Ok, so I’m modeling a missle being hit by a laser beam, after it’s hit I need to show the effects of the laser on the surface of the missle, do do this I duplicated the hit portion of the missle and moved it to a new layer. Here’s my dilema, I’d like to use vertex paint (as well as some particles and maybe an animated mesh?) to show the effects of the laser on the metal. However, the only way I can tell to add verts to the middle of the tube is to subdivide, which makes everything really complicated because all the circular edges are subdivided as well as the flat sides.
Try selecting all of the vertices, then do a knife sudivide down the side of the mesh. You can choose either exact line or midpoints. If done right, the mesh should divide right where you want them.
Maybe I’m wrong, but can’t you just select the two verts connecting the long edge of the tube and subdivide that? That way you get extra verts in the middle but not in the circle.
Or just do a loop subdivide somewhere in the middle of the tube.
I really think the loop subdivide is your best bet. In edit mode press K and choose loop subdivide (or loop cut, if forget what it’s called). Position the cursor until it shows the line going across your tube. Left-click once then position the line where you want the cut made. Left-click again and the extra verts will be there. If this doesn’t do what you want, maybe I’m not understanding exactly what you’re trying to do. Can you post any pics?