Original subtitles

An easy way to add a circular hole

is by beveling a Vertex.

You can do this by selecting a Vertex

and pressing Shift+Ctrl+B.

Then scroll the mouse wheel up

to add more segments.

You can also increase or decrease the Segments

with the + and - keys on the Numpad.

Or, after left-clicking to confirm,

increase the Segments in the Operator panel.

To make it round,

adjust the Profile shape to 0.0865.

Or even easier, right-click

and use LoopTools - Circle for a perfect circle.

LoopTools is an extension

that you need to enable in Preferences.

Then you can extrude these Faces inwards.

You can even do this with several Vertices at once.

And then Press Alt+E

and choose Extrude Faces Along Normals.

This works fine in a quick boolean workflow,

but it creates N-gons:

Faces with more than 4 Edges.

Although in some cases

N-gons are fine in a Subdiv workflow,

if you are using an all quads workflow,

for sculpting for example,

you'll want to avoid N-gons.

In that case,

you'll need at least 3 intersecting edge loops.

In Edge Selection mode,

select two intersecting Edges,

and press Ctrl+B to bevel them.

Here too you can increase Segments

with the Middle Mouse Button,

or by pressing the + key on the Numpad.

Or after left-clicking to confirm,

by adjusting the Segments in the Operator panel.

You need 2 Segments

to get 3 intersecting Edges like this.

Switch back to Vertex Selection mode

and Bevel the vertex in the center as before,

with Shift+Ctrl+B.

You can also do this by going to Vertex - Bevel Vertices

and move the mouse until you see it change.

Adjust the profile in the Operator panel

or use LoopTools - Circle.

Now to get all quad topology,

select two Vertices at a time while holding Shift,

and then press J to connect them.

Switch to Face Selection mode

and select the Faces.

Press E to extrude them to create a hole.

If you don't want to keep those extruded Faces,

press Delete or X and choose Faces.

Now when you add a Subdiv modifier,

it will become more round

but also smooth.

To keep this corner sharp,

you can do a couple of things.

You can select the corner Edges

and then Crease them by pressing Shift+E

and 1 on the Numpad.

Or slide the Mean Crease value to the right

in the Option panel with those Edges selected.

Now despite the Subdiv modifier,

the corner remains sharp

Alternatively we can do some more beveling.

With those Edges selected press Ctrl+B,

then move the mouse.

You'll want a Profile Shape of 1 for this,

and 2 Segments is enough to keep the corners sharp.

The closer together those Edge Loops are,

the sharper the corner will be.

When exporting a mesh to other software,

you want to add geometry like this to keep corners sharp,

Because creasing only works inside of Blender.

Right-click and choose Shade Auto Smooth

to make it look even smoother.

Blender 5 has really nice Matcaps too

that you can use to make your models

more visually appealing in the viewport.

Learning how to make holes,

either with booleans or with subdivision-ready topology,

is one of the key skills you need to have

as a 3D artist.

I've learned this the hard way,

But I've struggled so you don't have to!

I've collected all my knowledge

about hole modeling

in a new PDF, The Big Book of Holes.

You can get this now on my website

or on YouTube.

If you already have my big Blender Secrets book,

you don't need this PDF

as you already have all these topics in that book.

So if you want to learn all there is about holes in 3D modeling,

go and get that PDF!