join/combine/merge/weld meshes [SOLVED]

Support Modeling
#1

I’ve four 250k vert square meshes trying to model a topographical map of 100km^2 of London. I’ve tried to join them together fully so that I can accurately add Victorian maps on the surface as ‘decals’ (in the manner of: Map Input/Object/Empty) before rendering. Texture and ‘decal’ manipulation is not possible across the whole joined mesh but is separately handled on each of the four intial squares. In other words, the mesh is not a complete whole object. A check in the Outliner window indicates this and I’ve Unlinked the objects in an effort to clean it up.

I’ve positioned the four Objects within 0.001BU of each other to make one large square and used Ctrl-J to join them. I’ve also tried using Shift-Alt-RMB on the edges in Edit mode and F/Skin Faces to fill the gaps to make one continuous mesh. Alt-M/collapse on edges and verts doesn’t seem to work on simple test meshes either, it seems to delete too many verts.

What’s the answer please?

#2

Hi,

Use CTRL-J to join the meshes together. You may end up with 4 vertex groups, each with a different material. These would correspond to your original objects. If this is not what you want, delete the vertex groups. All the object will then use the same material.

Hope this helps.

#3

Thank you very much rawpigeon; problem now solved.

As I said, I’d already used Ctrl-J to join meshes but I didn’t realize the whole object contained four Vertex Groups. I was able to F9/Link and Materials/Delete unwanted Material Indices, i.e. 1 Mat 2 to 4. I can now resize and position the ‘decal’ where I want.

BTW it’s a map Map.