Hello all,

I've recently been using Blender 2.8, and am enjoying it. As I'm watching tutorials and learning new techniques, I'm wondering if Blender has this capability that Hexagon has... In Hexagon, I can press PgUp, and my low-poly mesh subdivides, but won't take unless I click the lightning bolt to collapse the dynamic geometry. If I see poke-through or I'm not satisfied with the geometry, I can press PgDn to get back to base geometry level, and collapse out of dynamic geometry, and fix what needs to be fixed. Does Blender have this type of functionality?

Also, when I add primitives, I only see an adjustment for level of sides (e.g. 6-32 sides for a cone), but not for the number of edges (tessellations) for the vertical axis. I see where people go back and add edge-loops to the primitive. Is there a way to add additional loops when generating the primitives?

Thanks,

David

For the first Q: Use a modifier (in default layout there's a tab on the right-hand side). Adding a subdivision surface modifer will do what you want - you can choose how many levels of sub-d and see the effect. Then you can continue working on your model but adjust the level of sub-d at any time. Once you're satisfied (or if you need to) you can 'apply' the modifier (must be in object mode, not edit mode) and it'll be permanent.

Modifiers are a great way of working non-destructively on a model - you can change or remove them at any time.

For the 2nd Q: When you add a primitive there should be a new menu appearing in the lower left (I think) with all those options - you might need to click to expand it. You need to click this before you do anything else to the mesh or it'll disappear (there's a shortcut key to get it back but I can't remember what it is, sorry).

Thank you SilentWinter for jumping in and answering this for Starkdog

You can also change the level of subdivision (or initially add subdivision surface modifier) with shortcuts. With the object selected, press Control + a number to change the level of viewport subdivision, even down to zero. Some caveats: if you do this while rendering in Cycles, Blender can get "irritated" lol and maybe crash or get laggy. In Eevee or Workbench, it's fine. I also wouldn't go much past 5 unless you want Blender to complain :). If you want to go higher than that then do it on the modifier panel.

Laurie

Just to elaborate on the hotkey method that Laurie mentioned... In Blender 2.8, holding CTRL while pressing a number on the keyboard will automatically subdivide that selected object with whatever number of iterations corresponding to the number on the keyboard you pressed. It does this by instantly adding a subdivision surface modifier to the selected object, and changing the viewport iterations to that number. So, let's say you select the default cube, hold CTRL and press the number 4 on your keyboard; a subdivision surfaces modifier will be automatically added, and the iterations will be set to 4. This is why it's important to start with a lower number like 2 or 3, because higher iterations can crash certain systems that aren't quite powerful enough to handle a lot of polygons.

Also, if you choose to add subdivisions to an object with shortcuts, remember that you need to use the keyboard numbers, not the Numpad numbers. Holding CTRL and pressing the numbers on your keyboard Numpad (if you have one) will change the view perspective or camera view.

Thanks for letting me know about the shortcuts - that'll save me some time

WOW!!! Thank you all for the fast and detailed replies! I've been watching a bunch of tutorials and am getting more comfortable with Blender. Still getting used to all the shortcuts and hot-keys - almost too much to remember. -David