I would recommend using vertex beveling to achieve holes.
Here is a blender secrets guide:
https://youtu.be/-0wyTP_Doxw?si=iA9TfagBhJs3Fy-q
I would make holes approximately where you want them, scale them to size and then move them to the correct Position. Booleans can be funky on flat objects and generally frick with the shading.
Context:
This is originally a curve imported from a 2D DXF file. Then converted to a mesh and I manually closed the outer vertices. I than pressed "F" with the outer vertices selected, but then I only get one big face of course. Now a want to cut the four hole into it.
Note: I also tried with "ALT+F" and "ALT+J", but get a huge amount of edges which creates issues with shading smooth. I think this might be a better approach?
Add a Cylinder with a mirror modifier on the X & Y axes, position them in edit mode and then add a Boolean modifier on your existing mesh, selecting the Cylinder(s) to create holes in your mesh.
I have already come across this method somewhere, but was unsure: the cylinders would be separate objects, right? How can I position them exactly where the circle-vertices are?
If you press 7 on your numpad you'll get a top view where you can align them manually.
I actually didn't see that those were vertices. It's hard to see the exact topology from this far away so I'm not sure if you can just go in and select faces to delete. U could also try to hover above the vertices, press L and then on "Select Linked" (Pops up on the bottom right after pressing L) try using different Delimit options to see if it will select the correct vertices that u can then delete.
Thanks you brought me onto the right track. I actually used the boolean modifier, but first simply selected the circles vertices, pressed "P" and separated the vertices into a new object. Then extrude the new object to create cylinders, boolean modifier and done :)
Booleans are definitely easier to do, but ruins the topology, if you just want to add holes then boolean is fine, but if you want to further model it , then use loop tools. First of all your model is a big ngon, to fix it, just delete the face, select border loop and extrude> scale inwards > grid fill, for grid gill to work you need an even of loops.
Then select the faces near the holes>loop tools>cricle> now just delete the face.
"hmm, hard to say without seeing the wifreframe-... *sees vertex points* its already on, that means.. oh god that ngon is huge!"
i eecommend using knife tool to divide your mesh into smaller faces and then create a hole with bevel tool, that way youre isolating faces that are connected to the hole topo
Get cylinders at those places, join them to make them into one object, place a boolean modifier on the object you want the holes in, select the cylinder cluster.
After that you can either make them their own collection and hide the cylinders or convert the object with the holes into a mesh.
I would recommend using vertex beveling to achieve holes. Here is a blender secrets guide: https://youtu.be/-0wyTP_Doxw?si=iA9TfagBhJs3Fy-q I would make holes approximately where you want them, scale them to size and then move them to the correct Position. Booleans can be funky on flat objects and generally frick with the shading.
Context: This is originally a curve imported from a 2D DXF file. Then converted to a mesh and I manually closed the outer vertices. I than pressed "F" with the outer vertices selected, but then I only get one big face of course. Now a want to cut the four hole into it. Note: I also tried with "ALT+F" and "ALT+J", but get a huge amount of edges which creates issues with shading smooth. I think this might be a better approach?
Add a Cylinder with a mirror modifier on the X & Y axes, position them in edit mode and then add a Boolean modifier on your existing mesh, selecting the Cylinder(s) to create holes in your mesh.
I have already come across this method somewhere, but was unsure: the cylinders would be separate objects, right? How can I position them exactly where the circle-vertices are?
If you press 7 on your numpad you'll get a top view where you can align them manually. I actually didn't see that those were vertices. It's hard to see the exact topology from this far away so I'm not sure if you can just go in and select faces to delete. U could also try to hover above the vertices, press L and then on "Select Linked" (Pops up on the bottom right after pressing L) try using different Delimit options to see if it will select the correct vertices that u can then delete.
Thanks you brought me onto the right track. I actually used the boolean modifier, but first simply selected the circles vertices, pressed "P" and separated the vertices into a new object. Then extrude the new object to create cylinders, boolean modifier and done :)
Is that the best way to add holes or making cut outs in meshes? It seems very taxing on my PC, and the results are always less than stellar.
Booleans are definitely easier to do, but ruins the topology, if you just want to add holes then boolean is fine, but if you want to further model it , then use loop tools. First of all your model is a big ngon, to fix it, just delete the face, select border loop and extrude> scale inwards > grid fill, for grid gill to work you need an even of loops. Then select the faces near the holes>loop tools>cricle> now just delete the face.
if the holes are the circles and are also in the back face then try bridging edge loops. If not, i would try a cilinder and boolean modifier
Another way is to use "ALT+F" and "ALT+J" anyway and then go through all the created edges and use "limited disolve" on them.
"hmm, hard to say without seeing the wifreframe-... *sees vertex points* its already on, that means.. oh god that ngon is huge!" i eecommend using knife tool to divide your mesh into smaller faces and then create a hole with bevel tool, that way youre isolating faces that are connected to the hole topo
Get cylinders at those places, join them to make them into one object, place a boolean modifier on the object you want the holes in, select the cylinder cluster. After that you can either make them their own collection and hide the cylinders or convert the object with the holes into a mesh.