Hi EagleKing,

eh... if starting out with an polyplane is bad or not I'm not sure... but only modelling with Polyplanes can be pretty arkward... and very Time consuming...

but you can do a lot with it... when I first started I found it quite difficult to get something properly out of e.g. a cube... how many subdivisions did it need etc... so I tried to build it up using a polyplane for every part of the model... but instead of a connected shape/part you will end up with a lot of loose shapes/parts... which then need to be combined and merged to get a whole connected shape/part... but it can be done...

when I worked on theF117 Stealth Fighter aka Nighthawk
project in a earlier chalenge... which was one of the first thing I modelled in Maya, I only used polyplanes to model with...

I will try to share some of the knowlegde and experience I have got/collected along the way... e.g. by only using polyplanes to model with... those things can also be used on other polygons objects to...

most of the tools I need/use I have put in a costumized shelve... I don't know if you know how to make a shelve... but you hold down the "CTRL" and "SHIFT" button... and then click on the subject you want in the shelve from the menu that you have selected... I will start out with the text part accompinied with the attached image down under...

1. I have created 2 polyplanes which I will use in this little sharing tut...

2. the Split Polygon Tool... (Edit polygons... --> Split Polygon Tool)

the Split Polygon Tool is a very useful tool... and if you want to give it a bit of control to get it more accurate when using it... you can do this by selecting the "options" from the Split Polygon Tool (by clicking on the little black square next to it in the menu)... with the value of 1, besides you can select the corner this value makes it possible to select it as close to the middle of the chosen edge...
with the value of 3 you have the option to chose to put the split in the middle and a 3/4 from the middle and the corner...

it is unfortunately not possible to undo anything in the regular way (Ctrl+Z) while using the Split Polygon tool... however there is 2 other possibilities... the Delete key, which will go X's step back, where X is the amount of hitting the delete key until the split polygon process is deleted... an other way if you e.g. hit the corne instead of the middle and don't want to go a step back... you can press the middle mouse button, which then will make it possible to move it along the egde between the two corners and the middle...

3. it is also possible to attach the vertices... however if you want to merge them they have to be combined to be one part... there are several ways to do that... one way I have learned along the road is using the snap to point thingie... before that I tried to get one vertice as close as possible to the other vertice it was supposed to be merged with... (not always with a good result thou)...

you don't have to combine the vertices, to snap them together... but if you want to get one vertice out of the two vertices by merging them you need to combine them... you can find the snap to point tool above the shelves... instead of the move tool I usually use the Move Component type (Edit polygons... --> Move Component)... with it I don't get the warning "Tweaks can be undesirable on shapes with history." because the Move Component becomes part of the history", after that I drag the vertice/point to the other vetice, and they are snapped/alligned/share the same coordinates... it is still 2 vertices thou...

when it becomes time to merge the vertices, I combine them with the combine tool (Polygons... --> Combine)... after that I use 2 different values for the Merge tool... "0.0001" and "10.0000"... the "0.0001" value I use for vertices that have been snapped and share the same coordinates... otherwise it doesn't seem to will merge the points/vertices... the value "10.000" I use for the rest, if I want to merge vertices... if I want to select more than one thing... in this case vertices... I hold down the shift key and click on the vertices I want to select (this work for all objects that you want to select)... it is the same process as in windows when you want to select e.g. files... it is just Ctrl instead of shift...

4. to give a Polyplane more depth without "tweaking" it... (tweaking = pull & drag vertices, edges etc.)... you can use the Extrude Edge or Extrude face tool...but be aware that when extruding faces on a polyplane, you also create "holes" in it... these "holes" can be filled thou... e.g. by using the fill hole tool... "append polygon tool" can also be used...

5. as said earlier I use the "Move Component" tool to move things around... usually I hit the "blue thing ring" of the moving pivot, it is not always nessarry, however not doing it can sometimes create strange and bizaar things, when moving arround with e.g. several selected vertices without changing the mode of it by hitting the blue thing... I unfortunately can't remember the name of it...

6. an other way which also is mentioned to fill holes is the "Append Polygon Tool"... this tool can be more useful than the "Fill Hole"-tool... if you have several holes... and e.g. some of them shouldn't be closed/filled... because it closes/fills all of the "Holes"... sometimes using the "Append Polygon Tool"... can be a nightmare... it depends on the edges it should be attached to... but sometimes it can be nessarry to "use split polygon tool", "Snap to point" and the "merge tool" to get a good result out of closing/filling a "hole", and still have a whole figure out of it...

this was just a litlle bit of it... but with these tools and using polygons... you can almost model anything you like... I don't so often use Polyplanes to model with at the moment... sometimes I still use it as a beginning point thou, to get a 3d feeling, what there should be needed... e.g. how many subdivisions do a PolyCube need if I want to model with it... so I mostly use it for planning or making controlling objects to create a bit of the 3D feel of the object I want to model... I'm also a Newbie...

but last week I begun to use the Connect PolyShape tool to model with... I find it a very cool and great tool to model with... and Kühl showed me a method so I only had to work on one half of the object, so I didn't have to work on both sides of it... it made the moddelling process a bit faster...

regards

Strarup