This is a general introduction to sub-object selection. For specific information, see Editable Mesh, Editable Patch, Editable Poly, and Editable Spline; for a discussion of NURBS sub-object selection, see Sub-Object Selection.
When you model an object, often you edit a portion of its underlying geometry, such as a set of its faces or vertices. Or when you are working with a model, you may want to apply mapping coordinates to a portion of its underlying geometry. Use the methods described in this topic to make sub-object selections.
Left: A selection of face sub-objects
Middle: A selection of edge sub-objects
Right: A selection of vertex sub-objects
You can access sub-object geometry through a variety of methods. The most common technique is to convert an object into "editable" geometry such as a mesh, spline, patch, NURBS, or poly object. These object types let you select and edit geometry at the sub-object level.
If you have a primitive object and want to retain control of its creation parameters, you can apply a modifier such as Edit Mesh, Edit Poly, Edit Spline, Edit Patch, or Mesh Select.
The Line spline and NURBS curves and surfaces are the exception: you can edit their sub-objects as soon as you create these kinds of objects.
You choose a sub-object level in the stack display. Click the plus sign that appears next to the name of an object that has sub-objects. This expands the hierarchy, showing the available sub-object levels. Click a level to choose it. The name of the sub-object level highlights (the highlight is blue or yellow, depending on the active color scheme), and the icon for that sub-object level appears to the right of both its name and the name of the top-level object.
Stack display shows the sub-object hierarchy, letting you choose a sub-object level.
Editing at the Sub-Object Level
When you edit an object at the sub-object level, you can select only components at that level: vertices, edges, polygons, and so on. You can’t deselect the current object, nor can you select other objects. To leave sub-object editing and return to object-level editing, click the top-level name of the object in the modifier stack, or click the highlighted sub-object level.
Click the top-level object name to exit sub-object editing.
Procedures
To make a sub-object selection:
- Select the object you want to edit.
- If the object doesn’t already have sub-object levels, apply an Edit ... modifier such as Edit Mesh.
- Open the
Modify panel. - In the modifier stack, click (the + icon) to expand the object's hierarchy.
- On the stack display, click a sub-object level such as Vertex, Edge, or Face. Tip: For a detailed selection, you might want to zoom in on the object.
- Click one of the toolbar selection buttons, and then use the same selection methods you’d use on objects to select the sub-object components. Or from the quad menu
Transform quadrant, choose one of the selection methods and select the sub-object components.
These methods assume the object has sub-object levels. If the object has no sub-object levels (for example, a primitive such as a sphere), the + icon is not present. In that case, you need to collapse the object or apply an Edit modifier before you can edit its sub-object geometry.
There are two alternative ways to go to a sub-object level:
- Select the object and go to the Modify panel. Then right-click the object, and use the quad menu Tools 1 (upper-left) quadrant Sub-objects submenu.
- Choose the selection level using buttons on the Modify panel's Selection rollout, if one is present for the type of object you're editing.
To exit a sub-object level, do one of the following:
- In the stack display, click the highlighted sub-object name or the top-level name of the object.
- If the object has a Selection rollout, click the button of the active sub-object level to turn it off.
- Right-click the object, and then in the Tools 1 (upper-left) quadrant of the quad menu, choose Top-level.
- Access a different command panel. This turns off sub-object editing.
If you think you’ve turned off sub-object editing but top-level object selection is still not restored, it might be due to the following reasons:
-
Your selection is locked. Click the Lock Selection Set button on the prompt line to turn it off. - You’ve set the Selection Filter on the main toolbar to a specific category of object, so you can’t select any of the other categories. To fix this, select All in the Selection Filter list.