# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Improving Your House

|previous=Understanding the Camera
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. In this
module, you\'ll refine the house model you created two modules ago. In
the process, you\'ll learn how to access Blender\'s predefined meshes
and how to set a pivot point. You\'ll also learn how to select, extrude,
delete, and subdivide the edges and faces of a mesh model.

\_\_TOC\_\_

To begin, set up Blender as follows:

1.  Launch Blender and load the factory settings.
2.  If you have a numpad, make sure NumLock is on.
3.  Load the house model you created in
    .
4.  If the 3D manipulator is active, disable it.
5.  Adjust the viewpoint until you can clearly see two walls of the
    house and two sides of the roof.

## Adding a Ground Plane

Your house needs some ground to rest on. You can model the ground as an
object in your scene. Blender has many predefined mesh objects built in.
Happily, one of these is a flat, square surface.

Recall that new objects are added at the 3D cursor. Before creating the
ground, you should position the cursor at ground level:

1.  Select the house by clicking  on it.
2.  Enter Edit Mode by pressing .
3.  Select one of the bottom vertices by clicking
     on it.
4.  Bring up the *Snap* menu by pressing
    .
5.  Choose *Cursor to Selected*.
6.  Leave Edit Mode by pressing  so your
    ground is created as a separate object.

!The ground
added.
Now create the ground object:

1.  Activate a 3D View window.
2.  Press .
3.  Choose *Mesh → Plane*.

!The scaled
ground.{width="200"}
To enlarge (or scale) the ground object, use the
:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Select the ground by clicking  on
    it.
3.  Activate the scale tool by pressing
    .
4.  Type  to enlarge the ground 7x.
5.  Press  or
     to confirm and exit the scale tool.

## Scaling with a Pivot

Suppose you want to shrink the house by 50%. As you can probably guess,
this would be done with the scaling tool. However, if you did so right
now without the right pivot point, the reduced house would no longer
rest on the ground (check this by selecting the house and scaling it to
0.2). Blender scales (and rotates) objects around a
, which by default is
located at the 
(geometric center) of the selected object(s).

In order to scale the house while keeping its base on the ground, you
need the pivot point to be at ground level. Since the 3D cursor is at
ground level, you can do this as follows:

!Origin to 3D Cursor Menu
Item.

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Select the house by clicking  on it.
3.  In the 3D View header, click  on
    menu item \"Object\" and put the mouse cursor over *Transform* and
    select *Origin to 3D Cursor* from the pop-up menu. This can also be
    done with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C, select *Origin to 3D Cursor* from the
    pop-up menu. (A.K.A. select \"Object\" which is just left of where
    you\'ve been going into object mode/edit mode, as shown in the
    image. So Object\>Transform\>Origin to 3D Cursor)

The origin of the house is now at the center of the 3D cursor. If you
scale the house, the place where the 3D cursor is located will remain
fixed, and everything else will expand or contract from that point. The
pivot is marked with an orange-filled circle. Do not mistake it for a
selected vertex. 

## Edge Selection

It is often useful to select edges instead of vertices.

!The select mode
buttons.

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Select the house by clicking  on it.
3.  Press  to enter edit mode.
4.  Click  on the Edge select mode
    button in the 3D View header.

In Edge select mode, edges appear as orange or white line segments when
they\'re selected and as black line segments when they\'re not.

Just as you selected vertices in Vertex select mode, you can now select
(and deselect) edges in the same way as vertices. This is also the same
for Face select mode.

It may be because those edges are
. This can happen if you
cancel an extrude operation and forget to undo the duplication. Here\'s
a solution:

1.  Switch to Vertex select mode.
2.  Activate a 3D View window.
3.  Select all vertices by pressing 
    once or twice.
4.  Press  to bring up the \"Specials\"
    menu.
5.  Choose *Remove Doubles*.

## Extruding Edges

You can extrude edges in much the same way as you extrude vertices.

!Step
5{width="200"}
To add an overhang to the roof of your house, first move the pivot point
to the peak of the roof:

1.  Switch to Vertex select mode.
2.  Select just the vertex at the peak of the roof.
3.  Press  to bring up the Snap
    menu.
4.  In the Snap menu, choose *Cursor to Selected* to move the 3D cursor
    to the peak.
5.  Use the \"Pivot\" menu (located to the left of the 3D Manipulator
    button) in the 3D View header to change the pivot to \"3D Cursor\".

!After step 2 Now
extrude by scaling from that point:

1.  Switch to Edge select mode.
2.  Select just the four edges at the base of the roof.
3.  Press  to activate the extrude
    tool. The effect is that you have just made a copy of the four
    edges.
4.  Press  to scale the four edges
    uniformly from the pivot point.
5.  As you move the mouse pointer away from the pivot point, the roof of
    your house will expand.
6.  When the roof is the size you want, confirm by
     (or pressing
    ).
7.  Press  to toggle the
    manipulator on then make the overhangs slanted by holding
     on the blue arrow that appears in
    the center of the house, and dragging down.

!After step 7


## Face Selection

It is often useful to select faces.

!The select mode buttons after step
2

1.  Make sure you\'re in Edit Mode on the house.
2.  Click  on the Face select mode
    button in the 3D View header.

In Face select mode, the center of each face is marked with a small
square. Faces appear as orange or stippled grey areas with orange edges
when they\'re selected (depending on which face is active), and as grey
areas when they\'re not.

Just as you selected edges in Edge select mode, you can now select (and
deselect) faces:

-   If any faces are selected, press 
    to deselect all faces.
-   If no faces are selected, press  to
    select all faces.
-   To select a single face (and deselect the rest), click
     (or
    ) on the center of the face.
-   To toggle the selection status of a face (without affecting the
    rest), click  on the center of
    the face.

!The three faces on the +X side,
selected
Use these techniques to select all three faces (two roof and one wall)
on the +X side of your house, as shown.

-   Remember that the positive direction of the axis is the direction
    the arrows point to.

## Extruding Faces

Just as you extruded edges to grow the roof, you can extrude faces to
grow the entire house.

!After step 6 To
double the size of your house without changing the pitch of the roof:

1.  With the three faces on the +X side selected, activate a 3D View
    window.
2.  Press  to activate the extrude
    tool.
3.  Press  to extrude along the X axis
4.  As you move the mouse pointer in the +X direction, the +X half of
    your house will expand.
5.  Press  to expand by exactly 2 Blender
    units. (If you scaled your house earlier, you must change this value
    accordingly, e.g. scaling by 50% means you press
    .)
6.  Confirm and exit the extrude tool by clicking
     (or pressing
    ).

## Deleting Edges

!After step
2{width="250"} If you
look closely at the model, you\'ll notice an extra edge, inside the
house, connecting the seams between the two halves of the roof. To
delete this edge:

1.  Edit the house object in Edge select mode.
2.  Select just the edge you want to delete.
3.  Press  or
    .
4.  When the \"Delete\" menu comes up, choose *Edges*.

## Subdividing Faces

In order to add openings such as doors or windows to the walls of your
house, you\'ll need to subdivide the wall (vertical) faces into smaller
faces.

!After step
2{width="150"}

To subdivide each wall face into a 10x20 grid:

1.  Make sure you are not in wire-frame mode (otherwise the occlude
    hidden geometry button will not appear)
2.  Edit the house object in Face select mode.
3.  Select all six wall faces of your house.
4.  Press  to bring up the *Specials*
    menu.
5.  Choose *Subdivide*.
6.  Set the number of cuts to 9 in the Operator panel (also accessible
    through F6).

You might be wondering why to make 9 cuts instead of 10, the reason is
that in case of dividing a finite surface along one axis there will be
always n-1 cuts to generate n single faces. Here the number of cuts is
applied in 2 dimensions. So, if you count the number of faces on the
subdivided walls, you will find a 10x20 grid. The reason why there are
20 faces instead of 10 lengthwise is because you doubled the size of the
house along the X axis (lengthwise). !After step
6{width="150"}


!Step 2 !After step
3.2{width="150"}
Now you can extrude windows and doors:

1.  Edit the house object in Face select mode.
2.  Turn on the \"Limit selection to visible (clipped with depth
    buffer)\" (for old Blender versions \"Occlude background geometry\")
    option by clicking  on the toggle
    button in the 3D View header.
3.  For each wall of the house:
    1.  Go to the perfect view for that wall:
        -               for \"front\"

        -               for \"back\"

        -               for \"right\"

        -               for \"left\"
    2.  Select faces where you want to create a window or door. An easy
        way to do this is by:
        1.  Deselecting all faces by pressing
             once or twice.
        2.  Pressing  to activate the
            Border Select tool.
        3.  Clicking and dragging  to
            delimit a rectangular area.
        4.  After you release , all
            faces in the rectangular area will be selected.
    3.  Press  to activate the extrude
        tool.
    4.  Extrude inward 1/10th of a BU by typing
         and confirming it with
         or
        .

## Final Steps

1.  Adjust the position of the lamp and aim the camera until you obtain
    a good render.
2.  Save your work!

