Michael, I really want to thank you for this very useful teaching!

> like if you have a planar surface that's a rounded rectangle made up of lines and arcs and it's a standalone surface not joined to anything else.

Just out of curiosity I've done an experiment with that single planar srf you were talking about,
and I verified that happens what you told me.

After the "merge" command the single edge has changed its topology losing its internal structure.

I guess that, in general, this is not a desirable result.

> Personally if you have a structurally sound object I'd generally hesitate to mutate it by automatically doing these things
unless there was a lot to gain like if the edges were very badly fragmented or if the active area of a surface is very tiny compared to the full surface.

I understand now!
I will do as you told me.
That is, I will use the "merge" command only on restricted area and/or on very badly fragmented edges.

One last note.

I've experimented that it doesn't seem to be any relationship between "ShrinkTrimmedSrf" and "merge" commands.
That is, I've seen that the final result of the "merge" command isn't affected by the previous "ShrinkTrimmedSrf" command.
Or, at least I've seen this behavior in relation with the simple experiment on the "planar surface that's a rounded rectangle".

It this interpretation correct in general or does it differ case-by-case ?
I think for example to situations where I could run "ShrinkTrimmedSrf + merge" or only "merge" on joined surfaces...


Thank you very much again and have a nice day!

- Marco (mkdm)

Hi Marco,

> I've experimented that it doesn't seem to be any relationship between
> "ShrinkTrimmedSrf" and "merge" commands.

Yes that's true, they work on different types of sub-objects - ShrinkTrimmedSrf will only change the "underlying surface" of faces and does not make any modifications to edges, while Merge only does modifications to edges (currently - I'd like to also have some way to merge 2 adjacent surfaces as well but I have some hope to add merging functionality into join rather than keeping them as separate commands).

- Michael

Hello Michael,

Thank you very much for your help and your valuable teaching.

I can tell you that in my career as a ISV (independent software vendor) I've known many
colleagues (ok, not so popular like you) and very rarely I've found someone that, like you, is constantly striving to help and teach
his customers.

I think I'm not exaggerating if I say that the most prominent aspect of your Moi3D is this forum and your direct support.

Software born and die every week but professionalism can't be bought in the market.

Thanks again and best wishes for your job.

- Marco (mkdm)

Thanks very much for the kind words Marco, I really appreciate that!

- Michael

You're welcome Michael,

Have a nice day,

- Marco (mkdm)