The Subdivide tool increases the resolution of a mesh by using its existing PolyGroups or triangles and dividing them into smaller components. Subdivision is helpful in rapidly generating smooth surfaces to remove sharp edges. The iteration process of subdivision also makes it a valuable tool for creating levels of detail (LODs) for your mesh.
 |
 |
 |
| Subdivsion Level 0 | Subdivsion Level 2 | Subdivsion Level 5 |
Unlike other DCC software that uses subdivision as a rendering tool, Subdivide applies subdivision directly to the mesh — altering the geometry.
Accessing the Tool
The Subdivide tool is located in the Model category of Modeling Mode. To learn more about Modeling Mode and how to access it, see Modeling Mode Overview.
Using Subdivide
You can set the number of subdivision iterations using the Subdivision Level property. The subdivision level clamps once a max triangle count is reached.
How you subdivide your mesh is determined by the Subdivision Scheme.
| Subdivision Scheme | Description |
|---|---|
| Catmull Clark | PolyGroups are interpreted as polygons, and each polygon is subdivided into a number of quads based on the Subdivision Level. Newly generated vertices are placed on a smooth surface defined by the scheme, and existing polygon corners are also moved to this smooth surface. This scheme yields the best results if your input PolyGroups are mostly quads but can also handle some non-quad inputs. |
| Bilinear | Similar to Catmull-Clark in that it subdivides each PolyGroup. However, existing vertices are kept at the corners of the PolyGroups, and new vertex positions are linearly interpolated from the PolyGroup corners. If your input consists of planar PolyGroups, the output vertices will also lie on the planes defined by these PolyGroups. |
| Loop | Subdivides each triangle, ignoring PolyGroups. Each triangle is subdivided into more triangles based on the Subdivision Level. New and existing vertices are moved to a smooth surface defined by the scheme. |
The Subdivision Scheme defaults to Loop if PolyGroups have fewer than three boundary edges.
To visualize where the Subdivide tool will subdivide your mesh, you can enable:
- Render Groups, coloring the output PolyGroups.
- Render Cage, representing the polygon outline of the original mesh.
Enabling these settings helps visualize what the tool interprets as the input areas for subdivision. If your mesh is subdividing unexpectedly, you must check and adjust its PolyGroups.
You can also visualize where new polygons are generated by enabling New PolyGroups. Keeping this setting enabled when accepting the tool changes assigns the new PolyGroups to the mesh. After subdividing, you can adjust the normals and UVs computation.
To control the amount of smoothness applied to areas of your mesh or to keep parts of your mesh sharp, you would add edges close together.
 |
 |
| No Edge Loops | Edge Loops |
To continue learning about the various Modeling Mode tools, see Modeling Tools.
