This is a very brief tutorial on how to select only certain edge rings in a mesh, for example, every other one, or every two edge rings, and so on, in Blender 4.2.
Video Transcript
Hello everyone! This is a very brief tutorial on how to select only certain edge rings in a mesh, for example, every other one, or every two edge rings, and so on, in Blender 4.2.
It may happen, for instance, that you have a very dense mesh and want to select, for example, every other edge ring so that you can dissolve it and thus reduce the number of vertices, edges, and faces of the model.
Essentially, it involves applying the Checker Deselect to the Edge Rings. However, if we select multiple Edge Rings in our geometry and apply the Checker Deselect operator, we notice that the result is not what we wanted.
To achieve the desired result, we need to proceed as follows.
Select one edge from an edge ring.
Select the Edge Rings, so that you get the selection of one edge on each edge ring in the geometry.
Now use the Checker Deselect operator, so that only one edge every 2, every 3, or generally as you prefer, remains selected by adjusting the parameters appropriately in the Checker Deselect operator panel.
Finally, use the Edge Loops operator, obtaining the desired result this time...
...well, not quite, actually: there are some obvious errors in this particular case, but I’ll explain what they are so you can fix similar errors if they appear in your projects.
The issue is that these geometries have been closed using Grid Fill at their bases, so when you select the Edge Rings starting from one edge, there’s a risk of also selecting some edges from the bases.
Then, when you expand the selection using Edge Loops, some unwanted edge rings are selected as well.
Solving this problem is simple: you just need to temporarily hide the unwanted geometries and repeat the procedure. More generally, you can limit the selection application to a portion of the mesh by hiding the unwanted parts, for example, if you don’t want to dissolve edges in areas where the geometry has very tight curves.
Once the parts we are interested in are isolated, we can proceed as we mentioned: using Edge Rings on a single edge, followed by Checker Deselect, and finally Edge Loops.
Well, that’s all for this short tutorial! I hope it was helpful! See you soon!