Surface Mesh — Documentation

What is Surface Mesh?

Surface Mesh is a Blender add-on for creating and managing surfaces from Bezier curves using the Coons patch method. It's designed for concept car body modeling — sketch panels from 4 boundary curves, and the surface updates live as you edit the curve network.

Installation

1. Download the .zip file included with your purchase.
2. In Blender, go to Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions, click the dropdown arrow next to Install from Disk, and select the downloaded .zip. (You can also just drag and drop the .zip file into the Blender window.)
3. Enable the add-on if it isn't already active.
4. Press N in the 3D Viewport to open the sidebar — the Surface Mesh tab will appear.

Requires Blender 4.2 or newer.

Updating from a previous version? Remove the old version first in Preferences, then restart Blender before installing the new one.

Quick Start

Your first surface

1. Press N → Surface Mesh tab
2. Click New surface — a flat panel with 4 curves is created at the 3D cursor
3. Turn on Auto-update — the panel now regenerates live as you move the curve points and handles

Connecting panels

1. Use Curve between points to draw a new curve between two existing corner points, so neighboring panels share exact corners
2. Select 4 curves and click Create surface from selection (order: C0, C1, D0, D1)
3. If the panel looks twisted or saddle-shaped, click Auto-fix Curve Directions — it checks every combination of curve direction and role assignment and applies the one that actually connects all 4 corners
4. Repeat to build up a full panel network

Feature Reference

Curve Tools

• New curve — straight Bezier curve at the 3D cursor
• Circle / Half circle
• Curve between points — click two existing corner points to connect them exactly
• Reverse Curve Direction
• Add Point by Click + Split Curve at Point — split one curve/panel into two

Surface Tools

• New surface / Create surface from selection
• Auto-fix Curve Directions — finds the correct direction and role for all 4 boundary curves automatically, including the case where a curve was assigned to the wrong side entirely
• Generate / Generate all patches
• Flip normals
• Mirror — add or remove a Mirror modifier (X/Y/Z axis)
• Apply Mirror (in place) — bakes the mirrored result directly into the panel's mesh, and marks the panel so Generate/Auto-update never silently overwrite it afterward. Use Un-apply any time to return to a live, curve-driven mesh.
• Toggle Surfaces — show/hide all generated meshes, so you can work with the curve network alone

Curve Management

• Merge Endpoints — in multi-object Edit Mode, select 2 or more endpoints across curves and snap them to their shared midpoint
• Dup shared / Dup all — duplicate curves before editing, so you don't accidentally deform a neighboring panel that shares an edge

Visual Aids

• Show curve labels — panel name and role (C0/C1/D0/D1) shown on each curve in the viewport
• Show point info — live XYZ coordinates and handle angles for selected points, in Edit Mode
• Highlight selected curves — thicker highlight on selected boundary curves
• Click any curve or generated surface in the viewport → its panel is automatically selected in the list

Resolution

• Preview resolution controls mesh density during live/Auto-update editing (lower = faster)
• Resolution (export) controls the quality used by Generate / Generate All

Panel Naming Convention

• C0 — left edge (u = 0)
• C1 — right edge (u = 1)
• D0 — bottom edge (v = 0)
• D1 — top edge (v = 1)

Compatibility

• Blender 4.5 and above
• Tested on Blender 5.2 (Windows)
• Bezier curves only — NURBS curves are not supported