Object Properties

Radius[0..+∞m]

Use this to define the size of the sphere.

Segments[3..1000]

Defines the degree of the subdivision of the sphere. The sphere is divided along its latitude and longitude. However, like any other parametric object, until you convert a sphere into a polygon object with Make Editable, a sphere is always generated by calculation, no matter by how much you subdivide it.

Original sphere (center), segments set to 6 (left) and original sphere made editable (right).

Type

With this drop-down list you choose of which surfaces, and in which arrangement, a sphere is to be composed. With Standard the sphere surface is made up of triangles and quadrangles, Hexahedron uses only quadrangles and Icosahedron only triangles, whereas Hemisphere will create a standard hemisphere, open at the bottom.

Render Perfect

If you enable this option, a perfect sphere is generated by the math (if the sphere was not already distorted or deformed).

This type of sphere has the advantage that it looks truly round and smooth. In addition, it renders faster than a polygon sphere.

The Perfect Sphere stays perfect only as long as the object is not distorted (e.g., by scaling about an axis). If the Perfect Sphere is distorted it is converted to a polygon object before rendering. It then uses the number of segments defined on the Object Properties page.

Disable this option if you want to use the sphere as a basis for other effects (e.g., letting hair grow on it). A perfect sphere is best suited for simply displaying a perfect sphere. Other uses can result to unpredictable results.

Switch to Updated Sphere

This button will only be displayed if an older scene is imported and serves to convert the sphere to an updated primitive with optimized UV mapping (a prompt will appear first). For a newly created sphere, the updated primitive will be used directly.