---

The following tutorial series is directly from Module 1 of 3 of "Maya Foundation: Home-Study Course" tutorial course.

I've released this entire Module 1 of 3 completely free. It is focused on teaching you how to get started learning Maya completely from scratch in 4 hours. Start with all videos in order within Maya Beginner Series here.

The full "Maya Foundation: Home Study Course" contains 3 Modules and 18+ hours of tutorials.

• Module 1 is focused on interface overview for game environment modeling.
• Module 2 is focused on environment modeling techniques (27 videos, 8+hrs).
• Module 3 is focused on UV mapping and UVing (21 videos, 5+hrs).

Deleting vertices, edges and faces isn't as simple as pressing Delete. In this tutorial you will learn how to properly delete components to avoid geometry problems.

Video Tutorial

Delete Polygons/Faces

Easiest component to delete is a polygon face.

Switch to face Component Mode and select the face you want to delete:

Press Delete or Backspace:

• Delete or Backspace = Delete Polygon/Face

To delete multiple faces at once, select the face, press Shift + Left Mouse Click to add to selection:

Press Delete:

Deleting Faces Without Selecting

You can delete faces without selecting them. Switch over to face component Mode and hover over a face you want to delete (don't left-click on the face to select it, just hover over it):

Press Delete while the mouse cursor is hovering over it:

Delete Edges

Deleting edges using Delete key will remove the edge but will NOT remove shared vertices. This is a problem.

Here is a selected edge, and by hitting Delete all seems normal:

But switching over to vertices component Mode, you can see there are floating vertices left:

To properly delete an edge you must go to Edit Mesh > Delete Edge/Vertex:

Better yet, use a shortcut:

• Ctrl + Delete = Delete Edge

So the proper way deleting an edge is to use Ctrl + Delete which will remove floating vertices:

Deleting edges that support the geometry by using Delete will create problems with your object.

Here is what happens when you remove a supporting edge that helps to form geometry of a cube using Delete:

Here is what happens when you remove a supporting edge that helps to form geometry of a cube using Ctrl + Delete:

Delete Vertices

Using Delete or Backspace key to delete floating vertices or vertices that are not connected to 2 or more edges:

• Delete = Delete Floating Vertices

Delete key will NOT work on vertices that are connected to more than 2 edges:

You will have to force delete by using Edit Mesh > Delete Edge/Vertex:

Or use a shortcut:

• Ctrl + Delete = Delete Vertex Connected to More Than 2 Edges

Be careful force deleting certain vertices as it can create errors and collapse your geometry. Here are 2 vertices deleted which collapsed our cube:

Making Better Selections

Here are few useful shortcut keys on making better selections:

• Double Click on an Edge = Continuous Edge Loop
• Hold Shift and Left Mouse Click = Add to a Selection
• Hold Ctrl and Left Mouse Click = Remove from a Selection
• Hold Tab = Paint a Selection

Next Tutorial in the Series

Maya Beginner Tutorial Series 14/17: Custom Polygon Display Options for Environment Modeling

Maya Foundation: Home-Study Course

Learn how to environment model and UV with Maya better than anyone else. Become a modeling master with it. In "Maya Foundation: Home Study Course" I will show you how.

Get the Course»