Primitives

Reference

Mode:

Object Mode and Edit Mode

Menu:

Add ‣ Mesh

Shortcut:

Shift-A

A common object type used in a 3D scene is a mesh. Blender comes with a number of “primitive” mesh shapes that you can start modeling from. You can also add primitives in Edit Mode at the 3D cursor.

Blender’s standard primitives.

Note

Planar Primitives

You can make a planar mesh three-dimensional by moving one or more of the vertices out of its plane (applies to Plane, Circle and Grid). A simple circle is often used as a starting point to create even the most complex of meshes.

Common Options

These options can be specified in the Adjust Last Operation panel, which appears when the object is created. Options included in more than one primitive are:

Generate UVs

Generates a default UV unwrapping of new geometry. This will be defined in the first UV layer (which will get added if needed).

Radius/Size, Align to View, Location, Rotation

See Common Object Options.

Plane

The standard plane is a single quad face, which is composed of four vertices, four edges, and one face. It is like a piece of paper lying on a table; it is not a three-dimensional object because it is flat and has no thickness. Objects that can be created with planes include floors, tabletops, or mirrors.

Cube

A standard cube contains eight vertices, twelve edges, and six faces, and is a three-dimensional object. Objects that can be created out of cubes include dice, boxes, or crates.

Circle

Vertices

The number of vertices that define the circle or polygon.

Fill Type

Set how the circle will be filled.

• Triangle Fan

  Fill with triangular faces which share a vertex in the middle.

  N-gon

  Fill with a single N-gon.

  Nothing

  Do not fill. Creates only the outer ring of vertices.

UV Sphere

A standard UV sphere is made out of quad faces and a triangle fan at the top and bottom. It can be used for texturing.

Segments

Number of vertical segments. Like the Earth’s meridians, going pole to pole.

Rings

Number of horizontal segments. These are like the Earth’s parallels.

Note

Rings are face loops and not edge loops, which would be one less.

Icosphere

An icosphere is a polyhedral sphere made up of triangles. Icospheres are normally used to achieve a more isotropical layout of vertices than a UV sphere, in other words, they are uniform in every direction.

Subdivisions

How many recursions are used to define the sphere. At level 1 the icosphere is an icosahedron, a solid with 20 equilateral triangular faces. Each increase in the number of subdivisions splits each triangular face into four triangles.

Note

Subdividing an icosphere raises the vertex count very quickly even with few iterations (10 times creates 5,242,880 triangles), Adding such a dense mesh is a sure way to cause the program to crash.

Cylinder

Objects that can be created out of cylinders include handles or rods.

Vertices

The number of vertical edges between the circles used to define the cylinder or prism.

Depth

Sets the starting height of the cylinder.

Cap Fill Type

Similar to circle (see above). When set to none, the created object will be a tube. Objects that can be created out of tubes include pipes or drinking glasses (the basic difference between a cylinder and a tube is that the former has closed ends).

Cone

Objects that can be created out of cones include spikes or pointed hats.

Vertices

The number of vertical edges between the circles or tip, used to define the cone or pyramid.

Radius 1

Sets the radius of the circular base of the cone.

Radius 2

Sets the radius of the tip of the cone. Which will create a frustum (a pyramid or cone with the top cut off). A value of 0 will produce a standard cone shape.

Depth

Sets the starting height of the cone.

Base Fill Type

Similar to circle (see above).

Torus

A doughnut-shaped primitive created by rotating a circle around an axis. The overall dimensions can be defined by two methods.

Operator Presets

Torus preset settings for reuse. These presets are stored as scripts in the proper presets directory.

Major Segments

Number of segments for the main ring of the torus. If you think of a torus as a “spin” operation around an axis, this is how many steps are in the spin.

Minor Segments

Number of segments for the minor ring of the torus. This is the number of vertices of each circular segment.

Dimensions Mode

Change the way the torus is defined.

Major/Minor, Exterior/Interior

• Major Radius

  Radius from the origin to the center of the cross sections.

  Minor Radius

  Radius of the torus’ cross section.

  Exterior Radius

  If viewed along the major axis, this is the radius from the center to the outer edge.

  Interior Radius

  If viewed along the major axis, this is the radius of the hole in the center.

Grid

A regular quadratic grid which is a subdivided plane. Example objects that can be created out of grids include landscapes and organic surfaces.

X Subdivisions

The number of spans in the X axis.

Y Subdivisions

The number of spans in the Y axis.

Monkey

This adds a stylized monkey head to use as a test mesh, use Subdivision Surface for a refined shape.

This is intended as a test mesh, similar to:

• Utah Teapot

• Stanford Bunny.

Hint

History

This is a gift from old NaN to the community and is seen as a programmer’s joke or “Easter Egg”. It creates a monkey’s head once you press the Monkey button. The Monkey’s name is “Suzanne” and is Blender’s mascot.

Note

Add-ons

In addition to the basic geometric primitives, Blender has a number of script generated meshes to offer as preinstalled add-ons. These are available when enabled in the Preferences (select the Category Add Mesh, then check any desired items).