deleting parts of meshes

[Anonymous]

Hi I'm trying to select and remove parts of my model in Mudbox.  For now I'm trying to do it on a flat plane mesh but would like to do it on more 3d mesh models as well.  I thought select or mask would be helpful for this but I am still unable to delete selected or masked parts.  There must be a way without having to use another application...

[Christoph_Schaedl]

select faces and hit delete on the keyboard...

that does only work if your mesh does have only one subD level...

[faline.custodio.da.silva · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous

Edit > Delete Selected

[Anonymous]

Hi,

So this can only be done on a base mesh before it has been subdivided in any way?  Is there any way to do it once I have worked on it a bit? 

[Anonymous]

Hi Faline,

I'm trying to trim away/divide parts of models during the sculpting process.  The solution of deleting selected faces only works on a completely un-subdivided model, basically a brand new base mesh only.  Is there a way to do this after subdividing has happened?

[faline.custodio.da.silva]

@Anonymous

This is from the docs:

You can only delete faces when the mesh has a single level with no sculpt layers. You must delete any higher subdivision levels before attempting to delete faces from the base level. To do this, display the lowest subdivision level, then select Mesh > Delete Highest Level until you have only the base level.

I'm testing this now! =]

[Anonymous]

Hi Faline,

Yes that works but it means basically deleting all your work in order to cut/divide the mesh.  I'm kind of confused that there wouldn't be a tool to simply chop off or divide parts while you are sculpting.

[Anonymous]

something like a boolean mesh trim or split using a curve or selection brush...

[faline.custodio.da.silva]

@Anonymous

I understand what you mean. There should be a way to do this... and if not then we should make a feature request. I'll look into this and see what the devs say.

In the meantime, have you thought about maybe taking the mesh into Maya to delete the components? I know that's not a very direct approach but it could work as a temporary workaround.

[Anonymous]

Hi Faline,

Yes, I can export an .obj and cut the mesh in other software using boolean opperations, it's just a crazy workflow.  I was very surprised that this is not available since so much effort has been put towards making the sculpting functions intuitive and easy to use.  It seems like it could even just be a sculpting tool.  I have read about users creating something like this from the attributes of the scrape tool in past versions but It does not seem to work in the current version...

[imre.major]

A workaround could be to select the faces you want to delete on the highest subdivision level, invert selection, duplicate selected faces, and delete the whole original object. This way you will lose the lower subdivision levels, but if the selection was "compatible" you can rebuild subdivision levels. To make a "compatible" selection, select the faces on the lowest subdivision level, then step up to the highest level before duplicating the selected faces. This way the new mesh will never contains a base level face partially. So rebuild subdivision levels will work.