Submesh Feature

The Submesh Feature allow multiple materials to be applied to different sets of faces on the same mesh.

A mesh of a spigot	The same mesh, with submeshes defined
No material applied, so the entire mesh is grey.	Materials applied to each submesh: the cast bronze valve, anodized red handle, and galvanized pipe.

Submesh Feature properties

Manipulating submeshes with Snap

Submesh best practices

Isolate the mesh to create submeshes.

Submeshes override the base material of the mesh.

Precede your submesh features with a UV map feature.

Property	Options
Name	Name the feature. Unique names for each feature is not required, but suggested.
Select Faces	A button to choose which faces the Submesh is applied to. Once clicked, Marquee selection will be active: select the faces to include and then click the done button. To select faces manually, SHIFT-DRAG over them. To add to your selection, SHIFT-CONTROL DRAG over them. To remove faces, SHIFT-ALT-DRAG over them. Depending on the shape of your mesh, options in the face selection pane can help you. Turn on select backfaces to include the faces on the other side of the mesh in your selection. Or turn that off, so you only select the faces you see. You can expand your selection. Click expand by 1 to grow your selection slowly. Or enter an angle, and then click expand by angle to gather up many faces easily.
Material	Select which material to apply to the faces within this submesh.
Override UV Maps	When selected, this will cause the Submesh to Override any current UV Maps with one of it’s own. If true, a popup under it will open that allows you to set the new settings for the Submesh UV map.

Like any mesh feature, a Submesh has properties which can be manipulated during run time with snap. For example, change the material of a submesh based on user input:

Keep in mind these useful tips when using the submesh feature.

Before you start to select vertices, isolate the mesh by marking other meshes around it hidden. Or move it temporarily to an unused area of the scene to make face selection easier.

Use this technique to easily edit a mesh, even if it is far away from the origin.

When you work with a mesh that will have many submeshes on it, you may want to apply no base material to the mesh at all.  Leave it grey.  Apply all your materials through submeshes.

This can make finding and applying the correct submeshes easier when you create it today, and help make maintenance easier in the future.

Remember that submeshes are features, and are applied to the mesh in the order of the feature stack, from top to bottom.

As explained in other documentation, a UV map gives you precise control over the properties of materials, such as the rotation of the material on the mesh, or the size of the material on the mesh.  By applying a UV map first, before your submeshes, you can ensure consistency in material properties and experiment with different looks faster.

You can override the UV map properties for any one submesh by checking the override UV Maps box, and adjusting any property.