Adding Primitives

Various geometric primitives available in Modo.

Adding Primitives to Your Scene

You can find the Primitive tools in the Basic sub-tab of the Modeling toolbox. The toolbox is available in most other layouts by clicking the Model button in the top left corner of the layout. You can also press F2 to open the toolbox.

To activate a tool, click the appropriate icon. You can then place the primitive in your scene in a number of ways:

• Click and drag in the 3D viewport to create the initial plane for the primitive, then adjust the dimensions using the tool handles in the 3D viewport.

• To drag out a uniform-sized primitive, hold Ctrl while dragging in the 3D viewport.

• Click the primitive's icon to activate the tool. In the item's Properties tab, edit the properties, then click the Apply button at the bottom of the panel.

• Ctrl+click a primitive's icon to place a unit primitive in your existing mesh layer.

• Shift+click a primitive's icon to create a unit primitive in a new mesh layer.

Note:  You can also add the same primitives from the menu bar, by clicking Item > Primitive.

Adding Procedural Primitives

As opposed to traditional primitives, using procedural primitives and modeling tools allows you to make non-destructive changes to your mesh.

Procedural primitives are available in the Model layout's Mesh Ops tab on the right-side of the interface. You can see the list of your procedural operations in the Mesh Operations list, in the lower part of the panel.

Note:  For more information on procedural modeling, see Procedural Modeling with MeshOps.

To add a primitive in the Mesh Ops tab, click the Add Operator button above the Mesh Operations list. The Preset Browser opens, where you can select the required primitive under Mesh Operations > Create > Primitives.

Primitives have a Tool Pipe input, to which you can add deformers and sub-tools. The image below shows a Cube in the Mesh Operations list. You can add operations to it by clicking (Add Tool Pipe).

Note:  For details on the Mesh Ops tab, see Using the Mesh Ops Tab.