How do I get rid of some of the points that I do not use anymore?

Care must be taken when deleting a point in any one of the three builder applications (HMI, Database and Automation) as they share the system points.
You can remove points from the point right-click menu option.
After deleting a point, run validation to detect if any point was used in Automation or other parts of the database.
You also need to check HMI screens to ensure the deleted points are not used in the HMI builder.
If you have unused points in the Automation Builder, during the validation, Automation Editor will inform you and gives you an option to delete the remaining points.
I have deleted and recreated the same point in the database builder, but I still get a validation error that the point does not exist in the Automation Builder. Why?
You most likely have created a new point with a different data type. Automation is still referring to the old point with the original data type.
Why do I have to always save and then publish a configuration?
The Database, HMI and Automation builders save their configuration in the offline (or staging) configuration folders.
The runtime server uses the configuration that is stored on the online folders.
We use Publish to copy the offline configuration files to the online folders. This allows the server to continue running while making configuration changes.
When I am publishing a configuration, I am asked if I want to merge databases. What is the purpose of merging when?
Sinolta uses Online or runtime database files during the runtime. If users make changes to the database configuration or when the system is reading real-time values form the field devices, these real-time and configuration values are also stored in the online database files.
When system integrators make changes to the offline database, and at the same time, users make changes to the online database, merging allows the two databases to be synchronized so we don’t lose any data.
When publishing offline to the online database, the Database builder compares online and offline databases and grabs all the changes from the offline and apply them to the online database.