Как сделать merge в blender

Merge

This tool allows you to merge all selected vertices to a unique one, dissolving all others. You can choose the location of the remaining vertex in the menu this tool pops up before executing:

It will place the remaining vertex at the center of the selection. Available in all select modes.

It will place the remaining vertex at the 3D Cursor. Available in all select modes.

Every island of selected vertices (connected by selected edges) will merge on its own median center, leaving one vertex per island.

It will place the remaining vertex at the location of the first one selected. Only available in Vertex select mode.

It will place the remaining vertex at the location of the last one selected (the active one). Only available in Vertex select mode.

Merging vertices of course also deletes some edges and faces. But Blender will do everything it can to preserve edges and faces only partly involved in the reunion.

At First and At Last depend on that the selection order is saved: the order is lost, for instance, after changing selection mode.

If UVs is ticked in the Adjust Last Operation panel, the UV mapping coordinates, if existing, will be corrected to avoid image distortion.

By Distance

© Copyright : This page is licensed under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 Int. License. Last updated on 02/15/2023.

Join, merge and separate objects in Blender

A crucial skill when working with 3D art is to be able to manage our objects and organizing them. This includes separating and combining them in several ways. So how do we join and separate objects in Blender?

We can join objects in object mode by holding shift while selecting them and pressing Ctrl+J to join them. To separate objects, we need to be in edit mode, select the mesh you want to separate and press P then choose selection.

In the rest of this article, we’ll go more into depth about joining and merging objects as well as separating them. We’ll also cover how to do something similar with booleans since it might be related to what you are trying to achieve.

How to join or merge objects in Blender

These are the steps to join or merge objects in Blender.

• Set the Object mode to Object.
• Hold shift and right click on the objects you want to join.
• Press Ctrl + J to join the objects.

Let’s look at what happens when we merge objects in a bit more detail.

You may notice when we select objects there are two outline colors. One object will have a yellow highlight and the rest will have an orange highlight.

By the way, if you are looking for a great modeling tool, I can recommend that you check out Mechmachine over at Blender market. It is especially good for any kind of hard surface modeling.

The object with the yellow highlight is the active object. There is only ever one active object at a time. All the objects with the orange highlights will merge to this object when we hit Ctrl+J.

As an example, if all objects have modifiers the merged object will only keep the active objects modifiers. The rest will be removed.

While modifiers won’t be preserved on the merged object things such as materials and vertex groups will be. The new merged object will also just use the active objects origin.

When we’re merging objects, we should make sure to apply the modifiers before we merge. One way to quickly apply all modifiers on an object is to go object > Convert > Mesh.

We could also do the same thing by going to the object modifiers and applying all of them in order. Converting to mesh just makes this process simpler and makes sure the modifiers are applied in order.

Keeping track of models after we’ve joined them

After we have merged two objects, we might still want to be able to quickly select the pices that were previously multiple objects.

We can do this with face maps. Before we join objects, we can set the object mode to edit and press A to select all the geometry. In the object data properties tab in the face map dropdown press the + icon to add a face map.

A face map is a saved selection that can be restored from the data properties tab in the properties panel. The face map will also be preserved when we merge the objects.

Just note that face maps and face sets are not the same thing. If you are interested in face sets, you can read more about them here:

It’s also a good idea to make the name of the face map something unique. The reason is that identical face maps names will merge when the objects join together.

When the objects are joined together, we can now select the face map to quickly select the mesh belonging to the original object while in edit mode.

Note that vertex groups and UV maps can also be created beforehand and maintained after two objects merge.

Using Booleans to join objects

Joining objects with boolean is different. This will use a modifier to merge one objects mesh into another.

To join objects using boolean follow these steps:

To join objects with a boolean:

• Select the object you want to join another to.
• Navigate to the modifier properties and add a Boolean modifier.
• Set the modifier behavior to union.
• In the object section of the Boolean modifier select the object you want to join.

For a complete guide on booleans you can read this article:

Sometimes booleans can be a bit weird, the common tricks to fix this are to toggle between Exact and Fast, you can also try slightly moving one of the objects you’re trying to join.

You may notice that if the solver is set to fast it doesn’t preserve materials, this is actually fairly simple to fix. On the object you added the boolean modifier go to the material properties and click on the + icon to add a material slot and then select one of the materials on the object you’re joining to the this object.

Repeat this for all the materials on the other object that aren’t on the object that has the boolean modifier.

Note that the boolean modifier will often create N-gons, make sure to check the geometry around when the objects have been merged but the rest of the models geometry should be preserved.

The Boolean method is different in that the original object still remains its own object, but we can hide that from the viewport and final render by turning off the eye and camera icon for the object in the outliner.

If you didn’t already check it out, go take a look at Mechmachine, a great add-on for Blender modelers. Especially for hard surface projects.

How to separate objects in Blender

To separate Objects:

• Select the merged objects
• Set the Object Mode to edit
• In Edit mode select the object you want to separate
• Press P and select Selection

When we separate objects in Blender all the object data will be copied from the object that its separated from. This includes the materials, modifiers, vertex groups, etc.

Even if the separated object doesn’t have all the materials in the first object it will still have all the materials in the material properties.

In the image below the sphere with all the different materials and the black cube where one object. When separated, the black cube still have all the materials and material slots from the sphere.

When separating by selection it is important to have a good understanding of how to select accurately. If you need to learn more about selection tools in Blender, you can read this guide:

When using a selection to separate objects, we can only separate away one object at a time.

When pressing P to separate parts of an object, we also get additional options. Selection is the most common one, but we can also separate the object by loose parts or by material we can create multiple objects from our single object in one action.

Separating by loose parts can be especially useful if we have an object containing many different real-world objects.

For example, let’s say that we have an object with a particle system, and we convert all the particles to mesh, they are now loose parts, and we can easily separate them all into individual objects if we need to by using the «by loose parts» option.

Also, keep in mind that if the original object contains shared data, that data will still be shared after the separation. In that case, while in object mode you can go to object->relations->make single user->object & data to make each separated object contain its own unique copy of its data.

Separating objects with booleans

We can also use a Boolean to separate objects or rather part of an object, but it is more related to cutting out shapes from an object than separating them. Booleans does not change what mesh belongs to what object, instead it only changes the data inside the objects procedurally thanks to how modifiers work.

We follow the same steps as we did when combining objects. But instead of having two objects that we want to be visible and merged using a boolean, we create an object that cut out a part to separate from the object that we then hide in the final render.

To separate parts of an object using a boolean, follow these steps:

• Create a cutter object and place it to intersect the object you want to separate.
• Add a boolean modifier and set it to intersect.
• Use the cutter object as the object input for the boolean modifier

The result should look something like this. Whatever part of the object that is inside the bounds of the cutter object will remain while the rest will be cut away.

If you change the boolean modifier to difference, the opposite will be true, like in the image blow.

The benefit of this method is that we do not need to rely as much on the underlying mesh, we can cut straight through existing faces. just keep in mind that if the object is too low poly or we don’t want to cut straight edges, Blender might have a hard time figuring out how to connect the mesh around the cut parts. For example, it can lead to shading artefacts in the cut areas.

Final thoughts

There are many cases where we might need to join and separate objects. Both the basic way of joining and separating objects as well as the boolean modifier will come in handy often.

Knowing what happens when we join, and separate objects can help us speed up our workflow. We’ll also have an easier time understanding why our model behaves a certain way when merged.

If you made it this far you probably like the content, chances are that you would enjoy reading the Artisticrender E-Book as well. Feel free to check it out.

Blender Merge Objects Tutorial

This Blender Merge Objects Tutorial shows several examples how you can merge two 3d objects in Blender. We will discuss joining, manual merge and modifiers.

Joining or merging objects together sounds like a trivial thing. It is something that you need to do quite often while working in Blender. But it, sadly, is not that easy to do. Especially for the newbie. So today we will look into how you can merge objects in Blender.

Joining Objects

There are several methods of how you can merge several objects into a single one. The most basic variant is to join them. Let’s take these cube and a sphere as an example:

So I want to join them together, as right now they are separate objects with their own geometry and pivot points.

All I need to do is select these two objects, right-click anywhere on a screen, and select the Join option. Or instead, just press the shortcut [Ctrl+J].

This has joined these two objects into a single one. It now has a single pivot point in the place of a Cube. You can make sure that it is a single object if you look at the Outliner and see only a Cube there. As sphere has merged with the Cube.

Sounds very easy, so what is the catch? Well, the main problem of doing things like this is that this joins the objects, but not their geometry.

When I toggle on an X-Ray – you can clearly see that each of the objects still has its geometry and that sphere overlaps the cube.

This is a problem and usually, when you want to merge objects – you don’t want it to be like this. Instead, you want a joined geometry or it may have problems further down the line.

By the way, if you want to separate objects that are joined in this way – you need to go into the Edit Mode and select the geometry that you want to separate. You can do this by pressing L while hovering over an object. Then right-click and go to Separate > Selection.

This will separate these objects. So it would be two independent ones again.

Manual Blender Merge Objects

So what to do if you need to merge the objects and their geometry properly? Well, one of the variants is to manually go into Edit mode and edit it so that objects would be joined. Let’s take two cubes as an example, as it would be the easiest to understand.

Firstly you need to join these objects together with the previous method. So this is more of an improvement on the last method, than a brand-new one.

With the objects connected, we change to the Edit mode. Here we look at the geometry and think about how it can be connected to form a proper object.

As I have very simple objects that I want to connect – it is not hard to spot the right way to do this. I want to connect the two faces that are closest to each other.

All I need to do now is to select these two faces, right-click anywhere, and select the Bridge Faces option.

This will automatically delete selected faces and connect all edges that made them between each other.

So now we have finally connected the objects properly. It is now a single object with a single pivot point and all geometry is connected without any overlapping. This we can also double-check by turning on the X-ray.

No overlapping at all. So this is a much-preferred method to just joining objects. As it connects everything properly and you won’t have problems further down the line with this object.

But there is a huge downside to this way of doing things – it is much harder on more complicated objects. Meaning that you won’t always connect two simple Cubes.

Doing this manual connect on something with difficult geometry is very hard. For example, even if we take our previous scene with a cube and a sphere:

The sphere has a lot more geometry than a cube. It would be quite difficult to manually try and connect everything. And this is not even close to the really complex objects that you may need to join. So what is the solution?

Merging Using Boolean Modifier

The solution to the problem of merging complex objects is a Boolean modifier. It is not some kind of miracle that will resolve all the problems, but it is still very and very useful.

Returning to the scene with a cube and a sphere. Let’s use the Boolean modifier on them. For this, select an object that you want to be the main object(does not really matter which) and apply a Boolean Modifier to it.

There are three types of Boolean modifier operation. There is an Intersect, a Union, and a Difference. For joining objects we are only interested in the Union type, so today we are not touching the other two.

Then you also select an Object that you want to connect to the first one. In my case – there is only one other object on a scene.

When this is done, you will probably see some weird artifacts on your objects. Everything is normal. After this, you can just apply a modifier and look at the result.

This action has joined the Cube and Sphere objects and created a new, joined object out of the cube(as modifier was applied to it). But this does not get rid of the original sphere, so be wary of that.

Now we can again look at objects with an X-Ray and see how they look.

The result is awesome. They are now perfectly connected without any overlapping geometry whatsoever. The only problem with this result is that two faces of a cube are now N-gons with a lot of vertices in them. This can lead to problems in some tasks. But it is not that hard to fix manually.

Though you need to understand that it will not always yield this nice of a result. It depends very much on the object and the scene. And sadly, there is no ultimate solution for such problems, as they can have different origins.

Example of a problematic Union Boolean

So it is not a miracle tool that will do everything for you. It does a lot, but you also usually need to additionally work on the mesh yourself to make it work.

Bool Tool Add-on

To further improve your experience in merging objects in Blender, I want to recommend you an add-on. If you are not sure what is an add-on – it is a modifier that changes the way some things work in Blender. To learn more about add-ons, you can read our previous Blender article – Blender Add-ons Tutorial.

So the add-on I want to talk about is called the Bool Tool. It is a free add-on that comes included in Blender from the start. All you need to do is find it in the Preferences menu and activate it.

So what this add-on does is allows you to use the Boolean modifier a lot quicker and more efficiently than usual.

You can find the interface for using the Bool Tool if you open a side panel in a viewport with the [N] button. (Note: this only appears when you have an object selected)

So what we can do here is apply a Boolean Modifier to an object with basically a single click. You can see that there are four types available here, so this can be used not only for the Union Boolean.

To apply this, you simply select two objects and press one of the buttons. So I have done this with the Cube and Cylinder objects this time.

Auto Boolean with the Bool Tool

So this has automatically applied the boolean modifier to the objects and deleted the extra one that should have appeared. With one simple click.

There is also an option for the Brush Boolean. This one, instead of applying the modifier right away, will just create the chosen modifier and change the second object to be invisible(with bounds). This way it is much easier to see what changes exactly the Boolean will produce. Used the Difference Boolean type for better visualization:

Brush Boolean with the Bool Tool

So this add-on is not a big game-changer. But it will save you quite a bit of time for each use of the Boolean Modifier. Plus the Brush Boolean is a very welcome addition to the Blender.

Conclusion – Blender Merge Objects Tutorial

In Blender Merge objects sounds like a very easy task. Thanks to the Boolean Modifier and the Bool Tool – it can be as easy as it sounds. But not nearly every time you can just press a single button and be done with it. See also our other Blender Tutorials.

Blender. Как объединить или разделить объекты?

Допустим, у вас есть 2 модели и необходимо их объединить, что-бы редактировать их одновременно, применять модификаторы и тд.

1. Выделяете первый объект (его названием будет назван конечный продукт)
2. Выделяете второй объект
3. Жмете CTRL+J
4. Редактируете объект как вам угодно

После соединения все материалы сохраняются как есть.

Пример объединения

Для наглядности, я все-же покажу как это выглядит.

Мы имеем 2 куба, которые необходимо объединить в один объект.

2 куба которые мы хотим объединить

Выбираем первый куб

Выделение первого куба, именем которого назовется объединенный объект

Затем, с зажатым SHIFT, выбираем второй

выделение второго куба

Ну и жмем CTRL+J

После объединения, кубы обведутся оранжевой линией

Теперь эти 2 куба представлены как один объект, который можно редактировать как обычно.

Кстати, если выбрать 2 точки и нажать F то проведется грань между ними, а если выбрать грань или 3 точки и нажать F то появится плоскость.

Я, к примеру, сотворил сие)

Пример редактирования объединенного объекта

Как разделить объект на несколько частей?

Часто приходиться так-же разделять уже собранный объект на несколько частей.

Для этого нужно выполнить несложный ряд действий

1. Переходим в режим редактирования нужного объекта
2. Выделяем нужную часть
3. Жмем P
4. Выбираем нужное действие

Пример

Для наглядности я разберу то что у меня получилось обратно на 2 части

Для удобства выделения переключаем режим отображения в сетку, нажатием кнопки Z

Смена режима отображения

Далее выделяем вершины

выделение