Welding shell extruded models

[changrilla]

Hi. I've been doing something for a while which has suddenly started causing me grief. I just wanted to check if it's a valid method.

I sometimes want to place a variable text block in a face which I do using ManifoldLab. I do this by creating a rectangle in a face>face negative extrude 1u>Shell Extrude 1u>body>Save as... This way I can merge the shell extrusion file after doing boolean text union/subtract on it without having to do any precision positioning. Once merged back in I do a weld>clean up.

I do it this way partly because it allows me to put different text on a base model and partly because boolean text operations on largish models take a long time.

It doesn't matter which version of Wings I'm using. I have 1.54, 2.1.4.1 on the W7 32 bit machine and 2.0.2016 on W7 64. Sometimes it refuses to merge, even if I haven't done any boolean text ops on it, just merging back in the shell extrusion file. It will either refuse to merge back in, it just hangs or if I manage to merge it back in it will refuse to weld, 2.1.4.1 just shuts down. After spending the best part of a day trying to merge>weld I finally resorted to using ManifoldLab to merge>union after creating the insert separatley. It doesn't seem to like the shell extruded part despite being a method I've used many times before.

Is using shell extrude>weld a valid method?

Cheers

Gordon

[micheus]

I would try to answer that, but I would to prefer to see a picture of this situation - the two objects you want to weld and/or how do you want weld them. (I read your "merge" as weld, since there is a Merge command that should not be the one you are talking about).

Sometimes it's just caused by not matching vertex (minimal distance between them that you can adjust by using RMB option and increasing the tolerance); sometimes because it cannot build a proper object;...

[changrilla]

I'll try and put something together that you can see but it's tricky as the two parts are exactly coincident - a square plug in a square hole. I *am* talking about file>merge then weld. I think it needs a video which I haven't done before but I'll have a go.

Cheers

Gordon

[micheus]

it's tricky as the two parts are exactly coincident - a square plug in a square hole.

I can imagine other situation in which you would use bridge instead of weld, but it's really hard to affirm what to do without know what "I'm working with".

[ggaliens]

Bring this query to ManifoldLab forum within this overall forum ... and I can try to reach your goal with the tools. Sometimes the "FUNCTION GOAL" is what is important ... and not the nuances of all the 3,4, or 6 steps needed.

You would need to share an example model(s) with me.

[changrilla]

I don't think it's a manifold lab problem. Manifold Lab got me round the problem in one instance by using combine rather than weld. Great plugins by the way - saved me hours, thanks. I'm having problems creating a half decent video that isn't Mbs. I'll be back...

Cheers

Gordon

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Sorry, should have said union there not combine.

Gordon

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OK, struggling to get a decent swf file so I've uploaded the AVI. Hopefully others can view it. It's about 3.5Mb.

http://www.mgcsoft.com/junk/junk.avi

This just so it's easier to understand what I'm doing. As is obvious from the video, in this instance it works but not always on more complex models. Is the method valid or have I just been getting away with it?

Cheers

Gordon

[ggaliens]

Use Youtube for videos. You can make them as unlisted and delete later. EASY-PEASY stuff.

[changrilla]

OK, thanks.

Gordon

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For those that can't view avis https://youtu.be/ERJQMBnZQmw

Gordon

[changrilla]

While trying to merge/weld something that has been failing I noticed (2.0.1 64bit) while trying to merge (it hangs converting to binary or some such) there were 95246 saved views. I've never saved any views so goodness knows where they've come from. The file I was trying to merge also had something like ~25k saved views. Anyway, deleted them all and the merge/weld works fine. Sorry to have troubled you all.

Cheers

Gordon

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While trying to merge/weld something that has been failing I noticed (2.0.1 64bit) while trying to merge (it hangs converting to binary or some such) there were 95246 saved views. I've never saved any views so goodness knows where they've come from. The file I was trying to merge also had something like ~25k saved views. Anyway, deleted them all and the merge/weld works fine. Sorry to have troubled you all.

Cheers

Gordon

[micheus]

While trying to merge/weld something that has been failing I noticed (2.0.1 64bit) while trying to merge (it hangs converting to binary or some such) there were 95246 saved views.

Good you could figured it out.
Really strange you get so many Saved Views. Anyway...
Why are you still in 2.0.1?