See vertex count of subdivided object before applying modifier

Question

There are answers about the info bar (by default at the bottom right of Blender 2.8) but it seems it only shows current stats on the selected object (when in edit mode) and not what the stats will be after a modifier like Subdivision is applied.

Answer 1

2.80 python console code examples of three possible methods to do this. Some of these methods differ slightly in 2.7x, consult the documentation.

For the simplest of examples Have the default cube with default subsurf modifier. The "modified" cube has 24 faces.

>>> C.object
bpy.data.objects['Cube']

>>> len(C.object.data.polygons)
6

Bmesh from_object

Creating a bmesh from the object, produces a bmesh with the modifiers applied. This would be my preferred method

>>> import bmesh
>>> bm = bmesh.new()
>>> bm.from_object(C.object, C.depsgraph)
>>> len(bm.faces)
24

Very similarly Object.to_mesh(...) returns a modified mesh. remove from the data collection when done calculating stats.

>>> me = C.object.to_mesh(C.depsgraph, True)
>>> len(me.polygons)
24

The Scene.statistics(...) method returns the statistics string seen on header. Grep the required data from the string, create a linked dupe, re-run stats remove the dupe object.

>>> C.scene.statistics(C.view_layer)
'Scene Collection | Cube | Verts:26 | Faces:24 | Tris:48 | Objects:0/3 | Mem: 11.6 MB | v2.80.48'

>>> bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=True)
{'FINISHED'}


>>> C.scene.statistics(C.view_layer)
'Scene Collection | Cube.001 | Verts:52 | Faces:48 | Tris:96 | Objects:1/4 | Mem: 15.3 MB | v2.80.48'

>>> 

Answer 2

You just have to be in object mode to have the vertex count of the object including its modifiers.

To have the polycount of a selected object, for now, there is no dedicated statistics for that. A workaround would be to temporary isolate your object in a layer (or collection in 2.80) and hide the others. Then you will have the right stats.