Polygons preferences

You can set the following preferences in the Polygons category of the Preferences window.

To return to the default factory settings, choose Edit > Restore Default Settings in this window. Note that this resets the preferences in every category in the Preferences window.

Polygon Display

Vertices

Specify how you want vertices to display:

Display

Turns the display of vertices on or off.

Normals

Displays vertex normals on or off.

Backculling

Makes vertices invisible in areas where the normal is pointing away from the camera.

Vertex Size

Allows you to adjust vertex size for new polygons.

Edges

Specify how you want edges to display:

Standard

Displays all edges the same (hard or soft).

Soft/Hard

Displays soft edges as dotted lines and hard edges as wireframe.

Hard (colors)

Displays hard edges as colored lines and soft edges as wireframe. See Displaying hard edges in customized colors.

Hard

Displays hard edges as colored lines. Soft edges can still be highlighted and selected, but don't appear on the mesh.

Highlight

Specify how you want to highlight polygons:

Border edges

Displays thicker outside edges to make them more visible for certain operations.

Texture borders

Displays a thick border to highlight the area a texture affects per polygon or per vertex.

Crease edges

Show polygon crease edges highlighted (thicker and bold) or with no highlight. You can turn this option on and off in the Display > Polygons > Custom Polygon Display options dialog box (where it affects the currently selected object) as well as here. This preference affects any new polygon objects you create, not existing objects.

Edge Width

Specify the width of the polygon edge. The range is from 1 to 10.

Faces

Specify how you want faces to display:

Centers

Displays a small square to indicate the face center.

Normals

Shows the normals at the center of each polygon.

Triangles

Displays all polygons as triangles.

Non-planar

Displays non-planar faces with a tinted color for easy identification. A non-planar face has vertices that lie outside the plane of the face. By identifying and eliminating non-planar faces, you can avoid unexpected results from reshaping the surface later.

Show item numbers

Specify where you want item numbers displayed: at each vertex (Vertices), at each edge (Edges), on each face (Faces), or at each UV (UVs).

Normals size

Specifies the display size of the normals. The range is from 0.1 to 10.

UV Size

Specifies the size that UVs are displayed in the main panel and UV Texture Editor.

Color

Turn Colored Shading on to use the Apply Color operation (Mesh Display > Apply Color). For more information, see Apply Color Options.

Color material

These menu options override any existing material channels and replace them with the vertex colors you assign. For all options other than None, lighting affects the object’s shading.

None

None of the material properties of the shader(s) assigned to the object are used. In this case lighting is also disabled.

Ambient

The ambient material channel of the assigned shader(s) is overridden by the vertex color.

Ambient + Diffuse

The ambient and diffuse material channels of the assigned shader(s) are overridden by the vertex color.

Diffuse

The diffuse material channel of the assigned shader(s) is overridden by the vertex color.

Specular

The specular material channel of the assigned shader(s) is overridden by the vertex color.

Emission

The emission material channel of the assigned shader(s) is overridden by the vertex color.

Material blend

Renders material blends in hardware. For details of how Material Blend operates, see Material Blend Setting Options. These options are also available at Mesh Display > Material Blend Setting.

Display Alpha as Grey Scale if Color Set Contains Only Alpha

Displays an alpha-only color set as greyscale in the Scene view.

Backface culling

Specify the display for backface culling:

Off

No backface culling occurs. This is the default.

On

Surfaces become invisible in areas where the normal is pointing away from the camera.

Keep wire

Displays wireframe outlines, but any areas where the normal is pointing away from the camera are hidden.

Keep hard edges

Sets backface culling for soft edges only. See Polygonal Modeling for more information on polygonal modeling.

Subdivision Method
Sets the default subdivision method for new polygon objects. Default value is OpenSubdiv Catmull-Clark.
Note: This can be changed in each individual object's Smooth Mesh options.