All helpMeshbex

Edit Panel

The Edit panel cleans up the scene, edits meshes and normals, changes triangle density, removes hidden faces, runs Boolean operations, compares two models, adjusts materials, and rotates the whole model.

Scene operations

  • Clear scene. Keep docs + files – Removes all loaded 3D models from the scene. Documents (Docs panel) and attached files (Files panel) are preserved.

  • Reset whole model – Resets every object back to its initial position, rotation, and scale recorded at load time.

  • Cleanup (flatten unnamed nodes) – Simplifies the scene hierarchy by removing intermediate group nodes that have no name. Named objects and meshes remain intact.

  • Remove numeric suffix (_1, _2…) – Strips a trailing _number (for example Part_1 → Part) from every object name that has one. Asks for confirmation, and reports when none are found.

  • Capitalize first letter – Uppercases the first character of every object name that starts with a lowercase letter. Asks for confirmation, and reports when none are found.

  • Bake location all objects – Writes each object's current local position, rotation, and scale into its mesh geometry, then resets that local transform to identity. The model looks the same. Objects already at identity are skipped, as are section meshes, measurements, annotations, dimensions, and center-of-gravity helpers. If assembly sequences exist, the confirm dialog warns that those steps are not recalculated. To bake one object and optionally remap its assembly poses, use Bake location in the Selected window.

  • Transform: World space – Coordinate space of the transform gizmo. Checked: axes follow the world. Unchecked: axes follow the selected object's local axes.

Mesh operations

Acts on the current selection. Each action asks for confirmation.

  • Separate Mesh (split groups) – Turns each geometry group of the selected mesh into its own child mesh. A mesh with a single group is wrapped in a group with one child.

  • Merge Mesh (join descendants) – Merges every descendant mesh of the selected object, including nested groups, into one mesh with material groups. Inverse of Separate Mesh.

  • Merge same-name siblings – On each hierarchy level, meshes that share a name and the same local transform become one mesh. Colors stay as separate materials. Same-named parts in different places stay separate. Uses the multi-selection when one is active; otherwise the current object.

  • Flatten Materials – Collapses a multi-material mesh to the first material. Geometry groups stay; every group uses that material, and the other materials are removed.

  • Flatten Materials + geometry – Same as Flatten Materials, then merges all geometry groups into one. Required before Mesh Density on a multi-material mesh. After this, Separate Mesh splits the mesh into a single part.

  • Split loose parts (subfolder) – Splits one mesh into pieces that do not share vertices, after welding vertices closer than a gap.

    • Tolerance mode – Auto or Manual.

    • Auto multiplier – Shown in Auto mode (0.1–100, default 1). Weld gap = mesh bounding-box diagonal × 1e-5 × multiplier, and never below 1e-9. A higher multiplier welds more aggressively and yields fewer parts.

    • Manual tolerance – Shown in Manual mode (1e-9–10, default 0.0001). Absolute weld gap in model units. Parts farther apart than this value stay separate.

    • Separate Mesh (split loose parts) – Runs the split. The confirm dialog shows the part count and the weld tolerance. A mesh that is already one connected part is left unchanged.

Normals operations

Rewrites vertex normals on the selected object and every mesh under it. Shading changes. Vertex positions stay put, except that smooth mode welds coincident vertices. If the selection is part of an active deviation map, recompute that map afterwards.

  • Flat normals (split vertices) – Gives each face its own vertices and a face-aligned normal, so shading is faceted.

  • Merge normals before Smooth – On by default. Drops existing normals before welding, so a stored normal does not keep coincident vertices apart.

  • Merge UV before Smooth – On by default. Drops UV coordinates before welding, so a UV seam does not keep coincident vertices apart. Turn this off to keep UVs; vertices along a seam may stay split.

  • Crease angle (°) – 0–180, default 45. Faces that meet below this angle are averaged. Steeper edges stay sharp.

  • Smooth normals (merge vertices) – Welds coincident vertices using the two merge switches, then rebuilds normals with the crease angle.

  • Show vertex normals – Draws a red helper along each vertex normal of the current selection. Needs a selection that contains meshes.

  • Show vertex all normals – Draws the same helpers on every visible mesh. When this is on, it takes priority over Show vertex normals.

  • Normals length (0=auto) – Helper length in scene units (0–500). 0 uses 5% of each mesh's largest bounding-box side.

Mesh Density

Changes the triangle count of the selected object and every mesh under it. A multi-material mesh is refused until you run Flatten Materials + geometry. A mesh with more than 20,000 vertices warns that the UI may freeze. A dialog then reports the triangle count before and after.

  • Count triangles on select – Off by default. When on, Selected: triangles updates with the selection.

  • Selected: triangles – Read-only count for the current selection, or off when counting is disabled.

  • Merge vertices after – On by default. Welds coincident vertices after refine or coarsen, then recomputes vertex normals.

  • Max edge length (0=auto) – Edges longer than this are split by Refine mesh. 0 uses about 2% of that mesh's own bounding-box diagonal.

  • Max iterations – 1–10, default 6. How many split passes Refine mesh may run.

  • Refine mesh (more triangles) – Splits long edges using the edge-length and iteration settings.

  • Keep ratio – 0.05–0.95, step 0.05, default 0.5. Fraction of vertices Coarsen mesh tries to keep.

  • Coarsen mesh (fewer triangles) – Reduces the mesh by edge collapse down toward the keep ratio.

Remove hidden faces

Permanently deletes triangles that are not visible from outside the selection, so a shared model keeps its outer surfaces for measurement and drops internal geometry. Vertex positions of the kept faces do not change. Select the whole model (or the assembly root), run the action, then export a copy and keep the original file. Skinned and instanced meshes are skipped. Meshes that end up empty are hidden; delete them before export if you do not want their names in the file.

  • Views – Camera positions on a sphere around the model (16–128, step 8, default 64).

  • Ray grid – Rays along each side of a view (32–192, step 16, default 96).

  • Fill missed faces – On by default. Keeps small outer triangles the ray grid skipped.

  • Grow visible patches – On by default. Keeps unmarked triangles that share an edge with a visible face and whose normals differ by less than Grow angle. This closes holes in an otherwise continuous outer wall.

  • Grow angle (°) – 0–90, default 45. Shown only while Grow visible patches is on.

  • Use all visible as occluders – Off by default, so unselected neighbors do not hide faces of the selection. Turn it on when other visible parts should occlude internal geometry.

  • Remove hidden faces – Runs the deletion. A selection of more than about 400,000 triangles warns that it may take a while. If the selection is part of an active deviation map, recompute that map afterwards.

Boolean Operations

Builds a new mesh from two objects. Choose an operation, then pick object A and object B in the viewport or in the Scene outliner. Cancel with the hint button or Esc. A and B stay in the scene. The result is a new selected mesh named Boolean_<operation>_<A>_<B>, with a material taken from A. Both objects need mesh geometry. Open or non-watertight meshes can fail.

  • Crease angle (°) – 0–180, default 45. Crease threshold used when normals are rebuilt on the result.

  • Union (A ∪ B) – Volume of A and B combined.

  • Subtract (A − B) – Volume of A with B removed.

  • Subtract (B − A) – Volume of B with A removed.

  • Intersect (A ∩ B) – Volume shared by A and B.

Model Comparison

Colors a mesh by the distance of its vertices from another mesh. The scale runs from blue (near zero) through green and yellow to red at the tolerance. A legend shows the mode and statistics. Tolerance and within-tolerance opacity recolor the current result. Comparison mode, the normal filter, and the normal angle recompute it.

  • Comparison mode – Unidirectional (A→B) colors A by its distance to B. Bidirectional (A↔B) (default) colors both directions and combines the statistics. B cannot be A, nor a parent or child of A.

  • Start deviation map – Pick A, confirm it in the hint, then pick B. Computation starts after B is confirmed. Cancel with the hint button or Esc. This stays unavailable while a Boolean or a deviation probe is active.

  • Recompute – Runs the comparison again for the current A and B. Asks you to create a map first if none exists.

  • Clear deviation map – Removes colors, probes, and the legend, and restores the poses used for the comparison.

  • Tolerance – 0.001–100, default 0.1, in model units. Distances up to this value count as within tolerance. The color scale runs from 0 to this value.

  • Opacity (within tolerance) – 0–1, default 1. Opacity of vertices inside the tolerance. Vertices outside it stay opaque.

  • Reference wireframe – On by default in unidirectional mode: draws B as a wireframe. Disabled in bidirectional mode, because B is colored as well.

  • Filter by normal – Off by default. When on, a vertex is compared only with reference triangles whose normal is within Normal angle. Switching it recomputes the map.

  • Normal angle (°) – 0–180, default 60. Available only while Filter by normal is on.

  • Probe deviation filter – Off by default. Limits which probe hits are shown.

  • Probe filter mode – Above threshold or Below threshold. Available only while the filter is on.

  • Probe filter threshold – 0.001–100, default 0.1. Available only while the filter is on.

  • Probe deviation values – After a map exists, hover to preview a value and click to pin it. Click the button again, or cancel from the hint or with Esc, to leave probe mode.

  • Clear deviation labels – Removes pinned probe labels and markers.

  • Label size – 0.5–4, default 1. Scale of probe text.

  • Marker size – 0.5–4, default 1. Scale of probe markers.

Material operations

CAD exporters sometimes produce models with legacy Three.js material types. These tools find them and can upgrade them to MeshStandardMaterial.

  • Check/Convert MeshBasicMaterial – Finds MeshBasicMaterial (unlit, no shading) and offers to convert it to MeshStandardMaterial.

  • Check/Convert MeshPhongMaterial – Finds MeshPhongMaterial (older specular shading) and offers to convert it to MeshStandardMaterial.

  • Check/Convert MeshLambertMaterial – Finds MeshLambertMaterial (diffuse-only shading) and offers to convert it to MeshStandardMaterial.

  • List All Material Types – Lists every material type in the loaded models and how many times it occurs. Section overlays are excluded.

  • Check/Remove textures – Counts textures on all materials (color, normal, roughness, metalness, and the other map slots). If any are found, offers to remove them and free their GPU memory.

Whole Model Rotation

Rotates every loaded model together in 90° steps around a world axis. Use this when a model was exported with a different up axis.

  • Rotate X +90° / −90° – Rotates all models around the X axis by +90° or −90°.

  • Rotate Y +90° / −90° – Rotates all models around the Y axis by +90° or −90°.

  • Rotate Z +90° / −90° – Rotates all models around the Z axis by +90° or −90°.

  • Bake rotation – Writes the current rotation of each model root into mesh geometry and resets that rotation to 0°. World positions of vertices stay the same. Local transforms inside the hierarchy are unchanged. Useful before defining assembly sequences.