6. Mesh Menu

6.1. Smooth  S

Gently smooth out a whole mesh.
For more control, use the Sculpting Smooth Tool to smooth a small part of the model.

6.2. Relax  Ctrl+R

Spaces triangles evenly on the surface of a mesh, with minimal change to the overall shape.

6.3. Polish  Shift+R

Evens out curvature. Subtly improves the flow of a mesh's surface.

6.4. Reduce

Simplifies the current object to match a desired triangle count compared to the original.

Reduce also works on masked regions of a mesh. This is handy when you want to tweak the surface while sculpting.

Masked Reduce


6.5. Refine by Edge Length

Adds new triangles to increase the resolution of a mesh. (Also works on masked surface).
Triangles distributed evenly over the model.

6.6. Refine by Curvature

Adds new triangles to increase the resolution of a mesh.
Triangles focussed on the sharpest corners and grooves of the model. Tends to concentrate around details.

6.7. Refine Mask Gradient

Adds new triangles to increase resolution along the edge of a masked area.
This is useful in preparation to distorting or rotating the selection to make sure there is enough resolution to make the transition smooth.

6.8. Mirror

Makes the mesh symmetrical by copying Left to Right in the Front view.

N.B. The grid is slightly brighter along the centre line.

6.9. Explode

A mesh can include disconnected parts. Explode turns those parts into separate objects in Curvy.

6.10. Join

Opposite to Explode this command makes one mesh out of the selected objects.
The actual geometry is not affected and you can always reverse this with an "Explode".
N.B. The new joined mesh has a single material.

6.11. Weld to Parent

This command takes two meshes and turns them into a single surface.

To use first overlap the two meshes you want to weld.

Then make the simpler mesh a Child of the other by dragging it's name onto the other in the Groups Panel.

Next make sure you have the child selected (as shown above) and use "Mesh/Weld to Parent".

The result should be a seamless surface with the welded part left masked.

It is often helpful to use Smooth or Relax on the weld to even it out.

Finally press SPACE to remove the mask ready to continue sculpting.

6.12. Cut from Parent

This works similarly to Weld to Parent but the child object is effectively subtracted from the parent.

You can use this to cut holes straight through meshes, or just cut an impression of one object in another.

6.13. Delete Masked

This removes all parts of a mesh that have been masked.

6.14. Stitch Holes

This attempts to find pairs of holes in a mesh and joins them up.

For example there are two holes either side of this U-Shape. Stitching bridges the gaps between them.
After stitching the new part of the mesh is left masked for easy smooth/relax.


N.B. If you are having trouble with "Weld" then deleting & stitching is a good fallback for smoothly joining meshes.

6.15. Cap Holes

Cap Holes finds and fills holes in a mesh, again leaving the new surfaces masked for easy smoothing.

This is useful after deleting part of a mesh, and also helpful if Curvy has accidentally left a hole in your model after another mesh command.

6.16. Reverse Surface

By default curvy assumes meshes are closed surfaces and only renders the outside surface.
Reverse Surface swaps inside/outside and renders the flip side of an object.
Also note the "Double Sided" checkbox which makes both sides visible at once.

N.B. Some mesh operations assume a consistant "outside" on multiple objects. Reversing an object can make it act "inside out", eg. An "add" might act like a "subtract" while using a reversed object.

6.17. Voxel Merge All

The Voxel commands reskin a number of objects with an even grid of triangles.
This is an alternative way of compositing meshes to "Weld" & "Cut" and has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Voxel Merge All remeshes the whole scene.

The example mesh above shows the merge with two different settings for Voxel Merge Properties.

The result of a merge is often improved by using Smooth and Relax to even out the triangles.

6.18. Voxel Merge Group

Same as "Merge All" but only includes the selected group of objects.
[Drag objects onto each other in the Groups Panel to group]

6.19. Voxel Intersect Group

Produces a mesh from the shared volumes of a group of models.

See below - only the parts of the objects that lie within both the cube and the sphere are kept.

6.20. Voxel Subtract Children

Produces a mesh from parts of the Parent that are not inside a Child object.
Essentially cuts away each of the children from the parent.

6.21. Voxel Merge Properties

Choose a preset voxel density or enter your own voxel size.
N.B. Fine/Small voxels can create extremely high triangle counts, use the lowest voxel detail possible for a smoother mesh.
Also note - if the voxels are smaller than the incoming triangles you will be able to see distinct edges/ridges in the result. In that case you can try increasing the resolution of the incoming objects to match the outgoing voxel size.

6.22. Fit to...

Adjusts the masked region of a mesh to fit a target style.

e.g. Below I have selected the top of this head mesh, and added a sphere as a child object.

The results of each kind of fit are shown.
Plane Ortho
Matches the mesh to a vertical or horizontal flat plane.
Plane
Matches the mesh to a flat plane in any direction (picks the best match).
Sphere
Matches the mesh to a portion of a sphere.
Quadric
Matches the mesh to a domed or ellipsoid shape.
Child Objects (Inflate)
Pushes the mesh surface out to match the child object.
Child Objects (Cutter)
Pulls the mesh surface in to match the child object.

6.23. Convert to Normal Mesh  K

Normal Meshes do not support Adaptive Subdivision. Sometimes it is useful to convert to this kind of mesh to be sure you won't add any more triangles to the mesh during sculpting.

6.24. Convert to Adaptive Subdivision Mesh  J

Adaptive Subdivision Meshes divide and increase in resolution as you sculpt.
N.B. You can tell which king of mesh you have selected by the name in the bottom right of the viewport. "ASMesh" means you have an Adaptive Subdivision Mesh selected.