Editable Mesh (Edge)

An edge is a line, visible or invisible, forming the side of a face and connecting two vertices. Two faces can share a single edge.

• Select an editable mesh object. > Modify panel > Selection rollout > Edge
• Select an editable mesh object. > Modify panel > Modifier stack display > Expand the Editable Mesh entry. > Edge
• Select an editable mesh object. > Quad menu > Tools 1 quadrant > Edge

At the Editable Mesh (Edge) sub-object level, you can select single and multiple edges and transform them using standard methods.

Procedure

To create a shape from one or more edges:

1. Select the edges you want to make into shapes.
2. On the Edit Geometry rollout, click Create Shape From Edges.
3. Make changes, as needed, on the Create Shape dialog that appears.
   • Enter a curve name or keep the default.
   • Choose Smooth or Linear as the Shape Type.
   • Turn on Ignore Hidden Edges to exclude hidden edges from the calculation, or turn this feature off.
4. Click OK.

   The resulting shape consists of one or more splines whose vertices are coincident with the vertices in the selected edges. The Smooth option results in vertices using smooth values, while the Linear option results in linear splines with corner vertices.

   When you region-select edges, all edges are highlighted, including hidden edges, which are displayed as dashed lines. As a default, the Create Shape function ignores the hidden edges, even though they're selected. Turn off Ignore Hidden Edges if you want to include the hidden edges in the calculation.

   If the selected edges are not continuous, or if they branch, the resulting shape will consist of more than one spline. When the Create Shape function runs into a branching 'Y' in the edges, it makes an arbitrary decision as to which edge produces which spline. To control this, select only edges that will result in a single spline and use Create Shape repeatedly to make the correct number of shapes. Then use Attach in the Editable Spline to combine the shapes into one.

   

   Top: Original object

   Bottom: Object with edges selected

   

   Top: Selected edges removed from original object

   Bottom: Unwanted edges removed

Interface

Selection rollout

For information on the Selection rollout settings, see Selection Rollout (Editable Mesh).

Soft Selection rollout

Soft Selection controls affect the action of sub-object Move, Rotate, and Scale functions. When these are on, 3ds Max applies a spline curve deformation to unselected vertices surrounding the transformed selected sub-object. This provides a magnet-like effect with a sphere of influence around the transformation.

For more information, see Soft Selection Rollout.

Edit Geometry rollout

See Edit Geometry Rollout (Mesh) for detailed descriptions of these controls.

Surface Properties rollout

These controls affect the visibility of the edges. Invisible edges (also called construction lines) appear in the viewports when Edges Only is turned off in the Display command panel, or when you're editing at the Edge sub-object level. The visibility of edges is primarily of importance when an object is being rendered using a wireframe material.

Visible

Makes selected edges visible.

Invisible

Makes selected edges invisible, so they won't be displayed in Edges Only mode.

Auto Edge group

Auto Edge

Automatically determines edge visibility based on the angle between the faces that share the edge, with the angle set by the Threshold spinner to its right.

Clicking Auto Edge can have one of three effects, depending on which radio button is active (Set means to make an invisible edge visible; Clear means to make a visible edge invisible):

• Set and Clear Edge Vis Can change the visibility of all selected edges depending on the Threshold setting.
• Set Makes previously invisible edges visible only if they exceed the Threshold setting; does not clear any edges.
• Clear Makes previously visible edges invisible only if they are less than the Threshold setting; does not make any edges visible.