What does the "Smooth Shape" item on the Vertex Me

Terry Capps · 21st April 2006, 01:05 PM

Question for a more experienced user:

I have been experimenting with ac3d and when I attempted to use the "Smooth Shape" function on the Vertex menu, it simply reduced the size of whatever I had selected by a factor of two. Am I mis-using this function or just not understanding what it is supposed to be used for?

Andy · 21st April 2006, 01:54 PM

Hi Terry,

It does something similar to the smoothing in subdivision - it moves vertices to smooth the overall shape.

If you take a box, do a Surface->Divide, then (in Vertex select-mode) Vertex->Smooth-shape, you'll see it's similar to doing a single subdivision.

The function can be useful if you are roughing out a shape like a head from a sphere. Create a sphere and move/size vertices to make a chin, forehead, nose etc. The shape will be sharp/rough but can be smoothed out with Vertex->Smooth-shape. Another example might be making a landscape from a mesh. Remember that you can select areas to smooth - if you do select all vertices of an object, the effect will be to shrink the overall shape.

Terry Capps · 21st April 2006, 08:27 PM

Thanks, Andy

21st April 2006, 01:05 PM	#1
Terry Capps Member Expert member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Corsicana, Texas Posts: 81	What does the "Smooth Shape" item on the Vertex Me Question for a more experienced user: I have been experimenting with ac3d and when I attempted to use the "Smooth Shape" function on the Vertex menu, it simply reduced the size of whatever I had selected by a factor of two. Am I mis-using this function or just not understanding what it is supposed to be used for?

21st April 2006, 08:27 PM	#3
Terry Capps Member Expert member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Corsicana, Texas Posts: 81	Smooth Shape Thanks, Andy

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21st April 2006, 01:54 PM	#2
Andy Administrator Professional user Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 3,727	Hi Terry, It does something similar to the smoothing in subdivision - it moves vertices to smooth the overall shape. If you take a box, do a Surface->Divide, then (in Vertex select-mode) Vertex->Smooth-shape, you'll see it's similar to doing a single subdivision. The function can be useful if you are roughing out a shape like a head from a sphere. Create a sphere and move/size vertices to make a chin, forehead, nose etc. The shape will be sharp/rough but can be smoothed out with Vertex->Smooth-shape. Another example might be making a landscape from a mesh. Remember that you can select areas to smooth - if you do select all vertices of an object, the effect will be to shrink the overall shape.