Splitting Parts

A part is a grouping of one or more surfaces in a model. Each surface is also a part, which can be composed of smaller pieces. Surfaces do not have to be physically next to each other to be grouped together or to constitute a single part.

Sometimes you need to extract individual surfaces or several surfaces from the part to which they are assigned for greater flexibility with appearance assignment or animation.

Splitting is essential because you cannot assign appearances to faces (or to anything in the hierarchy lower than the part level). If you want to assign multiple appearances to a single part, splitting is required.

To split parts:

1. Do one of the following:
   • Click Tools > Split Part.
   • In the viewport or Palette, right-click a part and click Edit > Split Part.
   • Press CTRL+ALT+P.
2. In the dialog box, specify the Selection Mode:

   Option	Description
   Facet	Lets you click part facets to split. Adjust the Facet Angle Tolerance to specify the part tolerance. You can also use box selection in Facet mode.
   Paint Brush	Lets you click and drag to select multiple part facets to split. Adjust the Paint Brush Radius to fine tune the selection area.
   Show Only Active Part	Displays only the split mesh and the part undergoing the split instead of the entire part. Remaining geometry is hidden or rendered in gray wireframe.

3. In the viewport, click a face or drag a selection area to see a preview of the split part.
   The split mesh changes to a blue wireframe and the part undergoing the split turns to a red wireframe.
4. Optional: Press SHIFT to remove portions from the mesh selection or CTRL to add portions to the mesh selection.
5. Click Execute Split.