Blender: Merge unconnected vertics

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kiwi
Posts: 557

Blender: Merge unconnected vertics

Unread post by kiwi » Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:46 am

Hello Blender-Pros,

as some of you maybe know, I am relatively new to Blender.

After I worked a lot of hours on my level in Blender, I ended in having a lot of "loose" vertics, which are on the same (or nearly the same) position then another vertics, but not connected to each other. (Don't know, if this is the right Blender-terminology :oops: ).

I know there is a function called "Remove Doubles", but it doesn't help in my case, to remove all of this unconnected vertics.

Here an example:

I have some cubes...

Image

...where some of the vertics are not properly connected. (For demonstration I moved the vertics, so you can see it better)

Image

If I first select the whole model ("A"), and then I choose the "Remove Doubles" function, only some vertics will be connected properly. (Maybe, because the vertics are not at the exact same position?)

Image

Image

When I correct the value at "Merge Distance", it works in the example...

Image

...but if I do the same on my real level I am working on, a lot of unwanted merging happens (Especially on some very detailed meshes I added).

So I ended in starting merging all the unconnected vertics manually, with selecting them, and using the Alt + M function....

Image

I have maybe some hundreds of unconnected vertics, where I have to do this (or want to do this - don't know if it's really necessary in all cases). So this would take me maybe some hours. :?

So 2 questions to you guys:

1: Do you have any tips for me, what I can do instead, to avoid this manual work? I have searched the Internet already a few times, but I always read that the "Remove Doubles" function should be used in such cases.

2: How can I avoid, to get this unconnected vertics at all? I'm using the "E" function a lot, to extrude edges (and sometimes also faces), and I think most unconnected vertics was generated by this. I also use "F" and "C" a lot to build my level, but sometimes I can't prohibit to use "E".

Maybe you can "enlighten" me. :)

Thank you!

Ciao, Kiwi
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Marv
Developer
Posts: 236
From: Europe 2

Re: Blender: Merge unconnected vertics

Unread post by Marv » Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:37 am

I often work with loose vertices that have to be merged at some point. The key is to memorize where they are and to merge them at the right point in time. You already seem to know how to get rid of the "problem" so I'll explain what I usually do.

What I do is:

Make sure that the vertices are at the exact same location:
Enable the magnet tool and set it to vertex.
Image

Remove doubles regularly:
Now, when you're extruding, make sure to snap onto the closest vertex and keep track of where you snapped them on:
Image

Then select the region (or the entire level) and remove doubles. I do this after every major step.

Precautions: Making sure that extruded geometry is already merged:

When extruding a wall or something else (like on the next screenshot), run Remove Doubles to see if there already are any double vertices. If so, you know that there are problems on the part of the mesh you extruded from. That means you have to clean up.
Image

Carefully cleaning up the entire level:
You already found out that you can adjust the bias while removing doubles. You can hold down shift and then slide across the value with the cursor (while holding down the left mouse button) to carefully adjust it (that works with all value sliders in Blender). You can also enter a value manually which can be ridiculously small.
You can then see the count of removed polygons in the notification bar at the very top of Blender. If you can estimate how many vertices should be removed, you can safely do this. Otherwise, prepare to do some manual clean up and back up regularly so you can restore whenever something goes wrong.

How to make this process quicker

Use the space bar and search for "Remove Do..." and the result will already pop up. Then just press enter to select it.
The next time you hit the space bar, Remove Doubles will still be selected and you can just press enter.

You can also go to the menu and right click on Remove Doubles and add a keyboard shortcut of your choice. This might be the best thing.
User avatar
kiwi
Posts: 557

Re: Blender: Merge unconnected vertics

Unread post by kiwi » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:40 pm

Thanks a lot for this reply Marv, I think this information will help me. 8-) Will try this things today in the evening.

One more question, also related (a little bit) to this unconnected vertics topic: I read in your Blender tutorial, that you can do cuts with Strg + R. I tried this already, but this function cut through all faces until it reaches a not-connected face. (Right?)

For example, I want to cut through this faces, so I get the same result then in the circled part:

Image

When using Strg + R it also cut through the faces on the left side.

Image

How would you solve this? My idea was to "unconnect" the left faces, so the cut ends at the correct face. But this would be some additional work.

My initial idea was, that I just mark the faces I want to cut, and then use Strg + R. But Blender ignore this.

Until I read about the Strg + R possibility, I always did cuts with the "K"-function. But here I'm not able to define (the exact position, by typing a value) where the cut should be (instead, I always use Strg to find the middle of a face, split the face in two halfs, and do another cut in the middle, until I have the cut where I want to be. In the end I have to merge the unwanted cuts again :lol: ). With Strg + R I have the possibility to enter the values where I want the cut to be. This helps a lot. Any other possibilities, how I can do it?
User avatar
Marv
Developer
Posts: 236
From: Europe 2

Re: Blender: Merge unconnected vertics

Unread post by Marv » Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:00 pm

CTRL + R and the Knife tool are the only things I know.

If cuts don't work, I separate the faces I want to cut by selecting them and pressing Y. That will detach them from the mesh and the loop will only be cut through them.
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