Join Meshes (Better Booleans)
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 1:40 pm
"Merge" is a quick way to lump lots of meshes together, but it destroys small details and over-tesselates the model.
Using "Cut" and "Join" you can connect models together with only a small loss of detail near the intersection, and no loss for the rest of the model.
I've added a tool to select all the intersecting parts of the model, so you can easily select and delete them before joining the pieces back together. I will probably lump the steps together into a helper tool that does the whole process at once.
In the example below I have joined two lathes and a line object. Notice how the mesh retains it's even grid away from the joins.

Using "Cut" and "Join" you can connect models together with only a small loss of detail near the intersection, and no loss for the rest of the model.
I've added a tool to select all the intersecting parts of the model, so you can easily select and delete them before joining the pieces back together. I will probably lump the steps together into a helper tool that does the whole process at once.
In the example below I have joined two lathes and a line object. Notice how the mesh retains it's even grid away from the joins.