What's the fastest and / or craziest way to model an arrow in Blender?

Question

I'm curious about all the ways you can come up with a solution. I'm searching for the way with the least clicks and maybe the two runner ups. I made up some rules on how to count them:

• A default installation should be used.
• Changes in the UI don't count, so you can zoom or pan without adding steps. Changing the pivot point or similar actions count.
• Every press of a mouse button or key counts.
• Combos like ctrlLMB or shiftD count as one.
• The arrow has to be symmetrical. Proportions don't matter, right angles do. The backside of the arrowhead has to be parallel.
• to broaden the field a bit: extra verts are OK as long as they don't distort the shape.
• Addons belong in the realm of the second question.
• In case two answers have the same score, the one posted first gets the checkbox.

The second and more creative question: what's the craziest, least practical and goldbergish way to do it? Feel free to contribute. Any fun solution in between the extremes is probably interesting, too.

So, who manages the least clicks and how?

Answer 1

So I thought to myself: These answers are so amazing, but they're hard. Even I have trouble recreating them. I have to do something. I need to provide a simple and effortless answer and after a while, I found it.

Step 1: Create a seven sided Cylinder.

Step 2: Build this ordinary and straightforward armature (shouldn't take long) and connect it to the circle.

Step 3: Push the Bone that has the shape of a modeled arrow (khm) up a bit.

I mean, it doesn't get much easier than pushing a bone up a bit.

To explain:

The orange and red ones are simple 2 bone IK-chains pointing to the mover arrow.

The green ones are parented to the orange ones and move with them. They are not necessary but it's a bit clearer that way. You could parent dark blue directly to orange with offset.

Dark blue is parented to green.

The blue ones are again simple 2 bone IK chains pointing to the light blue targets.

The yellow circle bones sit in the middle of the dark blue bones and are the only ones having deform enabled.

The tricky bit is to find the right lengths for red and orange so that a single bone moves all the green bones just the right amount.

James Watt has discovered this green/dark blue/light blue lever for his steam engines. It's called Watt's linkage. It enables the yellow circles to move pretty much in a straight line. It's still used in trains to keep the wheels from moving back and forth.

The orientation and length of the blue bones isn't just random. I simply put the tips on the arrow verts and the roots on the circle verts. Then I duplicated and rotated them 90 degrees to get the linkage with it's required right angles. Yes, simple rotation of a bone with start and end on a circle would have been enough, but meh...

Answer 2

Unicode font

Copy the solid right arrow 🡆 from unicode arrows

Add a font, edit mode, select text, select font, paste arrow, extrude.

Answer 3

Fewest clicks? Bah. Here's how you do it without even editing the default cube, the only solution for the truly lazy:

Conforms to Default Cubism rules.

Answer 4

Here's a fairly crazy method.... create it mathematically using the Add Mesh: Extra Objects addon.

1. Enable the addon (Extra Objects)
2. Add a Mesh/Maths Function/Z Surface
3. Enter the equation as

(((x*x)**0.5)<0.25-(y-0.5))*(y>0)+(y<0)*(x<0.5)*(x>-0.5)

Optionally increase the step sizes for better resolution

This should produce something like this :

To explain the equation a little, it consists of two sections - one for the 'head' of the arrow (where y>0) and the other for the 'stem' of the arrow (where y<0) - and these conditionals are multiplied together to act as logical 'and' operations. For the stem, the equation

(x<0.5)*(x>-0.5) 

gives a high point whenever X is greater than -0.5 and also less than 0.5. For the head, we calculate the distance of the X coordinate from the axis

((x*x)**0.5)

(ie, sqrt(x ^ 2) - which is effectively the same as an 'abs(...)' function) and combine this with the Y coordinate to create the diagonal.

If you really wanted to you could use a Boolean modifier with a cube to chop off the excess around the base of the arrow where Z=0.

---

Taking this further, here's a 3d version using the XYZ Function Surface in place of the Z Surface :

The key here is the equation :

(v>-2)*(v<0)*0.5+(v>=0)*(1-v)

which creates the profile of the arrow from the 'v' coordinate. This is then multiplied by cos(u) and sin(u) for the X and Z coordinates to rotate the profile around the Y axis. Y is generated directly from v to give the arrow length. Note that U ranges from 0 to 2*pi for a full rotation and V ranges from -2 (the back of the arrow) to 1.0 (the tip of the arrow) matching the constants in the equation (-2 = the back of the arrow, 0.5 the thickness of the 'tail', 1 the tip of the arrow, with the back of the head at zero. The 'v>-2' closes the back of the arrow by collapsing down to 0 for v = -2.

---

One (final) edit - using a helper function to simplify the repeated equation and adjusting to produce a more traditional 'extruded'-shaped arrow, but using a step size of 4, adjusting the start/end values, and adding a conditional to the X Equation (note the specific settings in the left-hand panel).

Answer 5

You can do this in 8 steps, or 7 steps if the arrow tip may be squished. 11 or 9 if drag counts as two atomic operations.

• tab - switch to edit mode
• Select mode: edge select
• altctrlright click - select all edges oriented along the X axis
• ctrlI - invert selection
• subdivide from the tool shelf
• ctrl drag edge from (0, 1, 1) to (0, 0, 2)
• ctrl drag edge from (0, 1, -1) to (0, 0, -2)

Last step is only needed if the tip has to have a right angle

• ctrl drag edge from (0, 1, 0) to (0, 2, 0)

Answer 6

Cylinder "triangular prism" approach.

Add a cylinder with 3 vertices

Edit mode, face select, select y axis normal face, loop cut 2, drops us back into edge select mode with new edges selected.
shortcut for Loop cut slideCtrlR2EnterEnter

go back to face select mode, select middle face and extrude in y direction. EY drag.

Answer 7

Another way:

start with a standard cube

scale on x

make a loop cut at x center

select top/bottom front edges

and scale on Z 0 (to merge them)

then select center loop top/bottom edges and use "rip fill"

then scale on Z

here is an even faster way to do the same thing: lasso select, extrude, scale to zero, rip fill.

Answer 8

Install curve galore addon

Shift+A Add curve -> Curve profile -> Arrow

Press F6 for detail

Press Alt+C convert to mesh

Press Del Limited Dissolve

Select all the faces Press E to extude

Answer 9

Adding a separate answer as it is a completely different/crazy way: knife tool (with ZC modifers) comes to rescue, here:

Steps:

1. add a simple plane
2. enter edit mode
3. press K to enter knife tool, then press ZC to activate "cut through" and "cut staight" knife mode
4. start cutting the diagonal, then cut three more lines to shape the arrow 'base'
5. press enter to finalize the cut
6. now press C and select 4 edges to be deleted
7. delete the edges pressing X
8. select all and extrude on Z

and an even different one, where simpler tools are used

Steps:

1. add a simple plane
2. in edit mode, select all and duplicate with shiftD
3. X1 to shift the duplicated face to 1BU right
4. press R45 to rotate it 45°
5. now select the undesired vertex and press X then select "dissolve vertices" (now you have a quad face next to a tri face)
6. now select all and extrude on Z

as for the crazyest, you could cut the shape from a cube with booleans, or draw an arrow shape with GP tools, then convert to mesh and extrude...

Answer 10

Pretty sure this is the shortest method here yet. Thanks to batFINGER it is down to only five three steps!

1. copy the code below
2. (in blender) press ShiftF4
3. paste in the code

Perfect arrow with nice clean topology (no double vertices or edges), and its easier and faster then any other method.

verts = [(-0.305, -0.305, -0.183),
 (-0.305, -0.305,  0.183),
 (-0.305,  0.305, -0.183),
 (-0.305,  0.305,  0.183),
 ( 0.305, -0.305, -0.183),
 ( 0.305, -0.305,  0.183),
 ( 0.305,  0.305, -0.183),
 ( 0.305,  0.305,  0.183),
 (-0.496,  0.305, -0.183),
 (-0.496,  0.305,  0.183),
 ( 0.496,  0.305, -0.183),
 ( 0.496,  0.305,  0.183),
 ( 0,     0.861, -0.183),
 ( 0,     0.861,  0.183)]

faces = [[1, 3, 2, 0],
[7, 5, 4, 6],
[5, 1, 0, 4],
[2, 8, 12, 10, 6, 4, 0],
[7, 6, 10, 11],
[3, 9, 8, 2],
[11, 10, 12, 13],
[9, 13, 12, 8],
[7, 11, 13, 9, 3, 1, 5]]

mesh_data = bpy.data.meshes.new("Arrow")
mesh_data.from_pydata(verts, [], faces)
mesh_data.update()

obj = bpy.data.objects.new("Arrow", mesh_data)

scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.objects.link(obj)
for ob in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    ob.select = False

obj.select = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
#end script

Yes the ending comment does something. (It saves a press of Enter)

Answer 11

There aren't any answer with curves yet (besides the Curve Galore add-on), so let's do it with curves!

1. Add a Bezier Curve (Shift + A)
2. Go in to Edit Mode (Tab)
3. Straighten the curve (S + Y + 0 + Enter)
4. Set Pivot Point to Individual Origins (. with Pie Menus)
5. Collapse handles to points (S + 0 + Enter )
6. Select 1 point (Box select with B)
7. Extrude (E + Enter)
8. In the N panel, set the Radius to 4
9. Extrude again, this time moving the point further along the x-axis
10. Set the Radius for the new point to 4.
11. In the Curve panel of the Properties editor, set the Fill to Full
12. Set the Bevel Depth to 0.2
13. Set the Radius Interpolation to Ease

You can optionally increase the Resolution for a smoother arrow.

Gif:

Answer 12

Here's a method modelling from a plane and adding a solidify modifier. Technically I think this is 13 steps - although you might rule some of them as combined (eg, Merge/At Centre - does that count as 2 or only 1?) :

1. Create plane (Add/Mesh/Plane)
2. Edit mode (Tab)
3. Click Subdivide in tool shelf
4. Increase subdivision to 2
5. Select none (A)
6. Choose 'Edge' mode
7. Select two opposite corner edges (for arrow stem) - using Ctrl-Drag to lasso select
8. Delete Vertices
9. Shift+Alt-Right-Click to select the 'front' edge
10. Merge (Alt+M)
11. At Centre
12. Object Mode
13. Add Modifier/Solidify

Technically that's it, although the thickness might not be immediately apparent. Increase the Thickness of the Solidify modifier as desired.

Answer 13

Adding another weird one, since I read that proportion does not matter much, just different from any else above

ie:

• having vertex snap activated,
• add a 7-circle (preset as default),
• edit mode, then fill its face with F
• then grab 2 vertices
• X-scale to align with base ones
• Y-translate to align with top arrow ends
• select all, Z-extrude

another one

• either start from a basic plane, and subdivide 3 times, or from a grid with 5/5 subdivisions (faster if a default preset)
• select 6 top left/right vertices with a single C drag gesture
• press X and dissolve vertices
• select 4 bottom left/right vertices
• press X and delete vertices

forgive me adding third (fourth and fifth method) answer, yesterday I just got fired after 17 years... I need some kind of fun... and thinking something else...

Answer 14

Here's an alternative solution using a Skin modifier. Essentially, create a line of vertices and set the radius on each to create the arrow.

1. Starting with the default cube, got into Edit mode (Tab) and select Merge/At Centre to create a single vertex.

2. Extrude the single vertex in the required direction - E5Enter (this will default to the 'X' direction)

3. Select all (shift-rightclick the other vertex or press A twice), click Subdivide, and change number of cuts to 2

4. Add Skin modifier (optionally switch to wireframe mode - although this isn't strictly necessary))

5. Adjust Mean Radius X to set the 'depth' of the arrow

6. Select the 'front' vertex. Set Mean Radius Y to zero

7. Select the next vertex. Set Mean Radius Y to the maximum width of the 'head'.

8. Select the next vertex. Set Mean Radius Y to the width of the stem. Grab the vertex and move it very close to to the previous vertex (to make as close to 90 degrees as possible) - as close as possible to length/numedges, so for an arrow of length 5 with 4 evenly spaced vertices (from the subdivide) = 5/(4-1) = 5/3 = 1.66666, so, say, GX1.65Enter

9. Select the last vertex and set the Mean Radius Y to the width of the stem.

Answer 15

Let's go simpler. Nowhere in the question's rules does it state that the arrow must be a single object. That is an assumption, and doing away with that assumption will allow us to refine our approach.

With that in consideration, here is what I believe to be the solution with the fewest steps:

Of course, you can add complexity if you wish. You can Join the two objects into a single mesh, or Boolean them together. But those steps are not required to satisfy the problem. :-)

Answer 16

Results first:

It's an arrow! No, it's not perfect, yes it's transparent, no I don't care. There's some caveats:

• It's not actually a mesh, only a displacement map. This means it'll only be visible in (viewport) render and doesn't even work in Eevee.

• Since it's a heightmap, it also doesn't have a bottom plane.

• Edges aren't vertical; the straighter these are, the more artifacting you get.

Shader node setup:

A quick summary:

Multiple shapes generated from vectors are intersected using Math Minimum/Maximum nodes; these eventually form a triangle part and a stem part. The stem part is subtracted from the triangle part which results in a (flat) arrow. This is then passed through a displacement node that gives the arrow its height. I'm using adaptive subdivision (experimental setting) to get a nicely smooth arrow.

Do note that my Mapping nodes are using the Texture vector type; the difference is that these create smooth white/black transitions. Initially I was using Point vectors; the instant value transition caused a lot of artifacting.

The group nodes simply contain a Mapping node and Separate XYZ node, which then outputs X and Y values.

The first part of the shape I'm building is the base of the stem, so the arrow is positioned in the center of the plane and doesn't stick to the edge. For the sake of visibility I've bypassed the clamp node on the right; this just reduces the value range to flatten surfaces.

The next two node groups create a square in the bottom corners of the plane. Top one handles the left square, bottom one handles the right square. In the Maximum node that follows these are combined; this yields a plane with white squares in both bottom corners.

Both shape parts are now added together to create a mask for the stem. Afterwards, these are inverted so they can be subtracted from the triangle part.

Speaking of which, the triangle part consists of two angled vector inputs (note the rotation on the Z axis in the node group), one as shown and the other flipped along the Y axis (or, actually rotated 90 degrees and size inverted! in hindsight this could've been done in a better way)

These two triangles are then merged into a single triangle arrow part.

We've now got the required masks to form an arrow shape:

The Minimum node intersects these images:

Finally, there's a bunch of nodes that invert the mask we just made and change the shader of it to either diffuse white or transparent based on the mask color. Black is made transparent, white stays white.

The output from the Minimum node is also fed through a Displacement node which generates a displacement vector which is plugged into the material output. The material is set up so that displacement is on (Material > Settings > Displacement > Displacement Only).

Probably the least efficient way of actually modeling an arrow since it's not even a mesh yet (only a displaced subdivided plane) and it took about 3 hours and multiple iterations to get it working.

Answer 17

Throw four Modifiers on the default Cube and add an Empty.

Answer 18

Inspired by the numerous cool examples (John's in particular), here's two attempts of my own.

First I tried this:

1 SHIFTA Add Cube.

2 TAB for Editmode

3 & 4 W1 to subdivide it

5 CTRLSHIFTLMBLasso-Deselect all but the right corner verts

6 G and CTRL to move them one unit to the left

7 SY(RETURN) to scale them up a bit

After that, I thought... this can go the other way, too:

5 Lasso Deselect ONLY the corner verts

6 G and CTRL to move them one unit to the right

7 SY(RETURN) to scale them down a bit

If I obeyed my own rules, I think there would be more keypresses to count. But I don't count my answers anyway. I just wanna add to the variety with a bit of Lasso Select.

Answer 19

Nobody has mentioned starting with with Nurbs Surfaces yet, so just for fun, here's another way starting a surface wedge (does require extra curves addon):

1. Convert to mesh Ctrl+C

2. Fill both empty faces with F (two steps I guess)

3. Scale on Y axis to desired size and rotate 90 degrees
4. Add two loop cuts with Ctrl+R to create the base
5. Extrude loop cuts with E to desired amount to create the base of the arrow
6. Recalculate normals with Ctrl+N
7. Turn on auto smooth

Answer 20

• Add a circle, change the number of vertices to 3.

• Subdivide one of the edges by 2

• Extrude the newly created vertices.

• Select all and extrude vertically (or use a solidify modifier)

  

Terrible topology with a big and ugly n-gon, but there was no requirement on the question quads..

Answer 21

Here's one more that's all quads just for fun, add mesh -extra objects addon should be enabled for the triangle object.

1. Add a triangle Add mesh>math funtion>triangle and change the face to 6 sided quads
2. Extrude the base of the arrow
3. Select all and extrude downward to prevent flipped normals

Answer 22

Here's yet another way to do it, moderately efficiently.

1. insert 7-sided cylinder
2. apply Mirror modifier with Axis=X, Bisect=X (this is Blender 2.90)
3. Tab to go into Edit mode
4. select rightmost vertical edge
5. in orthogonal top view (7) use G to move edge to $$x = 0.43388, y = 0.62349$$ $$x = \sin(\pi/7), y = \cos(2\pi/7)$$

Done