Alphageekgirl's – modo magic website – How to tell whether you’re in Poly, Sub-D or P-Sub mode

January 13, 2013 Posted by Debi Taylor in All Articles, Neat tips, P-Sub, Selection, Sub-D

How to tell whether you're in Poly, Sub-D or P-Sub mode

Problem	Have you ever been modelling and you accidentally hit the tab or shift-tab key changing your model from regular faces, to Sub-D, or Pixar-SubS without realising it? If half your model was in P-Sub and the other half, in Sub-D, could you tell which was which? Well there is a way, even if it is very subtle.

Solution	Just run your mouse over the affected polys and you'll see that when you pre-select the different types of subdivision surfaces that, sub-d is shaded purple, regular faceted polygons (faces) are shaded blue, and P-Subs are shaded green. I wish they were a little more pronounced though. Sub-Ds - Subdivision Surface smoothed polygons. Faces - regular standard unsmoothed polygon faces. P-Subs - Pixar Catmull-Clark smoothed polygons. Edit: As I mentioned earlier, the colors are quite subtle. But when I went to change them from their default settings to much darker colors, via > Preferences > Display > Colors >Selection Rollovers, you can still barely discern any difference.

Problem

Have you ever been modelling and you accidentally hit the tab or shift-tab key changing your model from regular faces, to Sub-D, or Pixar-SubS without realising it?

If half your model was in P-Sub and the other half, in Sub-D, could you tell which was which?

Well there is a way, even if it is very subtle.

Solution

Just run your mouse over the affected polys and you'll see that when you pre-select the different types of subdivision surfaces that, sub-d is shaded purple, regular faceted polygons (faces) are shaded blue, and P-Subs are shaded green.

I wish they were a little more pronounced though.

Sub-Ds - Subdivision Surface smoothed polygons.
Faces - regular standard unsmoothed polygon faces.
P-Subs - Pixar Catmull-Clark smoothed polygons.

Edit: As I mentioned earlier, the colors are quite subtle. But when I went to change them from their default settings to much darker colors, via > Preferences > Display > Colors >Selection Rollovers, you can still barely discern any difference.