Hello Guys,
Ok next question I have run into too often in xsi so far… I want to weld edges together on an object. The only way I know to do this is using the weld to target and do each set of points at a time which takes AGES! I have tried the bridge tool but then I still have to individually weld each set together, I can’t find a merge points tool where you control the distance etc… Any help??
Best regards, William.
As in software like maya the geo needs to be a single object to weld the points, this can be done with merge tool under Model> Create> Poly.Mesh> Merge
The tolerance slider from the merge PPG is your proximity slider for merging verts.
If the object is already merged the the weld boundary points/edges is the tool you want, again the distance slider is the proximity used for the weld. You’ll find this under Model> Modify> Poly. mesh> weld boundary points/edges
Having trouble with teh weld points/edges boundary… Somehow I managed to double up on a row of points within a mesh which was creating a super sharp crease when subdivided. so I could only select both as they were so close (exactly teh same position) so I select all the points and hit that tool… nothign happens… at all! no matter how much I play with the settings. What am I doing wrong and what is the best way to weld these two sets of points?
I ended up subdividing the mesh and deleting teh points that way after they had been pulled apart then reforming the polygons inbetween, but it was long and boring for what shoudl have been a simple merge >distance fix.
I also don’t see a fast way to merge all points, when points are obviously overlapping. But, you can easily remove neighboring edge loops bordering the crease, and are easy to spot while in sub-divsion surfaces.
This likely occured because you extrude an open edge, and forget that is was there, or didn’t double undo an extrusion of an edge and transforming it. So the transform was undone, but not the extrusion. I see this all the time with modeling students.
As for the merging points fix, yeah, I don’t know where it is. Maybe someone has made a script or ICE compound for that.
Oh, and merging meshes didn’t correct the issue. It should have, but it didn’t merge the points together. Not on a double edge.
Merging is one of those things I always found to actually work well and having many options inside Soft, with the only omission of merging one mesh to another without creating a third (which you can work around by using a boolean union).
If all you want is a good filtering to clean up operations, there is a command called filter in modify > poly mesh that works on selections, whole objects, and has options to collapse overlapping polys or edges.
For quick click+merge workflows the tweak tool with merge (bottom right sub-icon in tool mode) allows you to click your way through finesse operations if selecting is tricky.
I feel like we may be talking about different things then. I was referring to open/boundary edges (shown in light blue in component mode) if you are trying to get rid of a doubled up edge loop i would suggest that it would be easier to select a single edge loop with double click or alt+MMB click to select one of the two loops and delete it.
To merge edges the way you are asking about though is a bit tougher. it can be done by selecting the edge ring (not the loops but the ring between them) to do this select an edge along the ring, then shift double click an adjacent ring edge or alt+MMB and adjacent ring edge with the same initial selection. (Softimage recently added more Maya friendly double clicking to all the selection tools sorry) Then Collapse components or Ctrl+Del (the one below insert),
This can be done on single edges, multiple verts, edge rings and faces, it’s basically a merge to center so be careful with your selections. And as ThE_JacO said the tweak tool is awesome with merge.
As for double edges, thats a tricky one, it used to be that Softimage got testy and would warn you for trying to build double edges, now i’m trying to test it and I can’t even make one. That said I really suggest not modeling with double edges, in a situation where all you need is a sharp line just intersect the geo. Or if you want a smooth transition you can open a hole up and weld whatever it is with the boundary (distance based) merge tools.
I usually use Modify/Polymesh/FilterPoints, as Jaco suggested.
First I’ll use u (raycast) to select some polys. If they’re really close, shift + might help to grow the selection to include your points. Then right click/select adjacent points, filter points, and adjust the tolerence. Make note of the number of points mentioned.
Tweak tool is also useful. BTW: Anyone know what the keyboard shortcut for the different tweak tool options are?
Thanks for the replies everyone, Filter points/edges etc seemed to be the tool I needed! works as expected. I now know there arer a few work around, such as subdividing and then grabbing the edgeloop etc but this has worked well.
Cheers!! 
Cool. Funny, I wasn’t even looking at the keyword “filter” as the correct keyword for “merge”, and didn’t even investigate it. Makes sense, filtering is a cleanup. Thanks, Jaco.
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