Subdivide

Subdivide mesh geometry into smaller faces for a smoother surface.

What it does

Subdivide adds detail by splitting every segment or face, and adapts to its input:

Each pass roughly doubles the point or face count.

When to use it

ParameterTypeDefaultWhat it does
sourceCollection—Source shapes or geometry to subdivide
iterationsNumber1Number of subdivision passes (each doubles point/face count)
smoothBooleanfalseApply Loop subdivision smoothing to vertex positions (3D geometry only)
triangulateBooleanfalseConvert all faces to triangles after subdivision. Useful for simulation, booleans, and export.
strengthNumber1Effect strength / wet-dry (0 = no effect, 1 = full). Editable, wirable, keyframable.

Gotchas

Iterations are exponential, each pass doubling the count. Two passes is ~4×, four passes is ~16×. Raise it one step at a time and watch performance.

Smooth only affects 3D geometry. On a 2D path, subdividing preserves the curve exactly, so there is nothing to smooth and the toggle is ignored.

Subdivide is the increase-detail direction. For fewer anchors on a path, or a decimated mesh, use Resample.

Worked example

  1. Add a Sphere at a low resolution, so the facets are visible.

  2. Add Subdivide after it and set Iterations to 2.

  3. Turn Smooth on. The sphere rounds out.

  4. Turn Triangulate on to feed the result into a boolean or the simulation solver.

See also

Resample · Mesh · Sphere · Geometry (meshes)