Fixing Polygons

there is a quick way; however, whenever I triangulate a model I do it manually as to get the proper direction for my polygon normals.

The tool though to triangulate a model is found under the modify area of the modeling panel, then go to Polymesh, Then near the bottom you'll find triangulate.

there is a tool and it is very easy to use in xsi.

in the top menu bar whn ou have xsi open and with your model selected ((you know its selected if its white.))

there is a text button called modes... click it and you should see theree modes i use the modtool layout as i find it handy but to do this you need to have the second one selected called

XSI DEFAULT (pro mode)

once youve done that and there is a huge pointer in the upper right hand corner with a button over it called SELECT you need to press on the select button then scroll down to...

Select n-sided polygons

then select the last one called five sides or more.

at this pont if your model turns yellow and polygons are red that means some of them ar out of compliance so you need to click on the upper tool bar on a text button called

DISPLAY

then clcik on the hide un selected objects/polygons which should hide any polys not highlighted then i do a teo step process.

first i right click on on of the highlighted polygons and right click which brings up a menu select the subdivide polygons and choose the "X" pattern then press your space bar to unhilight all polygons.

now hit select once again and then hit the select n-sided polygons and the five sides or more yet again.

this time if you get a few more abnormal polygons it will still turn yello if not you can move on the the last part...

if it did turn yellow and highlight more polys then do the subdivide again only use the trianges option then hit your space bace and do the select then 5-sided polys operation a third time just to make sure they are all sorted which ive never had a model be at this point.

so now that your model has stayed white you need to go back to the display text button up top again and click on the

Unhide all polygons button the third one down then save the scene and return the mode of display you favor.

hope this helps, good luck!

ds

wow... that was oddly specific.  Thank you.

As far as I am aware, you are not required to triangulate your models - the Sins engine can handle quads just as well. You need to get rid of n-gons (polygons with more than four sides) though.

I also prefer to do that manually, as I usually can avoid creating too many n-gons and the add edge tool is simple enough to use. You can also avoid odd shaped triangles that way, which comes in handly later when you're UV-mapping and want to avoid texture distortions.

yeah, it says in the docs for Forge Tools that the Sins engine can handle 3 or 4 sides polygons.