Documentation
Modelling
Three ways to build geometry, and they combine freely: start from primitives, edit the mesh directly, and stack modifiers that stay editable.
Starting from primitives
In the Create tab, pick Box, Plane, Sphere or Cylinder, then drag on the ground plane. Parameters stay editable in the Modify tab afterwards.
Sub-object editing
With an object selected, drop into a sub-object level to work on the mesh itself:
| Key | Level |
|---|---|
| 1 | Vertex |
| 2 | Edge |
| 4 | Polygon |
| D or Esc | Back to object level |
Operations available at sub-object level include:
- Extrude — push faces or edges out into new geometry
- Bevel — extrude and taper in one move
- Chamfer — round off edges; more segments gives a rounder fillet
- Inset — a smaller face inside the selected one
- Outline — grow or shrink a face in its own plane
- Connect — new edges between selected edges
- Cut and QuickSlice — cut new edges across a surface
- Make Planar — flatten a selection onto one plane
- Hinge From Edge — rotate faces around a chosen edge
Press ; to repeat the last operation on your current selection. It saves a lot of clicks when working through a mesh.
Booleans
The first ribbon group. Select two objects and apply:
- Union — merge into one solid
- Subtract — cut the second out of the first
- Intersect — keep only the overlap
- Punch — cut a shape straight through
- Cut — split using the second object
Booleans are applied as a modifier, so the result stays editable — you can move the cutting object afterwards and the result updates.
The modifier stack
Modifiers sit on top of an object and can be reordered, adjusted or removed at any point without destroying what is underneath. Available modifiers:
| Modifier | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit Poly | Holds direct mesh edits as a stack entry |
| Array | Repeats the object in a pattern |
| Mirror | Mirrors across an axis |
| Symmetry | Mirrors and welds the seam |
| Shell | Gives a surface thickness |
| TurboSmooth | Subdivision smoothing |
| Smooth | Smooths across edges gentler than an angle you set, keeping sharper ones hard |
| Bend / Twist / Taper | Deformations along an axis |
| Noise | Displaces the surface for roughness or terrain |
| Slice | Cuts the mesh with a plane |
| Boolean | The ribbon boolean ops, as a stack entry |
| UVW Map | Projects texture coordinates |
Snapping and alignment
Press S to toggle snapping. Choose what it snaps to — Grid, Edge, Face or Vertex — in the ribbon’s Snap group.
The Align group aligns objects to one another on any axis, by bounds or by pivot. Pick your reference object first.
Architectural tools
Lacoura 3D also ships parametric architectural pieces — stairs (straight, L-shaped and spiral), ramps, railings, rooms and wall footprints. They are generated from parameters you can keep editing, rather than modelled by hand.