Crop very complex 2d meshed objects

[Anonymous]

Hello, I'd need some help cropping/cutting complex meshed 2d objects.

I create a 2d plane and devide it to 100x100 sections. How can I extract a star from it preserving the meshed squares of the plane?

In Illustrator I'd create a compound path from the 100x100 (10.000 squares)  and extract it. Then I'd create a star position it in front of the plane, select both and hit "crop" in the pathfinder.

What I actually need is to "subdevide" 2d shapes but if I apply the subdevide modifier It applies a triangle mesh and what i need is squares...

Normally I'd attach the star to it, and manually delete the outside segment by segment but I'm talking real complex shapes...

Please see the screenshot. On the right is the end result star I'd like to acchieve...

[Steve_Curley · Accepted solution]

It's not possible, or is extremely difficult, to get a result with consists ONLY of quads - there are bound to be triangles in various places.

Create your plane and your star - move the star up in Z. In the Top viewport move the Plane around and adjust the Segments until you get a result you're happy with. Use a ShapeMerge compound object to "cut" the star shape into the Plane. Convert to Editable Poly, Polygons, the star portion should be selected so Ctrl+I to invert the selection and Del(ete) the remainder of the plane.

You could also simply convert the original star to an Editable Poly and use the Populate:Terrain plugin to create the quads for you.
www.populate3d.com/products/terrain

[Anonymous]

Yessss!  Thank you man! This is exactly what I needed!

By the way, I found a wrokoround in the meantime by extracting to spline from the meshed plane, applying a bevel, collapsing it and converting it to a poly. Then I applyied a bevel to the star also, converted to poly and used the ProCutter to cut the star with the plane auto extracting the mesh. Then in the front view switched to poly mode, selected all the upper ends of the star (from the bevel) and hit delete...

This process was eating up my processor but the wy you describe it made it done in a split second!