Create Vertex at Intersecting Edges [duplicate]

Question

For creating my simple mesh, I need to outline it first with vertices and edges, and then fill in the polygons.

I am struggling to do simple things that should be the basics and foundations of 3d modeling in blender.

I want to be able to

• extrude a vertex to a given length or until it intersects with something
• or, create a vertex at the intersection of two freestanding edges
• or, snap/use the knife tool on freestanding vertices/edges

What in the world is blender's paradigm? I imagine professionals being very precise and efficient in their workflow, but these tools do not lend themselves to what I had in mind.

Why do I feel like I am being punished for trying to think logically? How is creating vertices an oversight in the design of this software?

EDIT: not a possible duplicate of the other question FYI, already explained above, not dealing with meshes or faces, dealing with vertices and edges, written in bold. Trying to gain a sense of the underlying principles of the software and not be dismissed.

Answer 1

Blender has an native plugin called TinyCAD.

1. Install TinyCAD via Blender User Preferences

2. Select the edges (in edge mode) that intersect and press W. Go to the TinyCAD menu and select vertex at intersaction

3. Now go to vertex mode and check the result.

About Creating Vertices

Its not really an oversight in Blender. If you follow standard mesh topology you almost never need to create a single vertex, you working with quads ( 4 vertices, 4 edges 1 face ) and tris ( 3 vertices, 3 edges, 1 face ). Everything besides that will generate 'weird' problems in your render.

I don't know what you want to create but maybe you should read a bit more about topology. I remember my first time and I was creating vertices all over the place and I thought that was logical. It was not after I learned the basic rules of topology.

Answer 2

Blender adheres to a very strict hierarchy of data. This is not unique to Blender, all 3d software I've ever used that's not Sketchup or Autocad does this to some degree, but Blender takes it a step further and adds gating to make especially sure that modifications to certain levels of data are purposeful.

The hierarchy looks something like this:

File -> Scene -> World -> Groups -> Object -> Object Data -> Geometry Data

(not super accurate but right enough for our purposes)

By default, Blender drops you to "Object Mode", which allows you to modify things in a world on a per-object basis. If you want to drop down to the Object-Data/Geometry data level of the hierarchy, you can press tab while having an object selected to drop down into "Edit Mode", which allows you to add/remove/change vertices/edges/faces to your heart's content.

Because Blender's interaction model is object based, you need a starter object to modify. You can find these easy enough by pressing space and typing "add " in object mode. Blender will suggest a number of primitives, such as cubes, cylinders, and cones as a starting point. From there, you can modify this primitive into whatever you wish.

You'll remember that I mentioned that AutoCad and Sketchup do not work this way. That is because those packages are CAD software, which are for precise drawings, measurements, and bindings. Blender, ZBrush, 3DSMax, etc are 3D modeling packages, which is a different focus but with some overlap in functionality. Blender can be hot-wired to do CAD, but it is kind of difficult to use in a way that is satisfying.