Hello guys,

I was wondering if anyone could help in explaining one particular step from this body meshing tutorial - I am still learning so I have no idea what to do.
I have problems with Step 7 of the tutorial - not sure if I am doing it wrong, if I haven't understood properly or what - but I cannot proceed without completing this step. So what Step 7 essentially is - open up TCE, select the loose pieces and in main Milkshape windows, move the loose pieces away from the body.
So what I understand from the tutorial is that I have to open both the TCE and the main window; then I have to select the loose pieces, go back to the main window and select "move". I have to have both TCE and the window - look at the window as a reference and move the pieces in the TCE. The thing is (if I have understood correctly which I doubt) that I the pieces are moving only within the TCE and there is no end result in the main window.

I will copy/paste the step so that you can see how it is originally written (not sure that you can understand something from my ramblings):

"Click the Select button IN THE Texture Coordinate Editor menu and draw/drag with your mousepointer a box around the loose pieces, use the SHIFT key to add to the selection and the SHIFT key+rightclick to remove
from the selection, selecting in the TCE works the same as in the main Milkshape views.
With all little loose ends selected in TCE, switch/look/go to the main Milkshape views.
In the Tools tabs from the main Milkshape windows, click the Model tab and click the Move button.
Look in the Milkshape view named 'Left' and use your mousepointer to move the (in the TCE) selected loose parts away from the body.
In the main Milkshape view named 'Left': with Model-> Select make a selection of the parts you previously have moved away from the bodymesh, and hit the Delete button on your keyboard."

Again, I have no idea if I have understood it correctly and I tried many things before bothering you with my probably stupid questions but nothing works. And also, when I first opened the TCE it was completely empty (except the texture that I've uploaded for the previous step) - there was no body and it showed itself only after I selected the given body in the Tools section (though I chose the right "part" from the body drop-down menu in TCE).

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=397088 - that's the tutorial's link in case of anybody wants to go through it and see for themselves what exactly is written in the step 7.

I hope that someone would be able to help.
Thanks a lot in advance.

That's normal. When vertices are moved in TCE, their UV coordinates change, but not their actual location coordinates. This is so that the way textures/materials are mapped to the mesh can be controlled. Only moving things in the main window will change the actual geometry of the mesh (i.e. the vertex location coordinates). I think that step in the tutorial is meant to demonstrate that TCE can be used as a selection tool for the mesh--for instance, vertices (like doubles) that are difficult to select within the main window without also selecting a bunch of other vertices might be more easily isolated in TCE because of the flattened projection. So such vertices can be selected in TCE, then manipulated in the main window.

Oh, that sounds logical. Thanks for the answer.
I will start again from the beginning so I could see if I have messed up with one of the previous steps and will try again.
Thanks again.