How to solidify edges

Question

I have a complex mesh with only vertices and edges that I want to solidify.

The problem is I just want to solidify edges (not any faces) to have some kind of fat wireframe model (i.e. just every edges being cylinders). Not a classic solidify.

How can I achieve that?

Here is my mesh: Solidify Edges

If you want to see a comparison of the results on my mesh: - Left: Beveling a Curve

Center: Wireframe Modifier with 0.5 Thickness and a Subsurf

Right: Skin Modifier with 0.5 Branch Smoothing and a Subsurf I end up using the middle one (wireframe). It looks pretty organic without changing the initial shape of the mesh. — Binary Brain, Apr 03 '14 at 17:04

iKlsR · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-12T23:28:11.043

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You could use the Skin Modifier. After adding it to the object, it might appear fat and blobby, so to adjust the thickness you can Tab into Edit mode and use CtrlA to affect the thickness.

enter image description here

Another way is to just fill in the faces of your model and make use of the Wireframe modifier.

edited Jan 12 '20 at 23:28

answered Apr 03 '14 at 16:00

iKlsR

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How do you add a skin modifier in Blender 2.8? Both of the links you posted are dead. – Aaron Franke Jan 12 '20 at 06:25
@AaronFranke updated the link. See https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/introduction.html – iKlsR Jan 12 '20 at 23:28
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I tried the skin modifier to an object with only 448 edges (64 selected), but the Ctrl+A scaling was unusably slow. Can't I type a value instead of dragging the mouse to set the thickness? – Damn Vegetables Jan 20 '20 at 23:58

score 29 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 03 '14 at 16:43

29

Beveling a Curve

Another way you can achieve your goal is to convert your Mesh composed of edges and vetices into a Curve. Then you could add a Bevel to the Curve and have your result. Here are the steps:

Select your wireframe mesh
Convert the mesh to a curve by either of these methods:
- ALTC -> Curve from Mesh/Text
- 3D Viewport Header -> Object -> Convert To -> Curve from Mesh/Text
Next, since you said you want to have every edge be a cylinder, you should Add a circle curve: SHIFTA -> Curve -> Circle
Now select your wireframe and in the Object Properties window, click on the Curve tab, scroll down to the Geometry section and set Bevel Object to the circle you added in step 3 -- this circle will then define the shape of the edges:
Now adjust the size of the circle curve so your mesh looks the way you want it to:

answered Apr 03 '14 at 16:43

Thom Blair III

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Thanks for the nice post. It may be useful once. But the problem is it's hard to rework on it afterward. – Binary Brain Apr 03 '14 at 16:55
Yes, also, if you zoom in on the corners, I noticed the cylinders of the edges don't join together like they do with the Skin Modifier or the Wireframe Modifier. – Thom Blair III Apr 03 '14 at 17:07
Actually, Binary, you can edit the mesh again, but I guess you do have to keep converting from curve to mesh in order to edit it easily. – Thom Blair III Apr 03 '14 at 18:04
@BinaryBrain Yes, now I see what you mean about hard to edit. Oh well. – Thom Blair III Apr 03 '14 at 18:08
Yes, modifiers are a lot more user-friendly for that. – Binary Brain Apr 03 '14 at 18:44
nice information – 0.sh Apr 17 '17 at 03:50
Where are these options in Blender 2.8? Alt+C and Shift+A no longer perform these operations. – Aaron Franke Jan 12 '20 at 06:37

Siegfried Heide · Answer 3 · 2021-04-02T11:48:20.803

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Blender 2.9

In Blender 2.9+ (presumably already since 2.8) it works similar as described in Thom Blair III's answer, except that the extra step of adding a cicular curve is no longer necessary. A tube radius for the convered Curve can now be added directly in the Curve Tab under Geometry > Bevel > Depth. Works pretty well and fast.

edited Apr 02 '21 at 11:48

answered Apr 02 '21 at 10:47

Siegfried Heide

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 18 '24 at 11:43

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You can also automate @thom-blair-iii's answer using Geometry Nodes :

mesh to curve
curve to mesh + profile curve to give it a thickness.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/249070/14306

answered Mar 18 '24 at 11:43

gordie

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How to solidify edges

4 Answers4

Beveling a Curve

Linked

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