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Part III: Modeling Basics

As development has continued, many new features have been added to the Editable Poly object while the
Editable Mesh remained mainly for backwards compatibility. The one advantage that the Editable Mesh object
had over the Editable Poly was that the Edit Mesh modifier could be applied, but as of version 7, Max has an
Edit Poly modifier, which lets you make changes to an object as a modifier that can easily be removed.
Even with the addition of the Edit Poly modifier, the Editable Mesh object type still exists, and there are times
when you’ll want to use each type, shown in Figure 13.1. Editable Mesh objects split all polygons into triangu-
lar faces, but the Editable Poly object maintains four-sided (or more) polygon faces. Another key difference is
found in the subobjects. Editable Meshes can work with Vertex, Edge, Face, Polygon, and Element subobjects;
and Editable Poly objects can work with Vertex, Edge, Border, Polygon, and Element subobjects.
Some game engines still require that all faces be coplanar, and for such conditions you’ll want to continue
to use the Editable Mesh object. Another case where the Editable Mesh object is helpful is in performing
certain face-oriented operations. In addition, normal meshes have a smaller memory footprint, which
enables them to render more quickly, especially if you have many of them. Regardless, Max lets you convert
seamlessly between these two modeling types.
Although many of the same features are available for both object types, the advance features available for
the Editable Poly object make it the preferred object type to use for mesh modeling. This chapter focuses on
working with Editable Poly objects. Although the specific features of the Editable Mesh object aren’t cov-
ered, most of these same commands apply equally to the Editable Mesh object. However, the Graphite
Modeling tools can be used only on Editable Poly objects.

FIGURE 13.1
Editable Mesh objects have triangular faces; the Editable Poly object uses faces with four or more vertices.
Editable Mesh object Editable Poly object

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