How do I turn "auto-weld" off?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

The new PE and Milkshape don't require you to hit "weld together". It does it by itself. The problem is, for one part of the mesh I WANT pleats. Is there a way to turn the weld off so it won't smooth away the pleats to gentle ruffles? Thanks

Steph

[tiggerypum]

You need to turn off AUTOSMOOTH, there is no automatic welding going on. What you're supposed to do is _not_ touch the original maxis normals at all.

You also need to NEVER use 'smooth all' or whatever the smooth command is on the milkshape menu - because it smooths *everything*, even the groups that are hidden at the time. That will also foul up the smoothness of the seams on the arms/legs.

You can selectively use the 'Align Normals' menu option that comes with demon's gmdc plugins; it will only 'smooth' the normals on the specific area you have selected.

If you are making totally new parts for your mesh, you will do best to build them in a separate editing session - make a fresh copy of your imported gmdc - turn on autosmooth if needed, build the parts you want to make, keeping them in a separate group. Make sure to uvmap them also, and position the uvmaps so that they do not interefere with the body (unless they're on the alpha group, at which point you still must position them well) Save your _milkshape_ file. Now delete the body (and any other original mesh groups) leaving just your new parts. Export as a Wavefront OBJ file. Hit 'new', then read in your original gmdc (or your milkshape file, if you'd already made mods to the gmdc), and then read in the obj file. Do the bone assignments for the new parts(s).

[PAF]

Under the groups tab uncheck autosmooth.For most methods of mesh makeing it should stay off. I am not sure if unimesh can do it or not but I know that it will cause some problems if you are useing meshtool.