How to merge objects in blender

Merge multiple meshes into one single mesh?

Is there any addon that will allow me to merge multiple different meshes into one solid mesh?

I’ve spent a great deal of time constructing a fancy window frame, but I made it out of multiple individual meshes.

6 Answers 6

There are two methods of combining meshes that I know of; The first uses the addon BoolTool:

Select the separate objects that you want to combine

Press Ctrl + Shift + Numpad Enter to apply the operation

Your separate pieces will now be combined, with new geometry created at the intersections, forming one solid mesh.

The second and lengthier way uses the Intersect (Knife) mesh operation:

Combine two (or more) objects together with Ctrl + J

In edit mode, select all of the faces of one of the meshes, the easy way to do this is to select one face and press Ctrl + L to select all of the linked faces

Press Ctrl + F to bring up the faces menu and select Intersect (Knife), cuts will be made into the unselected faces where the selected faces overlap with them

You will end up with the same result as the first method. It is advised that when using this method to only combine two objects at a time, repeating the above steps for each pairing.

In both cases you will likely be left with N-GONs, a quick, though messy way to remove these without resorting to the Knife tool is the following:

Select all of the faces and/or N-GONs and press Ctrl + T to triangulate them

With all of the faces still selected, press Alt + J to convert the resulting triangles to quads

This may save some time in some areas of the mesh where the N-GONs are relatively simple, but the resulting topology may be lacking.

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.

Merge Vertex, Edge or Face

Table of Contents

For Blender 2.83 LTS and newer versions, merging or collapsing elements together in Edit Mode, that is vertexes, edges or faces, is performed from the Mesh menu, upper-left side of the 3D View – Merge has been switched to being a global function rather than a sole attribute of vertex manipulation.

Important: for Blender 2.80 to Blender 2.82 the Merge option is available in the Vertex menu, i.e. Vertex » Merge and not as described below. The shortcut to access Merge also differs; for 2.80 – 2.82 this is Alt + M ; for 2.83+ it’s M (for 2.83+ Alt + M is the shortcut for Split).

Design note: for all versions of Blender 2.8 and above the Vertices, Edges and Faces sub or secondary tier menu options formerly accessible under Mesh (i.e. Mesh » Vertices) are primary menus when Edit Mode is active – Vertex, Edge and Face.

In older versions of Blender 2.8 series merging elements together is accessible under Vertex » Merge Vertices not as discussed below.

Merge (Vertex/Edge/Face)

To merge elements together, first make a vertex, edge or face based selection then from the Mesh menu click Merge (Mesh » Merge) – alternatively press the M key. In the Merge pop-up menu that appears select At First, At Last, At Center, At Cursor or Collapse – Mesh » Merge » [option] depending on how the selection is to be merged together.

Design note: when merging Blender also performs a ‘remove doubles’ action to remove duplicate element. The options to merge selections together, At First, At Last etc., appear only when Vertex select is the active selection mode when in Edit Mode. In Edge select or Face select different (limited) options are available; At Center, At Cursor and Collapse.

The options to merge elements together in Edit Mode have a dedicated Mesh menu – make a selection then click Mesh » Merge, choosing a target from the available options in the Merge pop-up menu that appears.

Blender 2.9+ & Merge

For Blender 2.9+ and future versions, Merge is accessible from the Mesh menu as described above. To use, make a selection and from the Mesh menu select Merge » [option] – Mesh » Merge » [option], or alternatively press the M key to access to quick menu.

The options to merge elements together in Edit Mode have a dedicated Mesh menu – make a selection then click Mesh » Merge, choosing a target from the available options in the Merge pop-up menu that appears.

How To Merge Vertices In Blender & Why You’d Want To?

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In this article we’ll be looking at how to merge vertices of an object in edit mode. Many of you might remember the remove doubles feature on Blender and what it was used for?

Essentially merge vertices is the new name for remove doubles in the latest version of Blender which is currently 2.92.0.

Post Content

Why Would You Merge Vertices In Modelling?

Image having two meshes that you want to join together in order to make it into one. When you join the meshes together, there are going to be vertices overlapping.

This is what is known as doubles, you now have one vertices on top of the other which can cause potential big problems when modelling.

One such problem is when subdividing your model (making it look smoother). The area with doubles will conflict and make the model look weird in that area. This is why it is vital to join the vertices together (making the two overlapping vertices into one).

A real life scenario when vertices overlap after joining meshes

Merging Vertices In Blender

Now that we have an idea of when we may need to merge vertices, it’s only natural to know how to merge them together.

Here, I will show you exactly the steps on how to do this using the two models shown above as examples. We are going to:

Step 1: You Have Two Meshes That Need Joining

In this example we’ll be looking at these separate meshes that we want to join together.

Individual models ready to be joined together

As it stands they are separate meshes!

Step 2: Placing The Meshes Together

Place the two meshes close enough for the edges to be touching at the point where you want the join to take place.

Step 3: Selecting Both Meshes

Make sure both your meshes are highlighted.

Step 4: Joining The Meshes Together

This step physically joins the two meshes together to make it into one object.

Step 5: Go Into Edit Mode

Simply go into Edit Mode by following the steps on the screenshot below.

Make sure the mesh is highlighted in orange. If it’s not, hit “A” on the keyboard!

Step 6: Merging Vertices By Distance

Although the model is one mesh and looks complete, we still have issues with vertices overlapping in the area where both meshes joined.

We have to remove the double vertices and make them single so that we eliminate any issues with modelling in future… we want a clean mesh!

We can see here how the vertices overlap.

To merge the vertices (remove double vertices):

There is one final step

Step 7: Check If Doubles Are Removed

In the final step I only had to increase the distance by 0.01m (one click of the arrow).

For you, it might depend on how big your model is, so you might have to increase the distance by more.

I did a final check to see if the doubles very removed!

You are done!

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Is There A Shortcut To Vertices Merging

It’s inevitable to ask if there’s a shortcut to any handy feature a tool has to offer. Particularly when the feature is repeatably used for increased productivity. So, is there a shortcut to merging vertices on Blender?

The step to merging the mesh by distance can be achieved using keyboard shorts cuts and this is done by:

[highlight-it color-1]Hitting “M” on the keyboard and then clicking “By Distance”[/highlight-it]

Merge Vertices Not Working In Blender

There are several steps needed in order to merge vertices or remove doubles on Blender. As can be seen in this example, we have 6 steps to follow, and any mistake or missed out step could contribute the vertices not merging.

From my experience, it is not Blender that’s the issue, but rather the user who has missed a step. Follow this tutorial and you should have no issues!

How To Merge Meshes In Blender

Merging meshes in Blender is one of the everyday tasks you would ever go upon as a 3D artist. Further, many people do not even know how to merge meshes in Blender correctly. To avoid any issues, follow our given tutorial and go through each step.

You could merge meshes in different types of methods. Each one is straightforward to go upon. The mesh object would join up with a few simple steps, giving you a great-looking shape. Either way, it’s a great process to follow, and you should check it out for sure.

What is Mesh in Blender?

In Blender, the mesh represents a structure consisting of vertices, edges, and faces. Altogether represents a mesh object in Blender. Most of the time, you could edit meshes in object mood. Further, working with meshes requires proper concentration. Precise selection of meshes can get you better at creating new shapes.

When comparing objects, meshes are way simpler. In general, meshes only define a specific area and volume in 3D space. On the other hand, objects can contain multiple characteristics and elements linked to them, which is why meshes in Blender are different from objects.

Simple Steps on How To Merge Meshes In Blender

Merging meshes in Blender takes a few simple steps. With these easy steps, you could combine and join different meshes into one. So let’s get started with the steps on Blender to merge meshes one by one.

Step 1: First, open the Blender software.

Step 2: Afterward, go into the Blender file you want to edit. Or start creating meshes within the current document.

Step 3: Now, select an object within Object mode. Once you select a single object in Blender, press “Shift” on the Keyboard and select the other objects.

Step 4: After you select multiple objects in Blender, go into the Object menu located at the top-left side of the interface. Afterward, select Join from the menu.

Note: Instead of going into the menu, you could use Ctrl + J to join two different meshes.

The following tutorial would join the following set of meshes into one object. Further, it’s better to remember the join command only works for mesh-based objects. Blender can’t join objects from different materials, which is why you should be careful while applying the Join function to other types of objects.

Merge Meshes In Blender via Edge Connect

Let’s get into the process of merging meshes with edge-connected features of Blender. It would help you connect two different meshes and make them unified. It’s one of the lesser-known yet effective processes to go on. So let’s start the process right now.

Step 1: First, open your blender file and put the mesh object side by side.

Step 2: Afterward, go into the “Edit Mode” within Blender.

Afterward, go into the select face mode and delete the two facing faces of both objects. First, select the faces > press “X”> Delete Faces.

Step 3: Now go into the object model within Blender. Select the first object and select the second one while pressing “Shift” on the Keyboard.

Step 4: Go into the Object menu > Join to make both meshes into one object.

Step 5: Go back into the Edit mood at the following step. Afterward, select edges of both of the facing edges. Then, select “New Face from Edges.”

Note: You could press “F” after selecting all the edges. Blender joins faces more simply and provides you with new faces.

It’s better to mention that selecting all of the edges and creating faces could eliminate intersections between them. If you want to create edges at the new faces, select one edge from both meshes and create a new face. Then, do it for the rest of the edges. But in these cases, you need to have equal edges at both of the objects.

Split Merged Meshes in Blender

You have a few options to split merged meshes with Blender. Let’s explore them right now.

Undo Option

To split merged meshes in Blender, you could use Ctrl + Z to activate the undo features. Even if the Blender Undo function does not activate, you could use Ctrl + Shift + Z to get back to the previous step. But sometimes, the undo function is not enough to split merged meshes, which is why you should take another approach.

Separate Option

You could use the separate option to make a certain part of the meshes. First, select the mesh object and parts that you want to separate. Afterward, go into the Object > Separate > [option].

On the other hand, if you create a vertex group while merging the meshes, you could later separate it with Mesh > Separate > [option]. First, however, you could press “P” on the Keyboard as a shortcut to the Separate feature.