Mirror Geom. v/s combine
 

Anyone have any comments on whether mirroring geometry or combining geometry is a better method. Are there any pros or cons to each.

I recently tried to combine two objects and they dissappeared. I then checked my normals (all okay), my verts (all merged), and geometry. I couldn't find anything wrong. So I decided to try out the Mirror Geometry and it worked perfectly. I also noticed that it seems to automatically combine objects at the same time. So now, I'm considering to always use the Mirroe Geom when I can. Just seems quicker and easier. Any comments on this?

i wouldn't use mirror geometry if i were you because you haven't got any control on how the verts are merging.
Are you absolutely sure that it was the combine and not boolean button you pushed, cause it never happened to me before that the model disappeared with combining and with booleans it happens a lot with complex or just plain large geometry.

If its an object thats symetrical I usualy model one side then duplicate with scale in the axis you want the mirror to be as -1 then combine the mesh and then merge the verts.

I have always been told to ignore and not use Mirror Geometry. Every person who has taught me Maya has stated:

Create 1 half
Duplicate it
Scale in X to -1
Combine and Merge Verts

The only problem with this is the time it takes to merge all the verts, its time consuming, but better off in the long run. If you Mirror you run the risk of spending the day removing and cleaning the gemometry around the seem to get your geo correct. that takes Longer.

Always use Combine mehod.

If the verts are all down the middle, you can select them and then turn your merge setting to a really low value say 0.02 and then it sould merge the verts that are within this range, saves messing with individual pairs verts,

NOTE - It is a bit of trial and error though to get the tollerance to the roght level, strat off really low then work up (as it will just not merge any thing if its too low, and a quice select of one vert and a move will show if it has done it.)

Once you get the hang of it its easy and a great time saver, you just have to remember to up the tollerance when your doing other mreging work!

mastone: It was the combine and not boolean (good question). I tried several times because I thought it was just really odd as it's never done that before. Also, when I did the mirror geom, the verts did not merge. I had to merge each pair individually.

R@nSiD: Unfortunately in the one case, the geo disappeared when I tried to combine (hope it's the last). I'll definitely stick to the combine / merge verts method after you, mastone and gster all say the same thing. Thanks

gster123: I like the idea of all the verts merging at once but now after I think about more, I'd always be afraid that one pair would't merge. That's usually how my luck goes (hehe). I might try it out for awhile and then double check the verts to make sure they all merge. If I can get the settings just right so that I get good feelings, I'll probably use it because I think faster is better (without compromising quality of course). Perhaps I could start a log of settings for each type of application (hmm).

Thanks everyone!!!

I second R@nSiD's method.

The mirror geometrey tool often produces funky merging results (at least for me); sometimes vertices that are not meant to be merged merge, and sometimes verts that are lying directly on top of one another (at the center) don't merge. I prefer duplicating, -1 scaling, combining and merging the center vertices myself to ensure everything goes along smoothly.