UE5.1 PolyEd Modeling Part 1 - Selection

PolyEd in Unreal Engine 5.1

Ryan Schmidt introduces PolyEd, a tool for editing polygon groups on triangular meshes in Unreal Engine 5.1. Polygon groups may appear as quads in the viewport, while wireframe mode reveals the underlying triangles.

PolyEd supports face, edge, and vertex selections, which can be moved or used in modeling operations such as inserting and extruding. Changes can be accepted for further editing with other tools.

Selection and Gizmo Guide

Selection

• Selection filters: Enable or disable face, edge, and vertex selection. These filters apply to both direct and marquee selection.
• Select All and Invert Selection: Apply to the currently relevant selection type.
• Marquee selection: Can select elements through the mesh, including hidden elements. Enable Ignore Overlap to limit selection to visible elements.
• Add and remove: Use Shift to add to a selection and Control to remove from it. These modifiers also work with marquee selection.
• Loop and ring selection: On regular quad topology, loop selection follows the topology but may stop at poles, such as triangular or pentagonal vertices. Loop and ring options can be enabled together, though this may select too much.

Transform Gizmo Orientation

• Global: Aligns the gizmo to the world axes.
• Local / From Geometry: Estimates orientation from the selected geometry, such as face normals or an edge.
• Local / From Object: Aligns the gizmo to the object’s axes.
• Rotation Lock: Preserves a chosen gizmo orientation when selecting other geometry, helping maintain a consistent direction across selections.

This is Part 1 of a tutorial series, focusing on selection options and gizmo orientation. Gizmo positioning will be covered in another video.

Main speaker and source: Ryan Schmidt, the presenter and channel creator.