With the Select button, on the left side of the screen, you can select and deselect meshes and facet of your 3D model.
Facet Selection Methods
You can directly select the facets and, by left-clicking on them, you can select more than one.
If you need to deselect some facet, you can hold shift and click on the wrong ones.
The size of the selection area can be modified with the button Size (as you see in the picture above). This way, you can adjust this parameter according to your selection needs.
If you need to select all of the facets of your model, you can CTRL+A, and every mesh will turn orange. This means that everything in there is selected.
Another way to select the facets is to hold right click outside your object and draw an imaginary line where you want your selection to be.
We call this imaginary line selection gathering.
How can we modify the .stl file?
After you select the meshes, a list of possible actions will pop up.
1. Mesh Modifier/Editor
Here’s a list of options you can choose between:
Erase & Fill: will swell or hollow the selected facets.
Discard: you can delete them
Reduce: you can decrease the number of selected meshes.
Extrude: you can extrude the selected facet. The extrusion may be more or less accurate.
Extract: you can extract the meshes and move their copy away from the original ones.
Offset: in this case, you move the selected facet according to a specific number (mm). This parameter can be modified following your needs.
Separate: you can divide just the selected parts. This is a way to divide the object.
Plane Cut: it just cuts the selected area into two parts. We’ll see this option better in future lessons.
Flip Normals: this way, you change the object’s facets orientation. A facet always has an inside and outside part. If one of these parts is inside out, it will create a problem during the slicing phase.
The crucial thing is to keep the normals right.
2. Mesh Selection Modify
Inside Modify, you’ll be able to change the selection method:
Select All: you can select all the meshes on that level;
Select Visible: you can select all the visible facets;
Expand Ring: extend the selection to all the consecutive facets;
Contract Ring: the opposite of Expand Ring; it de-select the consecutive facets
Invert: it inverts the selection. What is orange, turns gray (and vice versa)
Optimize Boundary: it optimizes the boundary so that you have fewer peaks;
Smooth Boundary: makes the facet more even;
Create / Clear Face Group: it creates or deletes facets groups.
3. Brush Dimension and Symmetry.
Inside the Select window, you can choose:
Size: you choose the size according to your needs;
The dropdown menu allows you to decide whether the brush texture will apply to a spherical or circular area.
You can also select the Symmetry Option.
MeshMixer is useful when you need to select and divide some parts of a 3D model.
Questions
How many selection methods do we have?
What happens when you select a mesh?
In your opinion, when is the right time to select something?