Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 222 AutoCAD and Its Applications—Advanced Adjusting the Smoothness of a Mesh When a mesh is smoothed, it changes form to more closely represent a rounded shape. The MESHSMOOTHMORE command is used to increase the level of smooth- ness of a mesh object. The maximum level of smoothness attained with this command is controlled by the SMOOTHMESHMAXLEV system variable. The default setting is 4. For example, a mesh object with a level of smoothness of 0 is considered to have no smoothness. If the value of the SMOOTHMESHMAXLEV system variable is 4, you can increase the smoothness of the mesh object up to level 4. Once the MESHSMOOTHMORE command is selected, pick the mesh objects for which to increase the smoothness. Then, press [Enter] and the level is increased by one. See Figure 9-9. If the selection set includes objects that are not meshes, you have the opportunity to either fi lter out the non-mesh objects or convert them to meshes. When a mesh is desmoothed, it changes form to more closely represent a boxed shape. The MESHSMOOTHLESS command is used to decrease the level of smooth- ness of a mesh object. Once the command is selected, pick the mesh objects for which to decrease the smoothness. Then, press [Enter] and the level is decreased by one. If the selection set includes objects that are not meshes, AutoCAD displays a message informing you that the non-mesh objects will be fi ltered out. NOTE NOTE You can change the SMOOTHMESHMAXLEV system variable setting to create a higher level of mesh model smoothness. The setting can range from 1 to 255. However, a recommended range of smoothness levels is 1–5. Using a level of 5 as the upper limit should be suffi cient enough to create a very smooth model. Using a higher level may generate too many faces (a dense mesh) and affect system performance. In this case, you may receive an error message stating that the operation cannot be completed because your system does not have enough physical memory. PROFESSIONAL TIP PROFESSIONAL TIP The MESHSMOOTHMORE and MESHSMOOTHLESS commands change the smoothing one level at a time. You can use the Properties palette to change the smoothness to any level in one step. MESHSMOOTHMORE Ribbon Home Mesh Smooth More Mesh Mesh Smooth More Type MESHSMOOTHMORE MORE MESHSMOOTHLESS Ribbon Home Mesh Smooth Less Mesh Mesh Smooth Less Type MESHSMOOTHLESS LESS Figure 9-9. Using the MESHSMOOTHMORE command to increase the level of smoothness from level 0 to level 4. From left to right, smoothness levels 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.