i cant shift+drag a line and weld it with another

[cadana]

using 3dsmax 6

when i try to shift+drag the peach outlined... line... 3ds wont even make a new face, it just clicks off and nothing is selected. what i am trying to do is merge the two outlined lines together.
now when i try to shift drag from the red outlined line down, i can get a new face, but when i try to merge it with the peach outlined line, the only vertices i can weld together are the ones furthest out to the right. when i select the two vertices i want to merge on the left side of the line (left meaning the left vertice of the peach outlined line with the new line i dragged down to meet it), when i click "weld," nothing happens.. i tried a bunch of different ways including "breaking" the vertices apart and welding them in various orders, but i dont know how to get this side skirt to have a four sided "box" look to it (left and right side faces missing (like an opened cardboard box). to get what i mean, look at this supra's side skirt
any way i can do this without restarting, or atleast perhaps delete as few faces as possible? i really appreciate the help, i have been working on this one part for a long time and would hate to have to redo it. if you need me to clarify more, id be glad to, its hard explaining the problem nice and clear.

[multimediaman]

from the looks of it, you're trying to shift-clone edges that are closed off... they have faces on both sides...

if you have something like:
_______
| | |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
you could shift-clone any edge except for the edge inside the shape...

and the way your geometry looks, it seems as though you've got a similar, although slightly differently shaped corner edge circled both times.

[cadana]

any idea as to what the solution is? or can i just not do something like that? would it be easier for whoever tries to help me for me to just send the file and have you do it for me and send it back and i can observe the changes?

[multimediaman]

well, it almost looks like you're making an air intake on the side of a car...

possibly the easiest way to go about making that would be to just create the geometry around the intake with edge segments going around the edges of the intake. then select the faces where the intake is and extrude them inwards. now take the face where the intake goes inside the vehicle and extrude that inwards. make sure that extrusion doesn't poke through the car's exterior... if it does, just move the vertices around until it doesn't, and you're set

-edit-

if you don't want to rebuild too much, the easiest way to get the shape like that would be to delete the faces on the interior of the edges you've circled, then shift-clone an edge there, weld the vertices, then take the edge loop around the intake's opening and shift-clone that inwards, fixing any mesh intersection as previously described

[marvin]

You could always just clone the end polies, move them out slightly, then close the shape. This would make the intake a seperate mesh from the car, then model edges on it, and make it look like a bolt on intake.

This would depend on what you wanted as an end result though.

[lackadaisical]

A single 2-d polygon cannot be used in the way you intended, and the solution is to make the intake wall have 3 dimensions.

What I suggest you do is cut the last polygon in half, and delete the outermost of the new polygon. Do the same to the polygon directly above it.

Then, select the three edges around the polygon that you deleted, shift+drag them upwards, and weld the verticies to the corresponding ones above.

Not knowing the details of how you plan to execute the rest of the car, this is all I can offer. HTH

[cadana]

wow, lotsa great tips. i will most likely try them all. thanks for the pictures too. that should help out alot. thanks a bunch