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Edit Commands - Delete/Remove

Modo has two functions for discarding selected elements from a model or scene. The Delete command will delete a selected item. The Remove command removes the selected polygons or edges and leaves the vertices behind. This is useful when you want to use the vertices as a profile that you may want to extrude.

Tip:  Review this quick video for an overview.

Delete Command

You can choose Edit > Delete or press the Delete or the Backspace key on the keyboard to delete selected polygons. This command universally discards any selected item — whether the selected item is in the Shader Tree, Item List, Graph Editor, or in the 3D Viewport. When deleting a selection, Modo eliminates the entire selection. For example, with a selected polygon, Modo also deletes the associated edges and vertices, but it doesn't delete the components of surrounding unselected geometry. Deleting an edge also deletes the associated polygons that relied on the edge.

Remove Command

You can choose Geometry > Remove, or press Shift+Backspace on the keyboard to remove the selected polygons or edges. Invoking this command discards component selections only. When applied, the Remove command acts similarly to Delete, with some slight differences in the case of polygons and edges.

The Remove command only deletes the selected polygons, keeping vertices available. Removing an edge leaves the geometry intact and only removes the edge itself.

Click the image below to view an animation, which demonstrates a workflow.

Delete in Procedural Modeling

When working with Modo's procedural modeling tools, you can use the procedural Delete operation to delete vertices, polygons, or edges. Select the item in the Mesh Ops lists that you want to delete from your scene, click Add Operator > Edit > Delete and specify the properties. As a result, only the selected vertices, edges, or polygons are displayed in your scene.

To view your original item, turn off the Delete Enable option.

In the Delete Properties tab, on the bottom of the right panel, the following options are available:

Option	Description
Enable	Toggles the tool on and off.
Use World Transform	When enabled, the mesh operation maintains the world transforms on the input layer, transforming any geometry inputs by the transform matrix of the input item.
Selection Type	Allows you to specify the selection type to delete. • Vertex - Deletes the selected vertices and leaves the unselected vertices in your scene. • Edge - Deletes the selected edges and leaves the unselected edges in your scene. • Polygon - Deletes the selected polygon and leaves the unselected polygons in your scene.

Alternatively, you can delete a selected item in the Mesh Ops list by clicking the X button.

You are presented a Delete Item dialog. If the selected item is referenced by other items in your scene you are presented with a number of delete options.

• Clicking Yes deletes only the selected item.

• Clicking Yes to All deletes the selected item and all of the referenced items.

Tip:   You can also right-click on an item and select Delete from the contextual menu.