Hexagon has some nice sculpting tools built-in, but it’s impossible to see how they perform out of the box due to the brush preview that seems to get drawn hundreds of times in the process, obscuring our object (see above). Thankfully there’s an easy trick to disable this under Now you can use the inflate, …
Although I had decided to find the news popup on every Hexagon start “charming”, it wasn’t until this week that I got a tip from one of my supporters on how to turn it off. I must admit that it does get in the way for quick fixes. Here’s how to do it: start Hexagon …
I’ve just learnt of a new way to expand selections in Hexagon: select some faces (or edges), then position your cursor away from the object, then hold down CMD (Mac) or CTRL (PC) and drag in any direction. The selection will grow into the direction that you drag. It doesn’t always reliably work, because some weird …
Hexagon doesn’t really have a subdivide function that quadruples the number of faces of an object (like ZBrush for example). But there is a trick we can use to add this functionality. Take Hexagon’s cube primitive here. All we can do is to specify one without subdivisions. If we need more, we’re stuck. There is …
On the very right hand side of the Hexagon’s toolbar is the Custom section. It sits there unnoticed and unpopulated by default. We can turn it into a handy modelling companion by populating it with a few select tools that our overworked brains can never remember where to find. To add your own tools, simply …
Tessellation is a rather abstract term in the 3D world. All it means is to “add more edges” to a polygon. There always seems to be a complex technical term for things, and a more human one (like “polygon” and “face”). Tessellation can be used to subdivide an object in controlled places. Say you had a …
Hexagon has a 2D Symmetry Tool that allows us to mirror curves and other 2D shapes. It works a treat, it’s just not very intuitive to use. Try it out: select the curve or 2D object you’d like to mirror and select the tool. It’s under Lines, the icon with two quarter circles and a line in the middle. You’ll …
The Bridge Tool allows us to join two parts of an object together, either by selecting polygons or vertices. Simply select the parts of each object to be joined, then hit the Bridge Tool under Vertex Modelling. You can also select the Bridge Tool, then select both faces or points in question and hit validate. Predictable …
We can do rather amazing things using the Edge Tools in Hexagon (under Vertex Modelling). The options are slightly confusing though: The first option is a combination of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th option. You can create a new edge, extract inwards, outwards, filet around or move existing edges of your object. Here’s how to use it: select …
Many features from Hexagon have been ported over to Carrara, but not all of them are obvious and easy to find for Hexagon users. Here are my favourite features from Hexagon, and how to access them in Carrara: Tweak / Stretch Tool The one Hexagon tool I was missing most was Vertex Modelling – …
Since I bought the Microsoft Touch Keyboard for my 1st Generation Surface Pro, 3D usage has become even better than before (I went for the purple one). Many functions have keyboard shortcuts that make life quicker and easier when it comes to navigating a scene in 3D Space. Before I forget how this works, I …
Once every year I pick up my 3D hobby and find that I’ve forgotten most of what I used to know. That’s because I hardly take notes. With all my coding endeavours this really isn’t an option – so I’ve promised myself to learn from past mistakes and take notes on the 3D stuff …