cutting a circle out of a square

Is it possible to cut a circle out of a square so that you end up with a square with a hole in the middle. ATM i just create a circle and a square and play dot 2 dot but this can be tedious.

I love collecting ways of doing this so if anyone has another way…
Here are 3 methods I know of

Method 1

add bezier circle

go into edit mode select all verts and [v]

object mode [r] 45 to get the square straight

go into edit mode again and add another bezier circle

if you didnt move your cursor this should appear as a cut out in the square

you could [alt]+[c] if you wanted it as a mesh

Method 2

Create plane

in edit mode subdivide 3 times

[a] to unselect verts (this should select the inner ‘loop’)

select the 3x3 verts in the middle and delete

[alt] select one of the verts in the inner cut-out

[shift] + [s] cursor to selection

click [to sphere] in the f9 panel (100 %)

this gives you a 16 vert circle - you can either apply subsurf or cut a bigger hole/subdivide more to get a smoother circle

method 3

this one is mad but I like it :stuck_out_tongue:

Create a circle

select all verts

[e] then [enter]

[s] to scale

you should have a ring

select a 1/4 of the outer verts on the left then [s] [x] 0
repeat for the right hand side
select the top 1/4 of verts [s] [y] 0
repeat for the bottom

NOTE obviously change your x/y/z depending on which view you originally created the object

Heres the resulting meshes from each method

Ive used all these methods depending on what Im doing. Method 2 is best if you already have a box model and want to cut out circles from a face

Have fun :slight_smile:

Thanks thats exactly what i wanted :smiley:

cool, that’s going in my repertoire of Blender tricks :smiley:
I find the third method the best, though.
But I guess the others can be usefull too

Glad it was useful guys :slight_smile:

Awesome, thanks!

theres another method which I use, im not sure if it was mentioned but basically select the vertices you want to be the hole (click on the line and press shift to save time) then bring up the mini menu(spacebar) then type in “to sphere” then click on it or press enter and BOOM, your done. add subd to smoothen the hole if you want. :slight_smile:

In method 2, F9 menu does not appear. How can i display it in blender 2.63

F9 appears to be a typo. Hit F6. It’s the same operator panel in the tool bar (T) menu.

My preferred method requires the Looptools addon; be aware that not all of it works with bmesh. The circle function does, normally.

With a default cube, go to editmode, select all and subdivide once, w - select subdivide. It needs at least 8 verts to get a decent circle with a level two subsurf modifier; very small circles can manage with 6; or if they are some distance from the camera. More can be required for larger or close ups.

Select all the verts from a face, then e to extrude, and right-click to cancel.

s to scale the extruded verts inwards.

deselect all verts, then select the centre vert.

x to delete it.

alt right click on the open edge to select the edge-loop; it should select the 8 verts.

w, loop tools and select circle.

scale the circle to the desired size; it can actually be bigger than the cube, but should scale without any problem.

e to extrude; right click to cancel and then you can g to grab it in the desired direction; if you change the 3d manipulator at the bottom of the screen from global to normal you can either grab them along the global, or normal axis. g to grab, then x to drag along the x axis, pressing x again will allow you to drag along the normal x axis.

Add a subsurf modifier; level 2 works well, unless you require a very large circle - play with it /nod

EDIT:

With BMesh now with us, you could just select one face and subdivide that, but then you would need to sort out those ngons at some stage; if the surfaces that had the ngons remained flat they may be fine left as is, but something to be aware of.