ok so i started to play around and i figured out why it doesnt' work......i opened up the options box for vertex merge and i found the default distance to be 0.0001 and i set the distance to MAX(which is ten) and that fixed my problem right away.

also kurt : 'distance' does that mean the max allowed distance the program will be able to merge mutliple verticies..???

again, i'd like to thank your patience and willingness to answer all my questions. the moderators of this site have been extremely helpful......

man what's the hold up on the add to cd option.....you guys are lagging!!!!!! hahahahah just kidding....keep up the great work!