Splitting and Cutting Polygons
on this page: how to | try
it
Set up:
-
Make sure you are in the PEP
editor.
-
Select polygons that you want to
split or cut.
To split a polygon using pre-defined operations:
-
Press the appropriate button from the Split palette:

-
Now you can select and edit the new faces.
To split a polygon by dragging the cutting tool:
-
Press this button:

-
Drag from one side of a polygon to another to split the polygon along a
new edge.
To cut a rectangle out of a polygon:
-
Press this button:

-
Drag out a rectangle. When you end the drag, the original polygon is
split into several polygons.
See Chipping-Off Polygons for
an example of using this tool to create a door in a house.
The basic shape for a house is fairly simple.
-
Start out with a cube in the PEP editor.
-
Select the top polygon and press
to split the top polygon
lengthwise.

-
Select the edge in the middle of the split polygon and Shift-drag
along a side polygon to push the edge up and form the roof:
You can model interesting shapes from a simple PEP object like a square
by using a combination of split and cut operations, then moving and
extruding the new polygons. For example, suppose you want to create a
dormer for a house that looks like this:

The combination of split buttons you would use follows:
-
Starting with the basic house shape in Example 1, select a side of the
roof and press
to split
the polygon lengthwise:

-
Select the lower half of the roof and press
to split the polygon
vertically:

-
Keeping the same selection from step 2 (don't select anything new),
press
to split the quads like
this:

-
To make the angles for the dormer roof, select the appropriate quad and
press
or
:

Now you have the basic shape for the dormer. To pull out the dormer,
you'd select the polygons that make up the dormer, press the Extrude
Polygons button, and move the polygons out so the front of the dormer
is flush with the front of the house. See Extruding
Polygons and Edges and Aligning PEPs
for more information on these topics.
To complete the tutorial, see Creating
a House
.
Jump to: