Remeshing a Model

Remeshing builds the Generated Mesh — the new, clean topology — from the Loaded Mesh you imported. It happens on the Retopology tab: pick Manual Remesh or Auto Remesh at the top (or press Ctrl+M / Ctrl+A by default), and the numbered accordions for that workflow appear underneath. This page helps you pick the right tool, work through a model one material at a time, and check the result before you unwrap it.

Before you remesh

The remesher follows the surface it is given, so fix the source first rather than the result afterwards:

• Rough or noisy surfaces — soften them with the Smooth tool in Sculpting.
• Parts that should be one surface but are separate pieces — weld their vertex points with the Merge window (Window → Merge), so the remesher sees one continuous surface.
• A subdivided preview — if Enable Realtime Subdividing is on in 1. Settings, the remesher works from that live subdivided shape. Its own tooltip recommends Freeze Subdivision before you generate new topology, so the result follows a fixed shape. Realtime Subdividing is a preview of the Loaded Mesh only: it is switched off and disabled once a Generated Mesh exists.

Then choose what to work on. Open Window → Material Tools and click rows in its Materials list to toggle materials in and out of the selection (several can be on at once). The window also opens by itself whenever you click Create New Topology, because it shows which materials are already done.

Which remesher?

Four tools turn the loaded model into the topology you export. They are not exclusive — a typical model uses Manual Remesh for most materials and Pass Through for the rest.

Tool	What it does	Use it when	Effort & control
Manual Remesh	Builds new quad topology from a target quad count, for the whole mesh or just the selected materials.	Most dense models: sculpts, scans, photogrammetry.	One click on Create New Topology. You steer density with the target count, Adaptivity and Vertex Density Paint.
Auto Remesh	Solves an orientation field and a position field that you can shape with brushes, then extracts topology from them.	You want to decide where edge loops run.	Three steps (two solves, then Create New Topology), plus as much brushwork as you like. Always rebuilds the whole Generated Mesh.
Pass Through	Copies the selected materials into the Generated Mesh unchanged. Quads stay quads, and the original UVs come with them.	A part is already clean and low enough in polygons to keep.	One click in Material Tools. No settings.
Make Quads	Pairs the Loaded Mesh's triangles into quads in place. No vertex moves, and UVs and textures are untouched.	The model has good topology that was triangulated on export.	One key (Q). Works on the selected polygons, or the whole mesh if nothing is selected.

Manual Remesh

Click Manual Remesh, then open 2. Manual Remesh Settings. The controls that matter most:

Control	What it does
Target quad count	Roughly how many quads to make. It is approximate: the result lands near it, not exactly on it. A hint underneath shows the loaded model's polygon count.
75% … 10% presets	Set the target to a percentage of the loaded model's polygon count. The last button resets it to your Settings default.
Adaptivity (Lower value is better)	How far quad density follows curvature (0 = uniform). Higher values crowd quads into curved areas, land further below the target and add poles.
Anisotropy	0 makes square quads. Higher values let quads stretch along tubes, limbs and ridges.
Vertex Density Paint	Opens a brush for painting areas of the Loaded Mesh that need more quads, such as a face or hands. Painted areas get quads on top of the target count.

Click Create New Topology to run it. Every control, including Advanced Settings, is covered in 2. Manual Remesh Settings, and the brush in Vertex Density Paint.

Auto Remesh

Click Auto Remesh. This workflow has three steps of its own, each in its own accordion:

1. 2. Orientation Field — Solve Orientation Field computes the cross field that the new edges will follow. Steer it with the Comb, Magnet and Scare brushes, then solve again. Lock Orientation Field stops it from being recalculated once you are happy with it.
2. 3. Position Field — Solve Position Field decides where the new vertices land. The Edge Brush, Attract, Repel and singularity tools refine it.
3. 4. Create Topology — Create New Topology extracts the mesh from the solved fields.

The density comes from Target Vertex Count (Approximation) in 1. Settings. See Auto Remesh for the full workflow.

Working one material at a time

With Manual Remesh, the Generated Mesh is built up piece by piece:

1. Select one or more materials in Material Tools. The Manual Remesh Settings accordion confirms the scope with a Scoped to the current Selection Tools selection line.
2. Set the target quad count and other controls for just this piece, then click Create New Topology. The result is added to the Generated Mesh.
3. The material gets a [Remeshed] tag in the list and is deselected automatically, ready for the next one.
4. For parts you want to keep as they are, select them and click Pass Through instead. They are tagged [Passed Through], and their UV map is built straight away from their original UVs. See Merge Selection & Pass Through.

Adding a piece keeps the UV maps and baked textures you have already made for other materials. Baked vertex colours are the exception: adding a piece drops them.

Running it again

Create New Topology with no materials selected remeshes the whole model and replaces the Generated Mesh. If materials have already been remeshed or passed through, a No materials selected warning explains that every one of them will be discarded. Choose Replace Everything Anyway to go ahead, or Cancel and select the material you meant to redo.

Selecting a material that is already [Remeshed] and running it again does not replace its existing piece: the new result is added alongside it. To redo one material cleanly, switch Material Tools to Generated Mesh and use that material's trash icon in Materials in Generated Mesh first. Deleting it there returns the material to the to-do state. Pass Through skips materials that are already handled.

Auto Remesh always rebuilds the whole Generated Mesh. It has no per-material mode.

Checking the result

• Wireframe — the wireframe button on the Icon Toolbar (W by default) draws polygon borders over the model, so you can see the edge flow.
• Before and after — the View: Loaded Mesh / View: Generated Mesh button at the bottom of the sidebar (` by default) switches between the two meshes.
• Counts — the status bar shows Quads and Triangles for whichever mesh is on screen. After a Manual Remesh, a Last run line under Create New Topology gives that run's quads, non-quads and poles. Hover it for a breakdown.
• Poles — Show poles on the generated mesh marks irregular vertices by colour. Fewer poles means cleaner edge flow.

For parts you will pass through rather than remesh, Make Quads can tidy them first. Press Q by default to pair triangles into quads, or Shift+Q to also re-cut pairings that kink the edge loops. Make Quads works on the Loaded Mesh, and Pass Through keeps quads as quads. Make Quads needs Light or above; the edge-flow repair needs Vertexix or above.

Undoing a remesh

After a Manual Remesh, Ctrl+Z (or Edit → Undo) undoes the last Create New Topology straight away, without asking. If your latest change was a selection edit, that is undone first. Know what it does:

• the Generated Mesh goes back to how it was before that click, and any UV map, bake or paint made since is discarded;
• if that click made the first Generated Mesh, the Generated Mesh is deleted entirely;
• there is only one level of undo, so the undo itself cannot be undone.

Auto Remesh has no undo for Create New Topology.

Next steps

Once the Generated Mesh looks right, carry on down the accordions: Generate UV Map to unwrap it, then Transfer Texture and Create Normal Map to bake the original model's detail onto it. When you're done, see Exporting.