So, supposedly, according to “Help”,
" * Use Merge Components tool - merge already created components. When using this function, no new images are added to the existing components."
But then, why does this happen?
I go from TWO components with 637 and 312 cameras to many components, the largest of which has 525 images.
What did I do? I added 4 tie points to each component.
Seriously, I expect RC to CONNECT the two components, not to split them up!
Hello @HMallison
As you have the control points you can try to use new alignment.
For the components, try to export them, import into a new project and then use Merge components option.
Hi othran,
many thanks for your reply!
new alignment does, essentially, the same thing: my existing components get split up or remain the same, depending on how much weight I give my manual CPs.
I’ll try the new project thing now.
How many CPs have you used? How are they placed? On how many images?
4 manual CPs, on 14, 11, 8, 6 images
EDIT: actually 5 CPs
basically, what RC needs is an option that competing softwares have: merge based on manual input only. i.e., force the alignment of the components based ONLY on the manual CPs.
Are those placed in both components?
You can also try to set the control points accuracy to zeros:
Yes, evenly split on both components (7 photos, 6&5 photos, etc.)
I’ll give the accuracy thing a shot, too!
Hooray!!! Using a new project sort of “worked” - there is now a bit of an offset but I now have 982 images in one big component! This will need a bit of work to get the offset minimized. Muchas gracias!
I also have a new 10-image component. 
