question regarding backspace function

[foreverendering]

ha, oh man I feel stupid.

I just had an epiphany.

If you want to clean it up real fast you can just

1) select the edge
2) hit loop
3) right click -> convert to vertex (or use hotkey if you have it)
4) hit 2 to return to edge mode
5) hit backspace
6) hit 1 to switch back to vertex mode
7) hit backspace

It was sitting right there in front of my face and I couldn't piece it together. Anyway this might seem stupid to some (most?) of you but I found it pretty cool.

[Stroker]

Personally, I just Target Weld a bunch of verts.
Then again, I'm hardly ever removing an entire edgeloop.
Anywho, thanks and I'm glad you figured it out.

[Dave Black]

You can also use the "Turn to Poly" modifier, which will get rid of all those stray and 2-sided verts.

Of course, you'd have to collapse the stack after that, but it's just something I felt like adding...so I did. :p

-3DZ

:D

[foreverendering]

Not to sound like an idiot (but unfortunately I can't help that fact)... What is a 2-sided vert?

[Dave Black]

It's a vertex that has 2 "sides". You can have 2-sided, 3-sided, 4-sided, and N-sided.

These are just shorthand for the number of edges terminating at a particular vertex. So if you take an edge and divide it in two, that vertex at the midpoint is a 2-sided vert.

Hope that made sense. Only about 50% of CG people actually use this terminalogy, so don't feel bad. I should have explained myself better.

-3DZ

:D

[foreverendering]

Oh... dude I totally get what you are saying now. Just never thought about saying it that way.

Btw, since most people talk about trying build solely from quads, it would make sense that all vertices would want to be 4-sided, right?

But sometimes I end up with 5-sided vertices - is that a big deal or not really an issue to worry about? I guess what I'm trying to ask is - are 5 sided vertices okay?

I realize this is straying off topic but might as well pick your brain while I can :)

[Dave Black]

If you're not familar with my "Theoretical Sub-D" thread, you should check it out. It's a very long read, but will really help with your modeling skills and understanding if you can get through it.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40373

Myself and some other members are currently condensing it into a FAQ for easy reading too. It'l be out sometime next month.

As for your specific question, you can model with tris and n-gons(non-quad, non-tri polys). You just have to know the risks and the benefits of doing so. It's almost pointless to try to model without them. You just have to hide them, or use the sparingly.

As for 5+ and 4- sided polys, these are refered to as "Poles". They generate some strange smoothing abnormalities due mostly to the smoothing-group/normals interpolation. You can use them, but a good rule of thumb is to avoid them when possible. If it's causing you alot of headaches, obviously, get rid of them.

I try to use them only in a few places for most modeling situations, but really, don't let yourself get too bogged down in these "rules". A few tris, a couple of poles, some N-gons, are not going to nessaarily ruin your model.

Anyway, if you want to be alerted when the Sub-d FAQ is available, you cen send an email here:

subscribe@3dzealot.com

Hope all that made sense.

-3DZ

:D

[foreverendering]

Will do, thanks!

Great read so far btw this will take a while to wade through. I'm starting on page 1 :D

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