What is Vertex Manipulation?
Vertex manipulation allows you to move individual vertices and edges of a solid, easily creating odd (and sometimes invalid) shapes. This is useful for modifying specific pieces of a group of objects, where resizing would interfere with other objects in the group. Also, it allows you to make shapes that are impossible with Plane Clipping, and extremely difficult to do with carving.
Vertices and Edges
A vertex (or plural, vertices) is a corner of a solid. Moving one vertex will not effect any other vertex, but it will change the position of any edges associated with it. An edge is a point between two vertices which, when moved, will change the position of its two associated vertices, as well as their associated edges (no other vertices are effected besides the first two).
The usage is as follows:
1. Select the object(s) you would like to use vertex manipulation on. (fig. 1)
2. Select the vertex manipulation (VM) tool from the MapTools toolbar. The selected solid will turn into a wireframe-type solid with partial shading (fig. 2). Vertices will be marked as white dots, and edges as yellow dots.
Note: You can keep pressing the VM button, or press Shift-V, to cycle through the 3 VM modes. They are: vertices and edges (default), vertices only, and edges only.
3. Click on the vertices/edges you want to move. They will be highlighted (fig. 3). Note that you can move both vertices and edges.
4. You can either drag the selected vertices or edges with the mouse, or move them in the selected 2D view using the arrow keys.
Tip: To undo anything done in VM mode, you will have to first exit VM mode.
Face Splitting
Face splitting allows you to add additional faces to a brush. Simply select two opposing edges (fig. 3) and press Ctrl+F. This will turn the two edges into vertices, and place a new edge between them (fig.4).
Related Topics:
• clip planes and carving