mech tut
 

Hi there, i'm working through the mech modeling tutorial and have a question about the mirror tool. On the section where you build the skirt type part, you build half of it then delete the polygons on the 0 x-axis to mirror accross. This works fine but when you try bandsaw it only work on the original half. It's a very basic problem but i don't know what i'm doing wrong...any suggestions please?

When you mirrored the polys, you need to merge points along the x=0 axis to make the two items one single mesh.

thankyou, but tried that (as in you select those points on 0 X axis, then click Merge Points - OK) and it just comes up with 'No points Eliminated'. Then try Bandsaw again and it's just the same.... What am i doing wrong?

Hmm... couple of things you can try ... first off, from the looks of the screenshot you've posted you have one of the halves as a subpatch and one as a poly object, so the first thing to do is to get both of the parts out of subpatch mode (makes it easier to see what you're doing).

Next, lasso select all the points along the X=0 axis and stretch them together aim for 100% stretch (make sure you have action center set to selection) - this will ensure that the points share the same axis, then try merging the points again.

If the application still says no points eliminated they you'll need to double check the positioning by selecting the point pairs one by one (since its possible you may have inadvertently moved them on the Y or Z axis) and welding them. (Use wireframe mode for this - makes it much easier to see where the points are)

As a quick and dirty check, when you lasso select all the points along the X=0 axis, LW will tell you how many points there are in the selection. If it is more than the number of divisions around your object then there are unwelded points along the seam.

yeah the image was just to show what I meant, I take both halves off subpatch when trying this. Thankyou though, just sorted it now. Tried welding before but just tried again by lasso ing the individual points (cos there were actually two points). Hope don't have to go to this trouble everytime want to make an object symetrical?

You shouldn't need to if you mirrored the two halves EXACTLY along the X=0 axis. Chances are you nudged some points after mirroring, or didn't mirror exactly on the axis which is what lead to the problem.

Glad you got it sorted.