Blending and Merging Polygon Meshes

 
 
 

You can combine two or more polygon mesh objects using the Blend and Merge commands on the CreatePoly. Mesh menu of the Model toolbar. These commands create a single new object, so you can now use commands like Bridge between the two portions.

The two commands differ in how they treat boundary edges on different objects when the boundaries are close to each other:

There is a Tolerance parameter for determining the maximum distance in Softimage units between boundaries for them to be considered "nearby".

     

Original objects

Blended object

Near boundaries are bridged but far boundaries are not.

Merged object

Near boundaries are merged but far boundaries are not.

To blend or merge polygon mesh objects

  1. If desired, you can select some or all of the polygon mesh objects to be blended before choosing the command.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Choose Create Poly. Mesh Blend.

      or

    • Choose Create Poly. Mesh Merge.

  3. Click to pick any additional polygon mesh objects.

    If you make a mistake, Ctrl+click to undo the last pick. You can also press Esc to cancel the operation.

  4. When you have finished picking, right-click in a 3D view.

    A new polygon mesh object is created and the Merge Meshes property editor opens with the Blend option on or off as appropriate.

  5. Adjust the Tolerance as desired. Boundary edges that are closer than this value in Softimage units are blended or merged.

    For information about transferring attributes, see Attribute Transfer.