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Fill holes
Menu: Facets Icon: No short cut
Fills all holes on the surface of the model with triangles
Using this function you can automatically close holes or missing surfaces within the triangle
mesh of the model. For this, you can select different filling methods.
Newly-created triangles are initially selected. Therefore the system switches to the mode
Manipulate Triangles when the filling process is completed. The new triangles can be removed
using Delete Marked, if the filling operation did not yield a satisfying result. Otherwise the
triangles will be accepted when the mode Manipulate Triangles is deactivated or another mode is
selected (i.e. Manipulate holes).
HINT: The shape and complexity of a hole has an impact on the result of the different filling
methods. By inserting or deleting individual triangles you may modify the shape of certain holes,
leading to better results in hole filling.
Dialog Fill options
Fill method
Only planar holes: Only those holes are processed that lie in a plane (see plane tolerance).
Simple Triangulation: The hole will be filled by connecting its edge points alternating. This way
the hole is filled with a simple zigzag filling.
HINT: The shape of a hole will not be considered and even not always used. Particularly on
concave areas and irregular curvature this method may produce defective or overlapping
triangles. On the other hand this method may show the best result compared to the other
methods, if curvatures are more regular and the hole is convex.
Advanced Triangulation: This method first subdivides a hole in sub regions which are more or
less planar (see plane tolerance). These regions will then be separately filled. The result of the
subdivision is ambiguous if the hole is not planar. That means the resulting surface may be
concave or convex. If this method does not provide the desired result you may try another
method or modify the shape of the hole by inserting or deleting bordering triangles manually.
HINT: A complex hole can be subdivided manually by inserting (stitch triangles) certain triangles
(creating a bridge). In this way ambiguous situations can be resolved easily.
INFO: The Advanced Triangulation should be the default method to fill any kind of holes. In only
a few certain cases one of the other methods may provide a better result.
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