Force edge split even when angle is zero

Question

Disclaimer: I am a beginner at modeling and Blender.

I am working with blender's modifiers to achieve a certain mesh: I want only triangles, all sharp edges, no "shared" vertices, even when they have the same characteristics (same normals, ...).

I thought the edge split modifier is able to split edges regardless of the relative angle of its shared faces, but this doesn't seem to work for me. See the screenshot (basic cube placed, triangulate and edge split modifier applied):

The two triangles of each cube side seem to share some vertices, that's why there are only 24 vertices, NOT 32. I confirmed this by exporting the mesh to a text file-format. The mesh re-uses vertices (exported data has less vertices than indices).

But I actually WANT blender to split these edges (and vertices) properly. How can I achieve this? Ideally using non-destructive methods only.

Thank you! :)

Answer 1

I'm not sure you can do it without first applying at least the Triangulate modifier, but it can be easily done in edit mode. (If I interpret things correctly, the Split Angle of the Edge Split modifier is taken as greater than, not greater than or equal to, so you'll have to mark all edges as sharp, and I know of no way to mark edges that are created by a modifier sharp without first applying that modifier).

Method 1

Apply the Triangulate modifier, Tab into edit mode, select everything by pressing A as many times (none, one or two, depending what's selected to begin with) as needed and mark edges sharp (Mesh -> Edges -> Mark Sharp or CtrlE followed by K).

Method 2

Remove both your modifiers, then Tab into edit mode, select everything by pressing A as many times (none, one or two, depending what's selected to begin with) as needed and triangulate (Mesh -> Faces -> Triangulate Faces or CtrlF followed by T), then split the edges (Mesh -> Edges -> Edge Split or CtrlE followed by D).