One of the best ways to quickly add geometry onto your object in Blender is by using Loop Cuts. A Loop Cut will quickly divide your entire object into equal parts, and today, we’re going to learn how to do them!
Loop Cuts are really simple and easy to do. I recommend using the keyboard shortcut, but I’ll also include two other ways if you don’t like memorizing hotkeys. To make it even easier, and so you can also follow along with me, let’s use the default cube.
Blender Loop Cuts Keyboard Shortcut
First, select your cube by left clicking it. Now go into ‘Edit Mode’ by hitting ‘TAB’ on your keyboard. Next, hit ‘Ctrl + R’ and hover your mouse over an edge on your cube.
At this point, you should see a yellow line going all around your cube. This is a preview of the cut you’re about to make. You can also use your mouse wheel to create more or less cuts, which is really handy! When you have the amount of cuts you want, left click to submit.
When you left click, the yellow lines that were going around the cube should turn orange. Now, when you move your mouse around, you should be able to slide the cut (or cuts) to either side of the cube.
This is great if you need your cut to be more on one side of the cube than the other. However, if you just want to keep it centered, right click, and it will snap back to the center. Otherwise, move the cut to wherever you want and left click to submit.
Number of Cuts
If you want a certain amount of cuts, like, more cuts than you actually care to count out, there is a little box on the bottom left of the 3D Viewport that has a bunch of options for Loop Cuts. This little box will disappear if you click too many times though, so if you do need it but you don’t see it, just undo the cut and try it again.
If it isn’t expanded like you see here, just click on it and it will get bigger.
In this box you have a list of options, which, always feel free to look over sometime, but don’t go crazy trying to learn all of them. Especially as a beginner. For the most part, the only option you really need to know is the first one. “Number of Cuts”, and it does exactly what it sounds like.
So, for example, if you want exactly 47 Loop Cuts, this is where you would specify that number instead of trying to count them all out one by one.
And that’s pretty much it for Loop Cuts! Not too bad, right?
The Trouble With Blender Loop Cuts
Now, let’s talk about a common problem that you’ll most likely come across when trying to do Loop Cuts. Admittedly, it took me a lot longer to figure out why this was happening than it probably should have.
Loop Cuts need to cut across a face with 4 sides. Meaning that you can’t do a Loop Cut across a triangle or n-gon (a face with more than 4 sides).
If you ever try to do a Loop Cut and you don’t see the yellow line going across your entire object, but instead you see a yellow dot on one of the edges, it’s because you have a triangle or n-gon somewhere in the flow of your cut.
For example, let’s say that for some reason you have a default cube with one side cut into triangles, like I do here, and you need to make a Loop Cut around it. As you can see, the yellow preview line doesn’t go all the way around the cube. This means we won’t be able to do a Loop Cut with the current geometry.
How To Fix Problematic Geometry
A few ways we could approach this problem would be to:
- Simply, use the Knife tool to create the cuts (‘K’ on your keyboard) instead of a Loop Cut if you only need a few more faces on your object. For example, if you only wanted the top yellow line on the cube, you could just Knife cut it instead of using a Loop Cut. However, this can get really sloppy if you’re not careful and you’ll likely just create more n-gons, which is bad geometry.
- Try dissolving the edge that is causing the problem by going into ‘Edit Mode’, selecting the problem edge (make sure you’re in ‘Edge Select’ mode), hit ‘Delete’ on your keyboard, and then choose ‘Dissolve Edges’. Repeat as many times as needed.
Now with the unneeded edge(s) gone, you should be able to Loop Cut again. Keep in mind that this only works if the edge is not actually needed. You might find yourself creating some really weird objects if you dissolve an edge that was important!
Also keep in mind that this doesn’t always work. A friendly reminder to save your project before you try this approach! 😊
- Try this last method if you want to keep all the edges in your object. For this one, you’ll need to create extra geometry around the problem edge in order to turn the face into a quad. You can do this by creating an opposite angled edge with your Knife tool (‘K’) to form an X on the face of the cube. The reason for this is we now have a single vertex in the center of our cube face.
From here, we can select the new vertex (in ‘Vertex Select’ mode) and create a “Vertex Bevel” by pressing ‘Ctrl + B’ (for Bevel) and then ‘V’ (for Vertex). Now just move your mouse slightly to the side to create a new quad inside of the two triangles. Left click when you have the desired size.
Now you should be able to Loop Cut again through your object! Next, let’s talk about a few other ways to do Loop Cuts if you don’t like memorizing hotkeys.
Using Loop Cut From The Toolbar
The first way is to use the Toolbar (‘T’ on your keyboard if it’s not visible) on the left side of the 3D Viewport. When you’re in ‘Edit Mode’, just click the Loop Cut icon and then hover your mouse over the object.
Personally, I don’t really like this method. For one, you can’t use your mouse scroll wheel to increase the number of cuts. You just have to submit with one cut, THEN use the options box to tell it you want more.
Or, you can use the option box at the top of the Toolbar to specify the Number of Cuts BEFORE you cut. However this won’t give you a visual preview of that number. You’ll have to submit the cut and THEN see how the number of cuts look.
Secondly, in order to move your cut to a different side, you have to click and HOLD while moving your mouse around. I guess in reality it’s not that big of a deal. It basically does the same thing has the hotkey, but to me, it just feels different than what I’m used to.
When you’re done with your cut using the Toolbar menu, make sure you click the ‘Select Box’ option at the very top of the toolbar. It looks like a mouse icon with an orange box around it. If you don’t, you’ll continue to be in Loop Cut mode!
Loop Cut and Slide From The Menu
The last way to do a Loop Cut in Blender without a hotkey is to come up to the 3D Viewport menu while you’re in ‘Edit Mode’ and select the ‘Edge’ tab. Next, come down to ‘Loop Cut and Slide’.
Don’t let the name fool you, it’s the same thing 😂.
This method works almost exactly like the keyboard shortcut. However, once you select it from the menu, you have to left click on your object in order to get it started. Otherwise, it works the exact same as the hotkey version.
Conclusion
Well, thanks for hanging out with me today, guys! I hope that answers any questions you may have had about Blender Loop Cuts!
Loop Cuts are a really great way to quickly add some geometry into your object. They do have some limitations though if your object isn’t set up properly for it. But as you can see, it’s not too hard to make it work.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment below! Have a great rest of your day!