The Welding rollout lets you specify how to to sew or stitch edges together. Welding is cumulative in that after you weld the result is kept and used again after you adjust the parameters. In general, start with a Tolerance Scale value of 1.0 (the default) and increase it.
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Select a Body Object. >
Modify panel > Editable Body Object rollout > Click Welding button. > Welding rollout
If you access the Edge sub-object level before welding, you can see the edges that are sewn (white) and the open edges (blue). Non-manifold edges (edges with more than two faces) are shown in dark orange.
Welding mode is active as long as the rollout is open. You can change parameters and weld repeatedly until you achieve the desired result before exiting the mode. To exit, click Apply or Cancel on the Welding rollout.
- Weld Now
- Welds using the current settings and remains in Welding mode.
- Apply
- Saves the current result and exits Welding mode, closing the Welding rollout.
- Cancel
- Reverts to the original model and exits Welding mode, closing the Welding rollout.
Result Type group
Choose the welding output:
- Closed Solid Volume Forms a closed solid after welding.
- Open Shell Forms an open shell after welding.
- Mixed Choose this option if the model is not very clean and extra work might be needed to get a good result.
- Tolerance Scale
- Specifies a scaling to be applied to the Body Tolerance to get a Welding Tolerance. A good tight Body Object can be welded cleanly with a Tolerance Scale value of 1.0. Bodies that are not well connected at the edges might require a higher Body Tolerance value to weld correctly: 10.0, 100.0, or possibly even 1000.0. Be careful with values above 100, which might remove small edges.
- Split Edges
- When on, splits edges at T junctions.
Sometimes a model does not have a 1:1 correspondence in edges between adjacent faces. For example, an object might contain a T junction where two surfaces join along one edge of a third surface.
- Squeeze Out Small Edges
- When on, the welding attempts to weld together the two vertices of edges smaller than the welding tolerance, thus deleting the edges. To prevent the loss of potentially important geometry, avoid using this option with Body Objects that contain very small pieces when welding with larger tolerance settings.
- # - Open Edges
- Displays the number of open edges in the Body Object.
- # - Edges Welded
- Displays the number of edges that were welded the last time you clicked Weld Now.