Quick Start: Your First Model
This walkthrough takes one model from import to export using the Manual Remesh workflow. Each step is short and links to the page that covers it in full. Keep the Retopology tab selected at the top of the sidebar throughout.
1. Load the model
Choose File → Load... (Ctrl+O by default), or click Load Mesh at the top of the sidebar, and pick your file. If a model is already loaded, Vertexix asks for confirmation first, because loading replaces it and everything made from it.
2. Check the model
Orbit around the model and press W (by default) to show its wireframe, so you can see how dense it is. What you are looking at is the Loaded Mesh; the button at the foot of the sidebar reads View: Loaded Mesh and stays that way until there is new topology to switch to. See Loaded Mesh vs. Generated Mesh.
3. Choose Manual Remesh
Click Manual Remesh under the sidebar's mode tabs. The numbered accordions appear below it. Open 1. Settings to see what it offers; for a first model you can leave it as it is.
4. Pick materials (models with several)
If the model has more than one material, open Window → Material Tools and click the materials you want to retopologize first in its Materials list (Ctrl+click adds to the selection). With nothing selected, Create New Topology works on the whole mesh. To copy a material into the new topology unchanged instead, select it and click Pass Through. See Select by Material.
5. Create the new topology
Open 2. Manual Remesh Settings. Set Target quad count — the percentage buttons beneath it set it to a fraction of the loaded model's polygon count — then click Create New Topology. The quad count is approximate, not exact.
When it finishes, the result is added to the Generated Mesh and Material Tools opens so you can see which materials are done. Select the next material, adjust the settings if that part needs a different density, and click Create New Topology again. Repeat until every material you need is covered. Tick Show poles on the generated mesh to check the edge flow.
6. Make a UV map
Make sure the sidebar shows View: Generated Mesh (click it, or press ` by default) — the UV map is made for the new topology, not the loaded model. Open 3. Generate UV Map, choose an Algorithm and click Generate UV Map. The first time, you are asked to name the UV map.
7. Bake textures and normals
Open 4. Transfer Texture, pick a Resolution and click Transfer Texture to resample the loaded model's textures onto the new UV map. This needs a model that has a texture.
Then open 5. Create Normal Map and click Create Normal Map to capture the original's surface detail. For an ambient occlusion map, open 6. Extra Actions, expand Make Occlusion Map and click Make Ambient Occlusion map.
With several materials, these steps work on the materials selected in Material Tools; if none is selected, Material Tools opens and asks you to pick one.
8. Preview the result
Press P (by default) to toggle PBR Preview, which renders the mesh on screen with physically based shading, using the maps you just baked. Switch back to the Loaded Mesh with ` to compare.
9. Export
Click Export Mesh at the foot of the sidebar (Ctrl+E by default), choose a format in the save dialog and name the file. See Exporting.
glTF and GLB can only hold triangles, so your quads are split on export. Export FBX or OBJ to keep them.
10. Save the project
Choose File → Save Project... to keep the whole session — both meshes, UV maps
and bakes — in one .vxp file you can reopen later with
File → Open Project.... See Projects & File Types.
The other route: Auto Remesh
Auto Remesh, the other button beside Manual Remesh, builds the new topology through its own sequence of steps, then shares the same UV, baking and export steps. See Auto Remesh, and Remeshing a Model for which to choose.