[noob question]combining meshes

[jpscouting@gmai]

i'm new to 3dmax, so sorry if this isn't obvious to me. anyway i made a character model by modeling one side and using a mirrored instance for the other side, but now I need to figure out how to combine both meshes back into a single mesh.

thanks in advance for your reply

[poopipe]

two ways

either

make one of the objects unique (either use the make unique button on the command panel or collapse to editable poly)

attach the other object using the attach button in edit poly/edit mesh

select the middle line of vertices and weld them together


or (the easier way)

delete the mirrored instance and apply a symmetry modifier to the original object instead( this mirrors and welds the seam for you) then collapse to a editable poly.

make sense?

[Pirateguybrush]

Save a copy of your work just in case.

Delete that mirrored instance. Then, make certain your mesh has a perfectly straight middle edge loop. To do that, select all the verts down the middle of the mesh, and scale them away from the center, perpendicular to the direction they're lined up in. If that doesn't work, play with the scale tool with all of those verts selected till it scales them all flat to the same axis, you'll know it when you see it.

The most precise way to do this next step is to right-click on the move button, and mode all those verts to 0 on the X axis (or whichever axis they'll lie flat against, but I'll just refer to it as the X axis). Then move the rest of the verts together over to the location of the freshly moved ones, so they're in the same relative position you started with. Then, apply a symmetry modifier.

Click the plus sign next to it in the stack, and select mirror. Using the move tool(and if required, rotate as well), right-click on it and make the mirror at 0 on the X axis, so the mesh reflects over to the other side. Then simply right-click on the symmetry modifier, and click "convert to editable poly".

That should just about do it.

Any problems, first try playing with the settings in the symmetry modifier.