Note: Duplicating and Sliding Edges in Blender (C4D-style)

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Original language: Chinese . AI translations: English , Japanese .


I was watching a C4D modeling guide today: the “magic of the slide tool”. It explains a trick in C4D: Ctrl + edge slide. With it you can create evenly spaced support edges along selected edges (for hard surface work), and also control the direction of edge flow.

But in Blender I couldn’t think of a tool that does the same thing, so I searched online.


Method:

Use Alt V Rip Fill (Rip Vertices and Fill).
It’s documented in the manual here.

How to use:

  • Select the edge you want to duplicate, put the cursor in the direction you want the new edge to go, press Alt V.
  • Then press G to slide the newly created edge along the mesh (Alt V leaves it in free-move G state; pressing G again switches to GG edge/vertex slide).

Limitations:

  • This only covers part of C4D’s Ctrl + edge slide: creating support edges and controlling flow.
  • It cannot create support edges at mesh boundaries.

Ref:
Edge slide with edge duplicate


While writing this I also saw another method:
Ctrl Shift R Offset Edge Loop Tool (Loop Cut and Slide).
Link: Duplicate and slide edge (rip from boundary)

Seems more convenient than Alt V.

I don’t fully understand it yet. I’ll leave it here and revisit after learning more.


Continuing the modeling guide today, I also noticed Ctrl B Bevel can create support edges too.

Each of these tools has its own strengths. I’ll analyze them after I finish all the videos.


2019/11/26 update
miao miao miao