Grouping

Grouping your model is an essential procedure if you intend to texture your model at a later date. Grouping can also allow you to work more productively by being able to hide an entire group at the press of a button. Grouping a model is a fairly easy procedure but it can be confusing if you are new to the concept or new to 3D modelling in general. Here, using the example of the 6 sides of a box I will show you how to group the faces of your model into easily manageable meshes otherwise called groups.

1. I have created a box for the purpose of this example, Toolbox: Model panel: Box.

2. Deselect the box as it is automatically selected after creation. Now choose the Select tool from the Model panel on the Toolbox, in the panel that appears below select the options Face and check the 'Ignore Backfaces' checkbox.

3. In the front view select the faces of the box that are facing towards you by either Left-Click and dragging or by holding shift and clicking approximately in the middle of each face.

4. Open up the Groups tab on the Toolbox. Press the 'Regroup' button. This takes the two faces that you selected and removes them from the 'Box01' or original group and adds them to the new 'Regroup01'.

5. In the white edit box next to the 'Rename' button enter the text; Front. Then press the Rename button. This procedure renames the group to whatever you enter into the Rename box.

6. You should now have two groups. One called 'Box01' or similar and the other called 'Front'. From here continue to perform the same process on all the other sides of the box. Do this by again choosing the select tool with Face and 'Ignore Backfaces' checked, then selecting the faces facing to the top in the Top view, then Regroup and Rename them. Do this for all the sides of the boxes selecting the faces from the six different views, so by the end you should have 6 groups called Front, Top, Back, Bottom, Left and Right, not necessarily in that order.

That's the basis of creating groups. Now with the groups formed you can select the name of the group you want and press Hide to remove it from view (press Hide again to bring it back), Select to select all the faces in that group and Delete to delete all the faces in that group.

This same model is used again in the Texturing example with all the groups already created as they were in this tutorial.