Can you delete edges that do not change geometry?

ziikutv

Hello,

Beginner here! When I want to add details such as, say a two holes for eyes on a mesh, I insert edge loops which actually does it for the whole mesh and not just the polygon in question.

Say I added my eyes now (by extruding inwards), can I now go ahead and delete the edges/lines created on the other polys? So far, I went ahead and deleted everything that did not change the geometry (i.e: did not change the look from what it was with all of those edges). Is this a good idea? Is there a standard practice about this? Why do applications do it this way if we have to remove it manually later? Why do they not allow me to simply insert edge loops on that poly itself? I am using Modo.

I went ahead and did the max Undos which hopefully shows what I mean:
Edges that were there: http://prntscr.com/efyq8n
Edges removed: http://prntscr.com/efyq2l


Side question: When you have to faces, perpendicular to each other, how do you go about making that section into a hole? I opted to simply push the two polygons inwards for now, and was planning to try using textures to make it look like a hole. I am speaking of the nose in the above two images. Here is a reference image as well.

ziikutv

Bump, hey was this in a wrong section? Please do let me know where else I can ask such questions. Thanks

Spoon

You can use a cut tool, instead of inserting loop, if you want to only add geometry locally.

ziikutv

Spoon said:

You can use a cut tool, instead of inserting loop, if you want to only add geometry locally.

Where is this cut tool?

Bartalon

You totally can and should remove edges that don't contribute to the shape of a model.  However you need to be careful about how you do this.  Edges need to be "tied off" at corner vertices and not left partially terminated on an adjoining edge.  The way you have it now results in what are called n-gons, polygons which are comprised of 5 or more vertices.

In the image below, blue circles indicate termination points that cause ngons, red marks indicate edges that should be deleted to prevent ngons, and the green lines indicate a good tie-off point to maintain triangle- or quad-sided polygons.

ziikutv

Thank you @Bartalon

How do I go about adding in the green edges in Modo? I tried poly line but that just adds a line and doesn't attach itself to the mesh.