Silo Modeling Tools - 3D Modeling in Silo - page 31

P olygon Connection Tools

Once a few face loops are in place using the polygon creation tools, the next
order of business will be connecting them and i lling in the gaps. There are
three main ways to do so: Append Polygon , Bridge , and Merge .

Append Polygon

Append Polygon , like many of the Silo tools, has various context-sensitive
uses. If you select three or more existing vertices before calling the command,
a new face will be created from the selected vertices.

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To get a feel for this, and to get set up for learning the rest of the
connection tools, open a new Silo project.

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Enter the front view and use the Append Polygon tool as mentioned in
the previous section to create two lines of i ve polygons ( Figure 3.17a ).

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Use the grid lines to keep the polygons relatively straight, but they don't
have to be perfect.

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Once you're done, deselect the Append Polygon tool, enter vertex
selection mode, and select the bottom four central vertices in a circular
order ( Figure 3.17b ).

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Now select Modify > Append > Polygon or press P to initiate the tool
and you will see a polygon has i lled in the space (Figure 3.17b).

B ridge

The Bridge command is very similar to Append Polygon , but can be much
faster if you are dealing with a whole string of polygons. Rather than
connecting everything that is selected into a single polygon, Bridge will try to
intelligently match up selected elements and create polygons between them.
The tool can also be used to merge and connect whole objects and to turn

Bridge; Modify > Bridge;
Shift B;

FIG. 3.17 Append Polygon can help i ll in the gaps in a mesh.