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8. Modelling a kitchen counter

When no prop fits, model it. Mesh objects are your own geometry inside the interior, edited with Blender’s keys. This tutorial models a simple built-in kitchen counter with a worktop overhang.

You will learn: adding mesh objects, roles, edit mode, extrude, inset, loop cut, materials per face, and UV unwrapping.

Time: about 20 minutes. If you know Blender, most of this will feel familiar: the edit-mode keys are the same in both control schemes.

1. Add a box

Section titled “1. Add a box”
  1. Point at the floor of a room, near a wall, and press Shift+A. The Add a mesh object menu opens at the pointer.
  2. In its size fields (width, depth, height) type 2.4, 0.6 and 0.86: the base cabinets, without the worktop. Then click Box. The box stands on the floor at the pointer, its width along X. Edit > Add > Mesh object has the same menu and puts the object in the middle of the view.
Shift+A: type the size first, then pick the primitive.
  1. Check its role in Properties, section In the game. It is Shell by default: part of the room’s shell, with collision while Collides is ticked, which suits a counter. Detail puts it in the room’s details model without collision (mouldings, small decor), and Collision makes it invisible collision only.
  2. Move it against the wall with G (the Move tool in the Modlo controls, grab in the Blender controls), or type its Position in the Transform section. If the wall runs the other way, turn it with the Rotate tool (Alt+R) or the Rotation field. Keep objects 2 mm off a wall or pushed into it, never exactly touching, so the export’s geometry stays clean.
A mesh object's Properties: Transform, then In the game with its Role.

2. Enter edit mode

Section titled “2. Enter edit mode”

With the box selected, press Tab (or Edit vertices, edges and faces at the top of its Properties). You are now editing the box’s vertices, edges and faces. A strip under the view’s header shows Edit mode with the Vertex, Edge and Face buttons, X-ray, the Mesh menu and Done, and Properties has an Edit mode section with a button for each operation.

Edit mode: the strip over the view and the Edit mode section in Properties.
Key Action
1 / 2 / 3 Vertex / edge / face select
Click, Shift+click, drag Pick, toggle, box select
Alt+Z X-ray: select what is behind the surface too
G / R / S Grab / rotate / scale. X Y Z lock an axis; type a number
Enter or click / Esc Confirm / cancel the running operation
W or right-click The Mesh menu with everything
Tab Leave edit mode (your edits stay)

3. Model the worktop

Section titled “3. Model the worktop”
  1. Press 3 for face select and click the top face.
  2. Press E to extrude and move the pointer up, or type 0.04 and press Enter: a 4 cm band for the worktop.
  3. Click the front face of that new band (the thin strip at the top of the front, on the side away from the wall) and press E again, typing 0.03 and Enter: the worktop now overhangs the cabinets by 3 cm.
  4. Do the same with the band’s end faces if the counter’s ends are open.
An extrude in progress: the typed distance shows in the status line until you press Enter.

4. Cupboard doors

Section titled “4. Cupboard doors”
  1. Press Ctrl+R for a loop cut and point at the bottom edge of the front: a preview shows the loop across it. Turn the wheel (or press PageUp) until the status line says cuts 2, then click: the two loops divide the front into three equal cupboards. With one cut, the click starts sliding the loop and a second click places it.
Ctrl+R: point at an edge, choose the number of cuts with the wheel, click.
  1. Click the left front face, press I to inset it, type 0.02 and press Enter. Do the same for the middle and the right face. Take them one at a time: an inset of several faces together insets their outline as one, with no frame between them.
  2. With the last inset face still selected, Shift+click the other two inset faces. Press E, type -0.01 and press Enter to push them in a centimetre: door panels.
Three faces inset one by one, then pushed in together.

Every refusal shows in the status line, and the result of each operation stays selected so you can chain them.

5. Materials per face

Section titled “5. Materials per face”
  1. Still in face mode, select the worktop’s faces: Shift+click its top, front, underside and ends.
  2. Drag a stone or tile material from the Assets window onto the object. In face mode, only the selected faces are painted. The Face material picker in the Edit mode section of Properties does the same.
  3. Press Ctrl+I to invert the selection and give the remaining faces a wood material.
A material dropped on the object in face mode paints only the selected faces.

6. UVs

Section titled “6. UVs”

The UVs decide how the texture lies on each face. Box-shaped objects usually look right with a box projection; this step also turns the worktop’s grain to run along its length.

  1. Click UV in the workspace tabs at the top (or choose Window > UV workspace). The 3D view stays on the left and the UV page takes the right half. It shows the UVs of the faces selected in the 3D view over their material’s texture (All faces shows every face). 1 unit = one texture repeat, and what you see is what the game gets.
The UV workspace: the 3D view on the left, the UVs of the selected faces on the right.
  1. Press A in the 3D view to select every face, then U for the UV menu, and choose Box projection.
  2. Select the worktop’s top face in the 3D view. With Sync on (the default) its UVs are selected on the page. If the grain runs across the worktop, point at the canvas, press R, type 90 and press Enter to turn it.
  3. With the pointer over the canvas, S scales the selected UVs and G moves them; X / Y lock to U or V. A click confirms, Esc cancels.

For curved or complex shapes, select edges in the 3D view and choose Mark seam in the UV menu, then select the faces and choose Unwrap: the faces are flattened along the seams, one island per piece, at real-world size. A closed surface needs a seam first.

The UV menu (U): projections, fit, flips and turns, seams and Unwrap.

7. Leave edit mode and export

Section titled “7. Leave edit mode and export”

Press Tab (or Done). The counter is a normal object again: move it, duplicate it with Shift+D, and it exports with the room.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”