Deleting & Dissolving

Delete

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete

Shortcut:

X or Delete

Deletes the selected mesh elements. The following menu items are available:

Vertices

Deletes the selected vertices, as well as any edges and faces they are part of.

Edges

Deletes the selected edges, as well as any faces they are part of. Orphaned vertices are deleted too.

Faces

Deletes the selected faces. Orphaned vertices and edges are deleted too.

Only Edges & Faces

Deletes the selected edges and faces, as well as any unselected faces that contain a selected edge. Orphaned vertices are left behind.

Only Faces

Deletes the selected faces. Orphaned vertices and edges are left behind.

Dissolve

Dissolving is different from deleting in that keeps the surface closed rather than leaving a hole.

Dissolve Vertices

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete ‣ Dissolve Vertices

Shortcut:

X, Delete, or Ctrl-X

Deletes each selected vertex and joins its surrounding faces into one. (This often results in n-gons.)

If a vertex is part of a wire – that is, a chain of edges that are not part of any face – its surrounding edges are merged instead.

The Adjust Last Operation panel offers the following options:

Face Split

Split surrounding faces where possible so that only a triangle in their corner is merged instead of the whole face. This reduces the size of the final “hole-filling” faces and can make them less uneven.

Tear Boundaries

Delete faces at the mesh boundary instead of merging them. These faces are always split, even if Face Split is disabled.

Original mesh

Face Split: Off Tear Boundaries: Off

Face Split: On Tear Boundaries: Off

Face Split: On/Off Tear Boundaries: On

Dissolve Edges

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete ‣ Dissolve Edges

Shortcut:

X, Delete, or Ctrl-X

Deletes each selected edge and joins its surrounding faces into one. This is only done for edges that have exactly two neighboring faces.

The Adjust Last Operation panel offers the following options:

Dissolve Vertices

Also dissolve the vertices of the selected edges, not just the edges themselves.

Angle Threshold

If Dissolve Vertices is enabled, this option allows preserving vertices at corners, only dissolving the ones in flattish areas. Faces are considered to form a corner if the angle between their normals exceeds the Angle Threshold – that is, coplanar faces are considered to have an angle of 0°, not 180°.

Face Split

Split surrounding faces where possible so that only a triangle in their corner is merged instead of the whole face. This reduces the size of the final “hole-filling” faces and can make them less uneven.

Dissolve Faces

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete ‣ Dissolve Faces

Shortcut:

X, Delete, Ctrl-X, or F

Merges each patch of connected faces into a single face.

Note

The F shortcut is normally used for creating faces, but when run on a selection of existing faces, it dissolves them instead. See Dissolve Existing Faces.

Before dissolving.

After dissolving.

Limited Dissolve

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete ‣ Limited Dissolve

Shortcut:

X or Delete

Simplifies the selected geometry by dissolving vertices and edges in flattish areas.

Original mesh.

Result of Limited Dissolve.

Max Angle

The maximum allowed angle between faces for the surface to be considered flat (and thus eligible for dissolving). Specifically, the angle is measured between face normals, meaning that coplanar faces are considered to have an angle of 0°, not 180°.

All Boundaries

After dissolving the edges using Max Angle, dissolve all vertices at boundary corners – specifically, vertices that only have two neighboring edges.

Delimit

Prevent merging faces that are discontinuous in some way. It’s possible to activate multiple of these options by clicking them with Shift-LMB.

Normal:

Don’t merge faces that have opposite orientations.

Material:

Don’t merge faces that have different materials.

Seam:

Don’t dissolve edges that are marked as UV Seams.

Sharp:

Don’t dissolve edges that are marked as Sharp.

UVs:

Don’t merge faces that are disconnected in any UV map.

Collapse Edges & Faces

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete ‣ Collapse Edges & Faces

Shortcut:

X or Delete

Collapses each patch of connected edges and faces into a single vertex. This is useful for collapsing edge rings, for example.

Selected edge rings.

Edge rings collapsed.

Unlike the Dissolve operators, this operator doesn’t create n-gons and can add new vertices instead of only removing existing ones. In addition, the new vertices automatically receive interpolated UV coordinates, color attributes, etc. This makes it particularly useful for manually removing detail.

Edge Loops

Reference

Mode:

Edit Mode (Vertex or Edge select modes)

Menu:

Mesh ‣ Delete ‣ Edge Loops

Shortcut:

X or Delete

Dissolves the selected edge loops. This is essentially the same as Dissolve Edges, except that it selects the surrounding faces afterwards.

Selected edge loop.

Edge loop dissolved.

Note

In Blender terminology, an edge loop is any chain of connected edges – it doesn’t have to be a closed loop. See Select Edge Loops.

See also

• Vertex merging

• Triangles to Quads

• Un-Subdivide