Poly Split surface tool

Interactive instrument for cutting polygons.

See also: Poly Knit, Subdivide

Cuts are made by specifying locations on polygons. Locations can be edges or vertices and do not necessarily have to be within the same polygon, nor do they have to be between two adjacent polygons. If a cut is made from one polygon to another non-adjacent polygon, the operation will try to cut across all the polygons in between. If no connected path exists along the cut, the operation will cut as far as it can from either end.

Once you have specified the path, to complete the operation. To modify the path after it has been completed, ⇧ Shift + anywhere to continue building the path. To modify the path after it has been completed, ⇧ Shift + close to an end-point along the path to continue building from that end-point.

The new polygons that are created preserve vertex and primitive attributes of the polygon from which they were cut. Group memberships are also preserved.

A cut made from one end vertex to another end vertex of an open polygon will close the polygon.

There are two algorithms that PolySplit can use to find the path from the source to the destination. The 'Shortest Distance' algorithm tries to find the shortest path through connecting polygons. The 'Quad Strips' algorithm finds a path through quads, and moves from one quad to the next by crossing opposite edges. The latter algorithm cannot be used to cut through vertices, and self-intersecting cuts may give undesired results. Unlike 'Shortest Distance', 'Quad Strips' will not attempt a cut unless a complete path can be found.

If only one split location is specified and both 'Quad Strips' and 'Close Path' are used, PolySplit will try to find a closed loop around the quad strip.

Locations can be specified interactively or as parameters in the following form:

avb           cut at vertex b of primitive a where a and b are integers.  (e.g. 0v3)

aeb           cut at the midpoint of edge b of primitive a where a and b are integers. (e.g. 0e3)

aeb:t         cut at t percent along the edge b of primitive a where a and b are integers and t is a real number between 0.0 and 1.0.  (e.g. 0e3:0.7 will cut at 70% along the edge 3 of primitive 0)

pa-b          cut at the midpoint of the edge between points a and b, where a and b are integers. (e.g. p1-3)

pa-b:t        cut at t percent along the edge between points a and b, where a and b are integers. (e.g. p1-3:0.7)

The Ctrl + menu provides additional options, such as closing the path, snapping to edge locations and deleting the last point during path construction. For example, toggling on Use constant bias will show two snap locations that are consistent with the previous edge’s location. Toggling on Snap to perpendicular will snap to a location on an edge that will produce a cut that is at a right-angle to that edge.