Since Blender doesnt have a dedicated interactive tool to merge/weld vertices (and edges) what is the method most suitable for the job ? I understand The Vertex slide doesnt support snapping (to Vertex) so its a bit unrefined. I think it could be a great replacement to a dedicated merging tool if snapping would work with it. But is any difference between these two methods when the two vertices share the same edge ?
Also to make this even more refined and to work like Maya great target weld tool , Auto Merge could serve some extra options like Merge At Lats, At First, At center, At cursor or Collapse.
What do you mean by Vertex Slide using snapping ?
Vertex Slide is by default clamped to end of edge. It means that if you go as far as you can : moved vertex and vertex at end of edge are at same position. And automerge is currently merging those vertices.
Auto Merge is a modal option in Blender. It is not a tool. It merges vertices at same position whatever operation was done to place those vertices at same location. It can be a translation, a rotation, a scale, a vertex slide, any kind of deformation, any operator.
So, talking about merge at last, at first, at center, at cursor or collapse as options for automerge does not make sense. It would mean that you merge all your selection at one point whatever operation is done. That would have no sense.
To merge at a specific point, you need to define a specific selection. And do it via a unique operation.
Because if it is a modal option, it would mean that anytime, you try to do something ; whatever you do as an operation : result would be merging of selection at a specific location.
Snapping to vertex I mean. The visual helper (the colored circle ) would be nice to see when they are in same place. I know if you go till the end it will do that anyway but just saying.
About Automerge extra options. Wasnt this tool created to speed up the welding/merging process. instead of doing the selections and using the hotkeys all the time ? The merge vertices menu options has this options so why not Automerge benefit from this, If if I want the two vertices to merge at center when I move the vertex with Automerge on .
What I am trying to explain to you is that automerge is not a tool.
It is an option that will affect any tool whatever selection is.
If you use move tool with automerge option ON and one vertex selected, snap this vertex to another and result of that is that both vertices are move to cursor location because of an extra option that would be weird but that could make sense.
But if you rotate an hemisphere on top of a cylinder and expect a fusion but because of such extra-option, everything is merged at 3D cursor and you lost your hemisphere ; that does not make sense at all.
You want a weld tool or a merge active tool that is not a menu. OK.
But don’t mix that wish with an automerge option. That does not make sense.
I suppose that a weld tool will cover same thing that a bridge followed by a collapse of created edge ring. But that would be a tool, not an global option that modifies everything behavior.
You can feel when a selection is snapped on something, it does not move although you move mouse a little bit.
There is a visual feedback to know when vertices were merged. 4 edges around selected vertex are colored next to vertex. If when you select a vertex, some edges nearby are not colored ; it means that there are 2 vertices at same location.
I know that Automerge its different than the concept of a tool but you know how are things when someone ask a dedicated tool found in other softwares: Its not needed, you can already do that in Blender, why you need a dedicated tool etc. Also people always arguing that Certain Blender features are Tools which in fact they are completely stranger from the concept of tool.