subdivide a mesh?

Support Basics & Interface
1

if I have a mesh thats made of all quads, how do I subdivide a small portion of that mesh?

if i select some verts, then “w”, then subdivide i get triangles all over the place

how can i avoid the triangles

thanks

lilo

2

you need to transition into the level of detail…

but that isn’t easy, you can convert your triangles to quads (and create new faces), but the addition of more detail in a subdivsion surface mesh doesn’t work well with subdividing

I may edit this post with some more stuff, but it would be easier if I knew what you meant…

triangles are reasonable in moderation, but I think 6+ edged verticies are more of an issue

--------------------- edit… ---------------------
quck thing done in wings
there is no real good way to add THAT MUCH detail on an area. Hence this isn’t pretty and would be difficult to do on a larger area.

Probably not the best way (needs some tweaking), but in this case it would work

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/YinYangEvilSane/BlenderStuff/subdivTransition.png

3

thanks for your reply…

I’ll try and clarify

lets say i create a plane / 4 verts

i then extrude the top 2 verts , now i have 2 planes / 6 verts

now, if i wanted to add more detail, and i select, say the top 4 verts (leaving 2 unselected)

i hit “w”, then subdivide

what i get is the top plane subdivided into 4

and the bottom plane becomes 3 triangles??

so i guess my question was how to prevent the triangles

and the reason for this is, on larger meshes

when trying to add detail, and i get all these triangles

it becomes difficult to subsurf

from what i’ve read triangles should always be avoided

hope this is not to confusing

:-?

or, is there a better way to add detail to a mesh?

thanks for your time

lilo

4

You select the part you want to subdivide and duplicate it. Without moving the mouse subdivide, tab out of edit, tab again to select the whole mesh, A (yellow) and remove doubles. This subdivides all quads into 4 quads each. You may not be looking for that amount of subdivision.

Otherwise you use the trusty Rusty Knife. You dont need Python installed you just run it.

%<

5

Or subdivide then select all and hit Alt+J. Fligh’s Idea seems best though, you still can get some triangles with alt+J.

6

thanks guys :smiley:

i have been trying to do some reading to better understand whats going on

i keep coming across the term “edge loop”

could someone explain / give me an example of an edge loop

thanks again

lilo

7

Hehe, we had this discussion some threads back when we were discussing bevelling. That rectangle with the rounded corners that z3r0 d showed you is one of the edge loops in that image.

Here’s the tut that taught me about them.

http://maxrovat.sns.hu/subdiv/subdivmodeling.htm

Edge loops and bevells are well suported in wings. That’s one of the reasons it’s such a good modeller. Use it for an hour with the PDF Doc and all you search for will be revealed. And you will learn something about Blender too.

%<

8

Thanks Fligh%

/lilo suffles off to give wings a look see :-?

cheers

9

Hi Lilo,

In case you haven’t already seen, this thread in the Wings Q&A forum has something on edge loops:-

http://pub33.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm3.showMessage?topicID=135.topic