Is there a way to merge overlapping components without doing it by hand using the weld tool?

[chris052159]

My question is the title. To give background, I've been doing a course with Pluralsight to learn Maya and ran into an issue where smooth preview (hotkey 3) would constantly crash my computer (I'm assuming because my GPU is an Intel 620 UHD). Anyways, extracting faces diminishes the likelihood of crashing greatly since the model being smoothed is now less complex. I (in my infinite wisdom) didn't create alternate saves before I did this and I'm in a different session, so I can't revert the change using Z. The edges and vertices along each extracted segment line up exactly to the edges and vertices of the other extractions, but they don't affect each other when modifying one extractions components. The only way I've been able to figure could be a fix is welding each individual edge back together.

Here are some pictures:

The highlighted selection is what I want to change back into one solid mesh -

Examples of segmented parts -

After using combine and attempting to edit an edge position...

The next best thing if what I'm asking for isn't possible is how can I (if it's even a possibility) revert files to a previous version? Thanks for any help!

[damaggio · Accepted solution]

You are also working in .mb   it should be .ma, you should activate incremental saves too.

To merge use the Merge tool Edit mesh>Merge

[chris052159]

I do have incremental saves activated but they have seemed to do nothing. Also didn't even realize I could switch from binary to ASII. What's the difference between the file formats exactly?

[chris052159]

Also thank you! You're an absolute legend. It might have been a simple problem but as a new user I really thought I messed up

[damaggio]

You could make a mistake and forget to delete your history and save the file, ( make sure to read about Maya history )...first thing you learn in class..that could lead to a file not opening anymore, a .ma file can be fixed with a text editing program, a .mb can't .

Once the model is finished you can save a copy in .mb.