[maudib]

I work in Lightwave 3D. I use both techniques depending on the situation. The small greebles are modeled separately and simply applied. Welding them on to the hull increases the poly count dramatically. The hull platings are welded to the basic shape since there is no poly penalty for not doing so, and rounding the edges requires a completely enclosed shape for the Rounder app to work. Rounding all the edges consumes 80 percent of my time.

I have done explosions in Lightwave 3D using both welded and non-welded meshes. It's a big job either way to create a broken mesh ( you have to build 2 meshes) to use in the explosion sequence where various parts are flying away leaving the damaged surface exposed.