Triangulate

In my TrueSpace 3 class I show you these three buttons. Fig. 1      

Fig. 1

They are Quad Divide, Smooth Quad Divide and Triangulate Object. Quad Divide and Smooth Quad Divide are used to add more polygons or faces to an object so to do more detail work or to make the curve of an object look more rounded. Triangulate Object has another purpose. Say you've made the wall to a house and you're putting in openings for a door and windows as shown in Fig. 2

Fig. 2

Now you save it as a cob and are going to convert it to a rwx using a software such as AccuTrans 3D. But when you load it in so to convert it, you get an unexpected surprise. Fig. 3

Fig. 3

What happened to my windows?!

Whenever converting straight cob to any other format, any cut out in the object will be filled in as the windows of the wall were filled in. Many times, the door will also be filled in. Fortunately, this problem is easy to correct using the Triangulate button.

Making sure the object is active, click on the Triangulate button. Fig. 4

Fig. 4

The object may look a little strange once you triangulate it, but this is what you need to do to keep cut outs from filling in.

Now when you save the wall as a cob and load it into your converting software, you won't have any surprises. Fig. 5

Fig. 5

It is not necessary to triangulate ever face of an object. You only need to triangulate the faces with the cut outs. In the case of the wall, you only need to triangulate the inside and outside faces of the wall as well and the faces of the door and windows. You don't need to triangulate the top, bottom and sides of the wall. In most cases, you'll be deleting the top, bottom and side faces of the wall. If you're adding a frame around the door and windows, you'll most likely be deleting these faces as well, therefore, you'll not need to triangulate them either. To triangulate just the inside and outside face of the wall, click on the Point Edit: Face button. Fig. 6

Fig. 6

Now click on the outside face of the wall to make it active. Next, hold the Ctrl key and click on the inside face of the wall. Holding the Ctrl key allows you to activate several faces of an object. This also works for the Edges and Vertices. Anyway, the inside and outside faces of the wall should be active. Fig. 7

Fig. 7

Now click on the Triangulata Button. The inside and outside faces of the wall will be triangulated while the top, bottom and sides won't. Fig. 8

Fig. 8

Note: the faces of the door and windows will most likely be triangulated as well since TrueSpace considers these faces to be part of the inside and outside faces of the wall, though this is not always the case.