better results at higher values.

Solve to Quads

When on, using Solve Surface (see preceding) results in mostly four-sided polygons. When off, Solve Surface produces mainly triangles.

Minimum Distance

The shortest distance you need to drag the mouse before the next step in the tool is taken.

For example, when using the Shapes tool, this value determines the minimum distance, in pixels or world units, between the vertices the software creates as you draw.

To determine how to measure Minimum Distance, choose one of the following:

• in PixelsUses pixels to specify the minimum distance you need to drag the mouse before the next step in the tool is taken.
• in UnitsUses world units to specify the minimum distance you need to drag the mouse before the next step in the tool is taken.