How do I "weld verts" and "cut edges"? 2.54

All of my skill comes from 3ds max 8. I’ve watched the Fire Child tutorials on youtube to learn the basics of blender 2.54. But there are still some things I feel I’m missing.

How do you weld verts? Create verts on an existing edge? Is there a way to “cut” on your mesh to add extra geometry where you need it? I’m not trying to be too “3ds max lingo” heavy but I don’t really know what else to call the things I wanna do.

I feel the easy way out is to just create a new object. But I feel like that’s kinda cheating and will give me problems when I want to texture and add materials later. Is it best to keep your model all one object if you can?

Welcome aboard!! You can merge 2 vertices into one by selecting both (rmb, shift-rmb on 2nd) and use alt-m. It’s also available in the mesh menu in the 3d view, under vertices. You can cut a mesh by using the k-key knife tool, select the edge you want to cut, hold down the k-key and lmb-drag the mouse where you want the cut. That will most likely create tris, so I avoid it. Loop cutting, ctrl-r, is my favored way, and you can also select an edge and use w-key -> subdivide.

The out-of-date wiki manual describes some of this for versions 2.4x, but it’s mostly the same for the 2.5x series.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modeling/Meshes/Edge_Tools

Hope this helps,
Randy