KeyShot

Models that contain NURBS data can be re-tessellated directly in the scene without having to import the model all over again. 

What Does the Tool do?

The Re-Tessellate tool enables you to fine-tune tessellation quality of entire models or individual parts in your scene. 

Increasing the tessellation value will yield smoother surfaces on your model, but also increase scene file size. 

How to Re-Tessellate

1. Launch the Re-Tessellate tool
   The Tesselation tool can be launched either from the Tools Section in the Ribbon, or via right-click on a model, part, or multi-selection of parts in the scene tree or Real-time view. If nothing has been selected when you launch the tool, a selection dialog will appear. Here you can select the part you want to alter in the list or by clicking in the Real-time View, which will highlight the part in the list.

2. Adjust the Tessellation quality
   Increase will make the surface smoother and a decrease will make the scene faster, as the it will contain fewer triangles.
   • Distance Tolerance: The maximum allowed distance deviation – expressed as a percentage of the model’s bounding box – measured from any triangle to the actual NURBS surface. A lower value with yield smooth surfaces.
   • Angle Tolerance: The maximum allowed angle measurement between adjacent triangles on your model’s surface.
   • Maximum edge: The maximum allowed distance deviation – expressed as a percentage of the model’s bounding box – measured from any triangle to the actual NURBS surface. A lower value with yield smooth surfaces.
3. Click Tessellate
   In order to see the effect you need to press Tessellate after adjusting the values. Use the Preview settings Wire-frame/Glossy to inspect the effect of the Tessellation in the preview
4. Click Apply
   This will let you view the current tessellation quality in the Real-time View, so you can inspect the effect in context, with the current materials, lighting etc. Notice that at this stage the process can still be canceled, and if you close/cancel the tool now, the tessellation quality will be reverted to the state before the tool was launched
5. Click Done or Cancel
   Click Done to commit the changes to the scene. Cancel will revert all changes and exit the dialog. Notice that once the re-tessellation has been committed, it can be undone with Ctrl/Cmd+z, but as long as the part includes NURBS data, you can always re-tessellate.

Tool UI

6. Apply
   This will apply the current tessellation quality to the Real-time View, so you can inspect the effect in context, with the current materials, lighting etc. Notice that at this stage the process can still be canceled, and if you close/cancel the tool now, the tessellation quality will be reverted to the state before the tool was launched
7. Tessellation Preview
   Shows you a preview of the detail on your model’s surface.
   • Triangles
     Displays the total number of triangles that make up your model’s surface.
8. Appearance
   Select Wireframe for a polygon view or Glossy to see how smooth the surfaces will look.
9. Cancel
   Click to undo any changes to your model’s tessellation and close the Tessellation Settings window.
10. Done
    Click to accept your changes and apply them to your scene. Note that you cannot undo the changes once you click Done.