by Scripting Blender·Modeling
Images © Scripting Blender. Used for product review; image policy.
Equal Area Sphere earns its place in the superhive library by tackling a specific Blender limitation: the pole pinching of the default UV Sphere. Its adjustable ring count and three output modes give finer control over vertex count than a fixed-subdivision Ico Sphere.
Equal Area Sphere adds a new mesh primitive under Add > Mesh > Equal Area Sphere in Blender. It distributes vertices so every face covers roughly the same surface area, addressing the tight vertex clusters near the poles and sparse gaps at the equator produced by Blender's default UV Sphere.
The add-on uses an algorithm based on the Deserno equal-area distribution method, placing vertices in rings of latitude where the spacing between rings and the spacing along each ring are approximately equal. Ring count is adjustable from 3 rings to 100 or more, with each ring calculating the number of vertices needed for uniform spacing. Output can be vertices only, vertices plus edges, or full faces made of quads and triangles.
Radius is adjustable at any scale, from small particle emitters to planetary surfaces. Spheres can be added as new objects or merged into the current mesh in Object and Edit mode, with full undo support. Written in pure Python with no external dependencies, it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is released under the GPL-3.0 license.
Equal Area Sphere is best for blender artists instancing objects on sphere vertices with Geometry Nodes, seeding particles or sampling points uniformly for simulations, and building low-poly stylized spheres without pole squishing.
Equal Area Sphere is completely free to download and use.
Equal Area Sphere is compatible with Blender 2.80 and later, according to its version history. Version 1.0.0 marked the initial release and added three mesh types — vertices, edges, and faces — along with Object and Edit mode support. Because it's written in pure Python with no external dependencies, it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux without extra setup. For the current version and any compatibility notes beyond the listed range, check the developer's page before installing.
Equal Area Sphere ships as a ready-to-install .zip add-on, and a sample blend file used to generate the feature image is also included. Being pure Python with no external dependencies, it installs in seconds and needs no additional libraries. Once enabled, it appears as a new primitive under Add > Mesh > Equal Area Sphere. For step-by-step installation guidance specific to your Blender version, refer to the documentation on the developer's page.
Equal Area Sphere is listed as free in this catalog. It's released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0), with the full license text included alongside the add-on. Licensing terms can change over time, so check the developer's page for the current details before relying on it in a project. For questions, bug reports, or feature requests, the developer directs users to the Contact Creator button on the product page.
Equal Area Sphere provides three output modes. You can generate vertices only, which suits point clouds and Geometry Nodes; vertices plus edges for wireframe looks; or full faces, stitched together from quads and triangles. The ring count is adjustable from 3 rings up to 100 or more, and each ring automatically calculates the number of vertices needed for uniform spacing. Radius is also adjustable, so the sphere works at any scale from small particle emitters to planetary surfaces.
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