Fig 1. Filling Menu

Fig 1 shows you what you get once you have hit the <F> key; a count of the number of visible holes, followed by a menu of further key commands down the bottom of the screen.

<F> - Filling All Holes

Type <F><F> to fill all visible holes. You will be prompted for the number of holes to leave, so type something in and hit <Enter>, and all but that number of the largest holes will be filled. Just hit <Enter> if you really do want all visible holes filled.

<P> - Protecting Holes

You can protect holes from being filled with <F><P>. <LMB> stretch a box over some holes and they'll turn from blue to red, indicating their protected status. Do the same again to unprotect those holes.

<U> - Unprotect All Holes

You can unprotect all holes, making them fillable, with <F><U>.

Fig 2. Filling A Hole

The auto fill its a excellent way to fill a large number of small holes quickly, but for complex holes you may want more control over the fill shape. The <N> key can be used to fill individual holes.

<N> - Go To Next Hole

Typing <N> will focus the view onto the next unfilled hole, and a new menu of key commands is displayed (see Fig 2).

If you are inside the <F> menu, the <N> key takes you to the next larger visible hole. If you use the <N> key outside of the <F> menu, then you are taken to the hole closest to the face under the mouse pointer. So, if you want to fill a specific hole, just aim the mouse pointer close by and type <N>.

<T> - Triangulate

Fig 3. Triangulate Loop

Typing <T> will cycle through 3 different hole filling methods:

1. The first method is to fill with approximately the same density of faces as the surrounding mesh; this may take a long time for very large holes, but you can stop it mid-way if you wish by holding the space bar, and you'll get fewer triangles.
2. The second method is to simply connect the boundary points; no additional points are added.
3. The third method is to insert a single point in the center of the hole, and then all boundary edges are connected to this center point.
4. Typing <T> a fourth time will take you back to an unfilled hole.

<B> - Bridge

In some cases a hole may be too complex for the triangulation to connect all the edges, and an error is displayed.

so in those case you will need to use bridging to split the hole into smaller pieces.

<Backspace> - Unbridge or Delete Edge

<Space-Backspace> - Eat Back All Edges

<Home> - View Focus

<Enter> - Stop Filling