Detail meshes

Clay is perfect for shaping, but its detail stops at its detail level. A detail mesh takes a finished form further: it turns the object into an even mesh you subdivide and sculpt, down to pores and fine scales.

New in 4.0

Detail meshes are new in Shapeaway 4.0.

The workflow

1. Block out and shape in clay until the big forms are right.
2. Objects › Detail › Add detail. Shapeaway builds an even mesh on the clay’s surface, with two levels that already hold everything the clay had.
3. Subdivide to add finer levels, and sculpt on the finest one: every brush works on detail meshes, with the same falloff, pressure, stamps and symmetry.
4. Step down a level for broad changes (the finer levels follow), then step back up.
5. Need to change the big shape again? Back to clay turns it into clay, keeping paint. Detail finer than the clay’s level is lost, so do this before the fine work, not after.

Levels and limits

• Each Subdivide roughly quadruples the triangles. Remove level takes the finest off.
• The ceiling follows your sculpt’s memory limit: from 24 million triangles up to 48 million. Subdivide tells you when the limit is what stops it.
• Level changes are undo steps like strokes.

What needs clay

Shapes, combining, splitting, bases, hollowing, the wire cutter and part transforms work on clay. On a detail mesh they ask you to go back to clay first.

Tips

• Move on a detail mesh moves only the surface connected to where you start, so you can drag one lip without the other.
• The Noise brush and surface alphas are at their best here.
• Smoothing on a detail mesh reaches a little further each pass; relax broad ripples a level down.
• Exports and prints use the detailed mesh, so the detail prints.