A Surface Mesh is a Content type that represents a 3D surface as a network of connected triangles or polygons. The faces of the mesh are called cells, and the points that define them are called vertices. Surface meshes may be textured or untextured, depending on their source and intended use.
Surface meshes are commonly used for terrain models, geological surfaces, infrastructure models, and 3D scans of rock faces or outcrops.
Import surface meshes through the Data Import Wizard. See Import Formats for the currently supported mesh formats and their import options.
Numerous surface meshes representing a geological model and topography.
Numerous untextured surface meshes form the geological model, while a textured mesh provides the topography.
Textured surface mesh representation of a 3D outcrop scan.
The Mesh Inspector provides controls for color, transparency, surface rendering, interaction, and mesh geometry. It also displays the mesh's cell and vertex counts.
The current Surface Mesh Inspector with rendering and interaction controls expanded.
Meshes with 100,000 vertices or more use one-sided hover and selection interaction to reduce the impact on performance. Mesh Inversion switches the interactive side, while Mesh: Hover Both Sides allows interaction from either side at a potential performance cost. This interaction behavior is separate from Mesh: View Both Sides, which is enabled by default and controls whether the surface is rendered from both sides.
For the most responsive interaction, keep individual meshes below this threshold where the source data and workflow allow it.
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