What's the best approach to this topology problem?

I’ve looked at a few topology tips but I still seem to get caught up with this particular scenario.
How could I close this gap with quads while still keeping good edge flow?

You can’t, unless you add some loop cuts:


Or zipper merge these into one line:

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If this is the whole model, I’d split that edge and slide the edges to form a gap, then fill it with quads.

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This also fixes the upper left corner.

Then fill the 2 quad holes and do a quick Sculpt Mode Smooth.

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A patch in isolation means nothing. You need to consider the context to determine appropriate flow.

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Something like this is guess.
Really depends on what the final mesh is.

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I went ahead and added another loop cut, but what if I am in a topology situation where 2 faces to turn into 3?

Figure out your flow direction and retopologize (see the other replies)

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Sometimes a triangle also is okay…
As always: it depends…

Is it seeable… does it have a high contrast texture… is really that big that you can see texture smearing… and what not…

…so best approach: whatever fits the situation…

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Save that…

Look at the diamond in your example. Off the lower right side of the hole. Where it starts on the hole are 5 edges meeting, not 4 like with quads. So that is a 5-pole. There is another at the top of the hole. Poles are where you get splits and changes of direction. Look at the 3-poles in the image above.
Sometimes it is more useful looking at the vertex (or edge) flow rather than the face flow.

There are lots of those example images online. Search for ‘topology 2 to 3’ or 2 to 4 etc.

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All this said… it also depends not only heavily on the shown topology… but also surrounding one !! And the curvation you want to follow… because this might look good as a solution (every point form the border is connected and everything quad… the green on the right looks a bit weird but i just used stright lines in absence of real data… ):

…but i doubt that this looks good with the surrounding curvation !!