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I am willing to use Blender for creating paper models. I am experimenting with this extension by Adam Dominec.

I am struggling to find way how to make sure that all the faces of my model are really flat. If all the faces of a model are triangular then whatever positions the vertices are moved to, all the faces are flat. However, it is easily possible to create a model that has quadrilateral faces that has one or more faces that are not flat. Here's a cube with one vertex moved one unit along X axis:

One vertex moved one unit along X axis

This clearly has one face non-flat. If I create a paper model from this (also, if I do UV unwrap), this non-flat face is one piece there. If I'd create a paper model, that face would be bent:

enter image description here

I'd like to create models with complex shape faces, not just triangles. Form complex models, say, animal head, that would be hard time to manually keep all the vertices aligned so that all faces are flat. Is there some way how to make sure my model has all faces flat, and fix, if they are not?

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    $\begingroup$ Have a try: in edit mode, select all, go to the mesh menu, then clean up and make planar faces. $\endgroup$
    – lemon
    Mar 21, 2017 at 10:07
  • $\begingroup$ And/or, look in to properties menu (N key) in edit mode, and use "mesh analysis" > type: distortion, it will let you see what's wrong $\endgroup$
    – m.ardito
    Mar 21, 2017 at 11:32
  • $\begingroup$ And/or, use the 3d print add-on, set a low angle into "distortion" and press the button: it will let you see what's wrong $\endgroup$
    – m.ardito
    Mar 21, 2017 at 11:34
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    $\begingroup$ @lemon applying the "make planar faces" works, but I had to switch to Face select mode in order to make it work - one can select the faces to fix and then apply the "make planar faces" $\endgroup$
    – Passiday
    Mar 21, 2017 at 13:28
  • $\begingroup$ @m.ardito the "mesh analysis" > type: distortion really helps to identify the distorted faces. $\endgroup$
    – Passiday
    Mar 21, 2017 at 13:31

1 Answer 1

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Thanks to comments from users @lemon and @m.ardito I can answer this myself now.

The distorted face fixing can be done in two steps:

  1. Identify the distorted faces by activating the "mesh analysis" in the properties menu (N key), select type: distortion.
  2. Flatten the distorted faces by selecting them (Edit mode, face select mode) and then going to Mesh menu > Clean up > Make planar faces.
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