Creating Geometry

Modo offers a variety of different tools for quickly generating geometry. Primitive items, such as spheres and cubes, are a good way to build basic forms, which can then be edited, added to, modified, and otherwise molded into the form you want, using any of the deform or mesh editing tools. Drawn curves are useful for creating wireframe skeletons of a form, where patches are then used to define the final surface. Functions, such as Solid Sketch, allow you to explore forms more readily without needing to manipulate specific geometry.

Primitives

Cube Icon

Cube

The Cube primitive provides a simple method for creating boxes or cubes.

Tip:  The Cube primitive tool can also be used to create 2D quadrilaterals by clicking and dragging in the viewport.

Sphere Icon

Sphere

The Sphere primitive provides a simple method for creating sphere or balls.

Cone Icon

Cone

The Cone primitive provides a simple method for creating conical shapes.

Cylinder Icon

Cylinder

The Cylinder primitive provides a simple method for creating cylinders or tubes.

Capsule Icon

Capsule

The Capsule primitive provides a simple method for creating capsules or rounded-edge tubes.

Torus Icon

Torus

The Torus primitive provides a simple method for creating toroids or "doughnuts".

Ellipsoid Icon

Ellipsoid

The Ellipsoid primitive provides a simple method for creating ellipses or "pills".

Tube Icon

Tube

The Tube primitive provides a simple method for creating spline curve-based tubes.

Teapot Icon

Teapot

The Teapot primitive provides a simple method for creating a teapot.

 

Drawing

Pen Icon

Pen

The Pen tool allows you to create geometry vertex by vertex. You can use the Pen tool to create polygons, lines, vertices, spline patches, or subdivision surface polygons.

Curve Icon

Adding Curves

The Curve tool allows you to create a spline curve. This is a hermite curve type and can be very useful for creating modeling guides, quickly roughing out a shape, or setting up an outline for lofting with the extrude, lathe, or other multiply tools.

Bezier Icon

Bezier

The Bezier tool allows you to create a type of curve defined by off-curve control handles.

B-Spline

The B-Spline tool allows you to draw B-spline curves, which are spline curves defined by at least four vertices and a weight map.

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Sketch

The Sketch tool allows you to quickly create a curve by drawing in the 3D view.

Curve Icon

Arc

The Arc tool allows you to make closed segments of a disc (like the shape of a pie wedge, or a pie with a piece missing).

 

Curves

Circle

The Circle tool allows you to create a circle using a Bezier or Hermite spline curve.

Star

The Star tool allows you to create a star shape using a Bezier curve or a polyline.

N-Sided

The N-Sided tool allows you to create a regular polygon with a give number of sides. it can be drawn using a Bezier curve or a polyline.

Rectangle

The Rectangle tool allows you to create a rectangle or square, using a Bezier curve or a polyline.

Ellipse

The Ellipse tool allows you to create an ellipse using a Bezier or Hermite spline curve.

Diamond

The Diamond tool allows you to create a diamond shape using a Bezier curve or a polyline.

 

Other

Solid Sketch Icon

Solid Sketch

The Solid Sketch tool provides a quick method for roughing out organic shapes - building up basic geometry.

Text Tool Icon

Text

The Text tool simplifies the process of creating 3D text using system fonts.

Vertex Tool Icon

Vertex

The Vertex tool provides a method for quickly plotting points in 3D space.

Vertex Tool Icon

Make Polygon

The Make Polygon tool uses the currently-selected vertices to create a polygon. Alternatively, use the Make tool to automatically create a polygon from two selected edges.

Patch Tool Icon

Patch Curves

The Patch Curves tool generates a smooth surface from three or four curves that define the contour edges of the surfaces.