Ok so I've got a model that I've tweaked a billion times and I've lost a primitive during the tweaking. So I try to apply a polycap operation and I select the 5 edges that surround the primitive and when I apply the operation (hit enter) houdini decides to not only cap that polygon but a bunch of other connected primitives as well!!! Why is this??? I've tried all kinds of options in the polycap operation and still can't get it to go - am I missing something?

Have you tried PolyKnit? It's what I would probably use.

yes, however, when I try they polyknit operation and I select the 6 points it add vertices between points that I am not looking to have (although it does add a primitive)?

try this http://www.sidefx.com/exchange/info.php?fileid=724&versionid=724 [sidefx.com]