The ONLY 3 Modeling Tools You Need To Make ANYTHING in Blender 3.4!
Polygon modeling requires a lot of work to increase vertices (points) and sides (edges) using loop cuts and knife tools on objects such as cubes that are the base. It may be necessary to perform detailed work such as filling in the surface.
In this article, I will introduce the details and how to use the three tools that can be used in Blender.
Most Powerful Tool in Blender :
Blender has several tools that can facilitate such work. Commonly used tools include Bridge Edge Loops, Auto Merge, and Fill. It will be one of your best tools.
Bridge Edge Loops
Edge Loop Bridge is a tool that selects multiple edges and bridges them with a face based on those edges. This is a useful tool when you accidentally delete a face or when you want to create a new face.
In edit mode, select the edge you want to fill as a face using the Shift key, etc., and select " Edge loop bridge " from " Edge " at the top of the viewport to create a new face via the selected edge.
There is no shortcut key provided, so it may be a good idea to press the "F3" key and search for " bridge " from the search screen or specify your favorite shortcut key from the preferences.
This side loop bridge not only fills the face but can also open a hole if you apply it with the facing face selected as shown below.
In addition, applying an edge loop bridge with adjacent faces selected will remove the overlapping faces and merge the objects.
It can also be applied to objects without faces, such as circles. By duplicating a circle, changing the scale, and applying an edge loop bridge, you can create an object like the one below. It is recommended because it is ideal for modeling vases and bottles.
Auto Merge tool in blender
The automatic merge tool is useful when you want to combine vertices or edges. First, click the "N" key or the arrow icon on the right and check " Auto Merge " in the " Tools " item
.Select the object, switch to edit mode, and select the points or edges you want to join. It is best to enable vertex or edge snapping at this time.
If you use the white circle in the center of the gizmo and drag it to where you want to merge, it will be automatically merged.
If you want to combine at the center of the selected vertex instead of automatic merging, select the vertex and select " Mesh " from the upper menu, " Merge " and " Center ". This tool can also be invoked with the shortcut key " M ".
Fill is a tool that fills holes in polygons by adding faces based on multiple edges. Once in edit mode, you can select edges using multiple edge or loop selection and apply a fill with the 'F' key.
This fill can also be applied from the " Face " and " Fill " items in the top menu, but depending on the mesh, the result may be different from when using the shortcut key.
I think it's good to use the shortcut key to fill the hole in the polygon and then use the knife tool to adjust the geometry.
Extra vertices may be added when adjusting the mesh. In that case, it is recommended to optimize the vertices after completing the mesh adjustment to some extent.
To optimize vertices go to vertex mode, select all vertices using the 'A' key and select ' Mesh ', ' Merge ' from the top menu, or 'By distance ' with shortcut key ' M ' To.
When applied, adjacent non-overlapping vertices are merged and adjusted into a clean mesh. If there are vertices that have been deleted, you can also check from the item below. Also, since the distance of the vertices to be joined can be adjusted from " Bonding distance ", it is a good idea to change it as necessary.