How to clean up intersecting faces and edges? I'm currently trying to build grid structures by using planes and solidifying them. Problem is, when I use this to create hexagonal grids, the solidifying modifier does this in a way that faces of the same mesh intersect each other:



Above object started out as three planes which were joined to a Y-shape, then solidified.

You can see that in the middle, the upper faces actually cross each other.

Is there an easy way to clean this up in a way that…

a) …where the faces intersect each other, edges and vertices are created
b) …the inner parts of the faces are removed?

To clarify, I am working with planes, because I am warping them, which works far easier than dealing with already solid meshes (hard to explain I guess… My point is that I really don't want to change my underlying workflow, if I can help it). And since I'm working on grids, where this phenomenon occurs often, having a way to automate this would be really helpfuL.

Here is a picture that better illustrates what I want to achieve (right), as well as my current workflow(File is in a comment below):
Edit: As your request has changed I give a second answer below.

Maybe you're not choosing the best way to build your object, in your case the Solidify modifier will create unwanted intersection and it will be hard to fix.

What you could do for example is begin with a triangle (3 vertices circle), extrude it up, then select the 3 faces, press AltE to extrude, choose Individual Faces and drag to extrude.



Second answer:


Create a 10 vertices circle, scale one of 2 vertices so that it makes a hexagon.





Move down those vertices, extrude down the whole mesh.





Select one of 2 edges underneath, bevel them, extrude down.