How to Do Boolean Operations in Vue 6

The purpose of this tutorial is to demonstrate the operation of Vue's various Boolean Operations, and suggest ways they might be used. Vue has three different types of Boolean operations, Boolean Union, Boolean Intersection and, finally, Boolean Difference.

Let's first take a look at how Boolean Union works. When you use Boolean Union, the result is that two separate objects will be welded together in the scene. There are many way this might prove useful. Let's say you connecting several glass blocks together. The problem with simply putting together two or more transparent objects in Vue without Boolean is that you can actually see the inside edges when you render, which you probably don't want. However, when you go to layers and select the two objects and apply Boolean Union, they behave like one object (for the purpose of the render), and the inside edges go away.

Now let's try Boolean Intersection. So again go to the layers panel and select two or more objects. Then when you go back to the other side and you click on Boolean Intersection, the object you will get is only that part of the other objects that overlap. By combining multiple primitives of various types, you can actually create some fairly complex models. I say models, because this is essentially what you are doing with Booleans; building very basic models inside Vue.

We'll now see how Boolean Difference works. When using Boolean Difference, you want to go to the layers panel, and holding down the ctrl key, select the object that you want to keep most of, and then (still holding down the key) select the objects you want to subtract from if. Then go to the other side of the screen and select Boolean Difference. The result is that volume is subtract from the first object you selected anywhere it overlays the others you selected.

One of the neat (yes, I used the word "neat") things about using Booleans in Vue is that it allows you to do some very basic texturing of different sides of your object or model. Let's use Boolean Difference for an example. Say you have a cube that you have put a rough stone texture on, but you would like to add a small indentation that will look like a little manmade niche. You could just do a Boolean Difference; with the subtracted part having the same texture as the part you want to keep. But you could also put a different (let's say smooth stone texture) on the subtracted part. If you do this, and then do the Boolean, what you will get is a stone with a cut niche, the inside of which looks smooth and different from the rest of the object, which is exactly what it would look like if it had actually been worked with tools.