Mesh Editing

Bodies using the mesh type are able to be edited using either tools and functions available within the Cell Editor application, as well as through an external mesh editing application linked to Cell Editor.

There are currently 7 different tools and functions available to edit and alter mesh bodies in Cell Editor.

Explode Mesh

The Explode Mesh tool separates the selected meshes into a series of smaller bodies formed from the original mesh. Use cases include breaking up a single mesh consisting of multiple parts, such as a rotator or positioner, then merging the fragments into a small number of bodies representing the links of the rotator/positioner.

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Explode Mesh

Merge Meshes / Collapse and Merge

The Merge Meshes tool combines all selected meshes into a single body. Meshes can be selected either from the 3D viewer, or from the URDF tree when using this tool.

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Merge Mesh

Additionally, the Collapse and Merge tool collapses a selected link. When a link is collapsed, all child joints, links and mesh bodies are combined into a single child body.

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Collapse and Merge Mesh

Edit Mesh

Right clicking on a selected mesh body, and selecting Edit... from the context menu will open the mesh in a 3D modelling software of your choice if it has been linked to Cell Editor. By default, if Blender is installed on your machine then the application will already be linked to cell editor, and will be opened when attempting to edit a mesh.

Any changes made to a mesh, then saved while in modelling software will be reflected in the original body in cell editor. In addition to changes made to the shape of the mesh, changes to other properties such as colour will also be updated in cell editor.

If you haven“t linked an application for mesh editing, you can do so following the steps outlined in the Mesh Editor section of the Preferences reference page.

Convert to Mesh

Any body using a standard shape (such as cube, cylinder, sphere) can be converted into a mesh by right-clicking the selected body, and selecting convert to mesh from the context menu.