# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Model

|previous=Quickie Lighting
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. In this
module, you\'ll learn how to extrude and merge vertices of a mesh and
how to save a model. This module also introduces the File Browser window
type.

Your first model will be a house, which we will develop over the course
of several modules. Here we will start with four walls and a pyramidal
roof. Simple! Since you\'re going to use the default cube as a base, all
you actually need to build is the roof!

Editing in Blender generally involves four steps:

1.  Selecting an object to edit.
2.  Activating Edit Mode on that object.
3.  Selecting part(s) of the object to act upon.
4.  Specifying the action(s) to be performed on those parts.

## Bring up the Default Cube

!The default cube in Object
Mode.

1.  Launch Blender.
2.  Load the factory settings using *File → Defaults → Load Factory
    Settings*.

This should give you a perspective view of a scene containing three
objects:

-   a cube,
-   a light source,
-   a camera.

## Setting up the Viewport

It will be easier to work on the roof of your house in a perspective
side view:

1.  Press  to switch to a \"perfect\"
    right side view.

\"Right Persp\" will be shown on the top left of the 3D View. The \"up\"
() direction in the scene is now \"up\" on your
monitor as well.

It will also help to zoom in a bit:

1.  Make sure the 3D View window is active (which means your mouse
    cursor is in it).

2.      or press  a few times until the
    cube is about 1/3 the height of the viewport.

Because you just loaded the factory defaults, the 3D transform
manipulator will be enabled. For mesh editing, it will help to turn the
manipulator off:

1.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
2.  Press  to toggle the
    manipulator on or off.

Press  once. This puts you into Edit
Mode on the selected object, i.e. the cube.

Here\'s how the cube should look at this point:

The default cube is constructed as a mesh. Now that you\'re in Edit
Mode, you can access the individual vertices, edges, and faces that make
up the mesh. The default cube consists of eight vertices, twelve edges,
and six faces.

## Adjusting the Height

Right now, all eight vertices are selected, so any vertex edits you make
will affect them all. For instance, if you were to move a vertex, the
other seven vertices would follow. In order to build a roof peak for the
house, you need to alter just the four top vertices of the cube. To do
that, you must change the selection so that only *those* vertices are
selected.

1.  Turn \'Occlude Background Geometry\' off, so you can see all
    vertices. Note, in newer versions, this button is called \"Limit
    Selection to Visible.\" It is one of the buttons to the right of
    transform orientation which is to the right of the mode select which
    should be currently set to \"edit mode\".
2.  Deselect the bottom four vertices, one by one, using
    .

![](Blender-2.5_quickie_model_stage2.png "Blender-2.5_quickie_model_stage2.png")
The picture to the right shows the cube (in right perspective view and
occlude background geometry \"off\") with the correct vertices selected.


Now you\'ll adjust the height of your house\'s ceiling. Activate the
**grab tool**:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the relevant part(s) of the
    object selected.
2.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
3.  Press .

The 3D View header will be replaced by numbers: \"Dx: 0.0000 Dy: 0.0000
Dz: 0.0000 (0.0000)\".

You want to lower the ceiling without making the walls crooked. This is
hard to do freehand, but happily the grab tool provides an option for
doing just that.

With the grab tool activated:

1.  Press  to limit movement to the global
    Z-axis.

When your ceiling is the height you want, confirm the grab with
 (or
).

## Extruding

!Step 7: the extruded attic, ready to
confirm{width="450"}

Now you\'re going to \"add on\" to your house by **extruding**.
Extrusion begins by duplicating selected parts of an object. Then the
new parts are pulled away from the old ones, with new faces and edges
created as necessary.

To add an attic to your house:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the top four vertices
    selected.
2.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
3.  Press  to activate the **extrude
    tool**.
4.  Restrict movement to the Z axis and move the mouse pointer upward.
5.  When the attic is the height you want, confirm the extrude with
     or
    .
6.  Keep the extrusion visible: you will need it for the next exercise.

## Merging

!The Specials
menu{width="350"}

You can change the roof from a flat one to a pyramidal one by merging
the vertices of the roof:

1.  Make sure that you still have the extruded roof from the previous
    exercise visible.
2.  Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the four top-most vertices
    selected.
3.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
4.  Press  to bring up the *Specials*
    menu.
5.  Select *Merge*. (You can also access this by pressing
    +.)
6.  The *Merge* menu should pop up, select *At center*.

A message should appear on the Info header saying that 3 vertices have
been deleted, this is because in order to merge four vertices into one,
three vertices must be deleted.

!Your house now has a pyramidal
roof!


## Saving your Work

!Saving the
.blend{width="550"}

We will be developing the house in later modules, so save your work now.
To save the current scene in a `.blend` file:

1.  Press  (or select *File → Save As*).
    The active window temporarily changes into a File Browser window.
2.  Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file
    by clicking  on directory names in
    the File Browser window. (Clicking on \"..\" will take you up one
    level.)
3.  If you wish to name the file something other than
    \"untitled.blend\", type a filename in the text box to the left of
    the \"Cancel\" button. (The .blend suffix will be added
    automatically.)
4.  Click  on the \"Save As Blender
    File\" button. As soon as the save operation is complete, the window
    will automatically revert to its former type.

### Saving Further Changes

Once you have saved your work to a file for the first time, you can save
subsequent changes to the same file name by pressing
 and confirming you want to
overwrite the existing file. 

## Additional Resources

-   A Video Tutorial on Edit
    Mode

