Mesh objects and edit mode
Mesh objects
Section titled “Mesh objects”Mesh objects are your own geometry placed in rooms: box, cylinder, plane, sphere, wedge, arch, stairs, tube and cone.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Shift+A | Add a primitive at the pointer (also Edit > Add > Mesh object) |
| Ctrl+J | Join the selected mesh objects |
A mesh object has a role: part of the shell, the details model, or collision only. Shell objects also get collision unless Collides is off.
Booleans (union, subtract, intersect) work between two mesh objects; the second is removed unless you ask to keep it. Faces take a material each and belong to a room (fixed, or the room under their centre).
In the Scale tool (Alt+S) a selected mesh object has x, y, z and uniform handles along its own axes.
Edit mode
Section titled “Edit mode”Select a mesh object and press Tab. The keys are the same in the Modlo and Blender controls, and while editing they win over the global ones (so 1 2 3 pick element modes, not camera views).
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab, or Esc Esc | Enter / leave; your edits stay |
| 1 / 2 / 3 | Vertex, edge, face select; the selection converts |
| Click / Shift+click / drag | Pick, toggle, box select (what is behind the surface only with X-ray, Alt+Z) |
| Alt+click / Ctrl+Alt+click | An edge loop (a face loop in face mode) / an edge ring |
| A / Alt+A / Ctrl+I / L | All, none, invert, the connected piece under the pointer |
| G / R / S | Grab, rotate, scale about the median; X Y Z lock an axis, type numbers, Esc cancels |
| E / I | Extrude, inset: move the pointer or type a distance |
| Ctrl+B | Bevel (wheel: segments) |
| Ctrl+R | Loop cut (hover shows the loop, click, slide, click) |
| Ctrl+E | Subdivide |
| M | The merge menu |
| X or Delete | The delete / dissolve menu |
| F | Fill (a face from the open edges or vertices) |
| Alt+N | Normals menu (flip, recalculate outside) |
| P | Separate the faces into a new object |
| Shift+D | Duplicate the faces |
| U | The UV menu |
| W or right-click | The Mesh menu with everything above |
Dropping a material on the object, or picking one in Properties, paints only the selected faces in face mode. Every refusal shows in the status line and as a toast; the result of an operation stays selected.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”- The export needs clean geometry: closed meshes without T-junctions or non-manifold edges. Operations keep this; Problems warns when something does not.
- A vertex within 1 mm of its room’s floor or ceiling is moved 3 mm past it, so a box standing on the floor does not share edges with it. Keep objects 2 mm off a wall or push them into it.
- UV projections work in the object’s own space, so turning the object does not change them.
See the tutorial Modelling a kitchen counter.