Polygon Modeling

Now that we know our way around the user interface, we can get down to actually creating some 3D models! This page is about creating polygon models, the next page is about creating voxel models.

Remember that all actions in Freestyle can be undone so don't be afraid to play around with your models.

Creating a new item (and how to remove it again)

You add a new item to the scene by pressing the "+" button in the toolbar. In the menu that opens select the polygon primitive that best fit the shape you want to model. Often the cube primitive is a good starting point.

Creating a new item.

An item can be removed again by selecting it and then pressing the "-" button in the toolbar.

Selecting vertices, edges and polygons

To work on an item it has to be selected, and to interact with it in the Viewport the Viewport has to be in edit mode. The item can be selected by clicking it in the Outline, or by clicking it in the Viewport when the Viewport is in pick mode. To change the Viewport mode use the two buttons in the upper left corner of the Viewport.

A selection can consist of vertices, edges or polygons. What you work on is decided by the selection mode, which can be seen in the Inspector under the Selection tab. The current selection mode can also easily be seen when moving the mouse over the item in the Viewport.

You can select elements in the Viewport by hovering the mouse over the element and pressing the left mouse button. By keeping the left mouse button pressed you can "paint select" more elements. If the element you press the left mouse button on is already selected it will become deselected.

Modifying selected vertices, edges and polygons

When you have a selection, a lot more buttons become available in the inspector. This is because it is context sensitive; it only shows what you can do now instead of swamping you in buttons that are disabled anyway.

The tools that work on your selection are revealed by clicking the "Geometric" and "Topological" tab buttons in the Inspector. The tools under the "Geometric" tab modify the shape of the item, while the tools under the "Topological" tab introduce or remove detail from the item. The available tools depend on the selection mode you are in.

Topological tools with a polygon selection.

Many tools will reveal a Tool Settings view in the lower right corner of the Viewport when activated. These tool settings are only available while the tool is active. However a tool becomes active again by undo and redo. Tool settings are not included in saved scene files.

Snapping

When moving gizmos around in the viewport it can be very convenient to snap to geometry. While dragging a gizmo you can press and hold the shift key. This makes the gizmo snap to any vertex in near proximity to the mouse cursor. If you press and hold both the shift key and the control key while still dragging the gizmo, you can move the gizmo in retained mode, meaning you don't actually change the result until you release the control key or the mouse button. This is very useful if the geometry you are moving is hiding what you want to snap to. Simply drag the gizmo away from the geometry you want to snap to, press and hold shift and control and now you can unhindered snap the gizmo to the geometry.

The snapping to vertices happen on the base mesh, meaning if you try to snap to a geometry item with a subdiv level higher than zero, the vertices the snapping uses are actually at another location than what you see in the viewport.

Constraints

Gizmo movement and rotation can be constrained to discrete values, so e.g. rotating exactly 45 degrees is very easy. While dragging a gizmo you can press and hold the alt key for the biggest constraint value, press and hold the control key for the medium constraint value, and press and hold both the alt key and the control key for the smallest constraint value.