Strange welding problem

[Kage]

I'm stuck with something on my Logitech modelling thread, that I could do with some assistance in, as its driving me around the bend :(

The VGA connector has 3 notches either side, which is basically an extrusion that goes through the little bit of thickness the connector has, and out the other side.

I've tried making a box and cutting into it, and then extruding through using Bridge, but it won't let me weld, or create a polygon.

I've tried using shell which messes up, and I've tried to manually copy the one sided object and then attach and weld, but that doesn't let me weld or use bridge correctly either

I tried using Flip normals and that didn't do anything other than to mess the object up.

I end up with double/triple edges for no reason which is impossible to get rid of and or/ the weld/create polygon/bridge/border select doesn't work.

That's why I thought flipping normals would work on the one side, but alas, it doesn't :(

[Perversonality]

You might simply have to remove some faces and start again with those parts. If you get multiple edges in exactly the same place then normally the only way to get rid of them is to trash the edges and rebuild the area if a vert weld doesn't work...

[Kage]

Thats true yeah, but I shouldn't be getting double and even triple edges in the first place.

Whats annoying me is I'm doing something which I'd think is rather simple, but its like the program's making a massive thing about it.

This part of the model, which is only a spot of detailing is becoming the hardest part to create...why?! :ufo:

[RockstarKate]

Can you show a picture?

[Kage]

Yeah, heres a snap shot of the problem area:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b96/cf_kage/problem-1.jpg

As you can see, there is an extrusion past the other side, and I want to connect the other side of the extrusion to the other part on the other side.

It won't let me bridge, etc, or weld though, and I thought it was because of the normals being the wrong way round, but if I do that, and connect them, I somehow end up with more edges (and sometimes flipping the normals on one side doesn't even do anything), and putting a turbosmooth on causes really sharp unnatural edges, because parts aren't connected right.

I've tried multiple times now, and its really starting to bug me :(

[RockstarKate]

Hmm, can you post up the file? It is hard to tell what could be going wrong without seeing it. You can use save selected to save just this part.

[H2O-3DT]

Posting the file would be the best way to get help. The errors that stands out from your screenshot are some missing edges.

H2O

[Kage]

Oh, no, those edges aren't connected.

That area in the middle is a gap that I want to get rid of by connecting, but it won't let me do it.

[Perversonality]

As the others have said, I think you are going to have to post that part as a model file for people to have a look at. It looks almost as if you are trying to weld an open edge to a closed edge (I.E. it has polys all around it and no opening), but it's impossible to tell from that screen grab

[le1setreter]

looks like the gap is not complete open. i mean it looks like the edges are already connected to other polys.

[Perversonality]

Thanks le1setreter - that was the point I was trying to make :D

[Kage]

Hehe, thanks all, but I mustn't have been thinking straight the past couple of days. I realised that what I was trying to do was actually impossible...
All I wanted was a shell effect... I must have been acting stupid.

All is well now...well....except for Vray giving me Memory errors before even starting the render when more than one object is in place, and region/render selected, etc buttons do no good, because it still tries to load all the objects/raycaster before rendering, which is where it fails :(
Damn my 32bit Windows and 2GB's of RAM.

Haha, even Mental Ray won't render it. Same problem. Loss of memory and it crashes.

In the viewport though, I have the objects set to an itteration of 2, whereas in the render, some are set to 3...

At 2, the objects almost reach 2 million polys though...

I proceeded to change all objects to have 2 iterations in render also though, and it did go slightly further, but while building the scene, completly shut down Max, with no warnings, and no dialogue after.

EDIT:

So, is there a way to make it get past this point, by hiding objects for instance, but still somehow having them affect reflections/bouncing of light, without them having to load all together at the start of the render? Or is this impossible? Because it doesn't even get chance to start a render, even if I do ask to split it into regions etc.