hi
i have seen the babydoll dress by dr.pxl.i read the tutorial on how to do it
i used the hulagirl thing and all and made used swimwear as base without modification-and then i took a bottom skirt and imported in milkshape and renamed and all-
i clicked import in simpe-added it-a new window popped it already had chosen opaque(normal)
ither option was shadow and other was transparency
i took opaque now in bdshop
the mesh appears fine-as i expected but when i go to the alpha of 2nd group-
if i set the alpha to white the skirt appears-i set it to black it disappear but when i set it to light or dark grey-it never turns invisible-please help-

See if this helps.

ok
thing is
for first apha
i used swimwear
for 2nd alpha i used afbodydresslongloose
i deleted the top part and shoes from 2nd alpha
and did what it says in ur otherposit for transparency
now the mesh in body shop
base is fne as swimwear-the 2nd group appears transparent too-
but the transparent part lies on the ground away from body
help

It sounds like you tried exporting or importing something with the "order" set wrong in SimPE - when using MilkShape, always keep it set to "XZY"

I would actually advice against trying to use the method I posted about - it was done a long time ago using older versions of all the tools and is obsolete now - the second mesh group will only have single vertex assignments and will never really move right. You also can't do much editing to the main body group since you are limited to the MeshTool method for it.

Use the UniMesh plugins instead so you can properly assign the vertices.

It's a bit tricky now because you can't import a second group with assignments due to the "regroup" bug in MilkShape, but even so it would be less complicated and error-prone.

i didnt really get ur point-
the order was xzy already
the mesh appeared fine first-but after i redird and added transparency-it was on ground then
i did severeeal redos from beginning but it was same

This is why I say to not use that obsolete method - there are too many ways to make a mistake.

Here is how I would do it now - do NOT use any of the "export" or "import" methods in SimPE, always right-click on the GMDC file and "extract"

1} Make new mesh .package, using Hula Girl mesh, in the usual way.

2} Right click - Extract hula-girl GMDC

3} Find and right-click Extract the main body mesh you want to use - I used the basic "swimsuit" mesh. No need to make up a whole .package, we only want the GMDC file.

4} If you are going to use another Maxis mesh to get the "alpha" part from, also find and right-click-Extract it's GMDC.

Be sure you give each a recognizable name when you extract, you'll never tell waht they are by those numbers SimPE wants to put on them.

===============================

OK, now in MilkShape, first use UniMesh to import the Hula Girl GMDC.

Make a note of all the group names, and all the group comments.

Now delete this whole thing.

Next, only if you are going to use part of a Maxis mesh for the alpha, import it with UniMesh. Rename it's groups the same as the "alpha" groups and morph was named in the Hula-Girl mesh. Export this as a wavefront .obj

Now delete this all, and use UniMesh to import the main body mesh GMDC.

Next import the .obj file you just saved - or if you are creating the "alpha" part from scratch make it as a new group named like the alpha group in the hula-girl mesh. You will also need to duplicate this group to make the morph group for the alpha part.

Next, replace all the comments just as they were in the Hula Girl mesh.

Finally, you are ready to edit.

When you are finished editing, you must make all the vertex assignments to the alpha group since it will have none. The morph groups don't need any assignments.

In any case, your mesh should now work (assuming you edited everything right)

Export it with Unimesh, and use right-click-replace to put it back in your mesh .package for testing.

When you look in BodyShop, the alpha part will look all messed up of course since it probably won't correspond to the original alpha and textures, but once you clone it in BodyShop you can correct this on your new skin and then throw this first one away.

dr.pixel
i did it how u said
the mesh appeared like everyttime
it appeared fine
i adjusted alpha -but the problem is still the same
if turn alpha of secodn group black-it disappear
if i turn white it appears
but when grey
in thumbnail it looks transparent
but the in real nothing happens
i cant still get it transparent

You don't have your MATD set correctly for that second part. You want to set it to alpha blend. This was in the thread that PAF sent you to.... here from PAF:

As far as making transparent parts you have to make a couple of changes in the MATD for that part.
First stdMatAlphaBlendMode:blend second stdMatAlphaTestEnabled:0.

well
there were actually 2 materil defination in the file of my mesh which was in savedsims
i edited both matd
in first one i edited both u said
in second one there was only one that used bllen and i edited but no luk

There are two MATDs one is for body the other is for body the other is body_alpha.Change the body_alpha MATD.I don't know what happens if you change the other one I'll have to try that when I get some time and see what it does.

That should work.If not download this and open with SimPE and see how mine looks.

I just sucessfully made my first alphable clothing. But I didn't start off with a single group body, instead I used the nightie and worked 4 hours round and finally got it working.

But things would be much easier when Milkshape V 1.8 comes out as the regrouping bug has been fixed.

so charlie-can ur nighties be turned transparent also by changing alpha?

From my experience with additonal group TXMTs...
At first, the type of material for additional group should be SimStandardMaterial, not SimSkin, otherwise transparent parts of your texture would be combined with the skintone texture. This property is on the Content/cMaterialDefinition subtab.
At second, stdMatAlphaTestEnabled property should be set to 1, not to 0 as was told there earlier. If stdMatAlphaTestEnabled=0, even the areas with black alpha are not transparent on skin (however, they're kind of transparent in skin thumbnail - look really weird %)).
These 2 changes and TXTR with DXT3 or DXT5 format and good alpha channel are enough to get transparency.
At third, I noticed no difference in stdMatAlphaBlendMode=blend and stdMatAlphaBlendMode=none if related parameters (stdMatDiffCoef, stdMatUntexturedDiffAlpha) are not changed. So try change them too (there's great thread about TXMTs on this forum with tons of valuable info) if you want the real blend mode.

Another thing to try is to re-start your computer before testing in BodyShop.

Either Windows or BodyShop (or both) seem to keep a cache of files somewhere and I have had some odd things happen in BodyShop when trying my meshes that magically fixes itself if I re-start my computer.

Also, even if your mesh seems to not be showing the transparency correctly, try exporting it as a new project anyway - I have had it happen that as soon as I export the new project, the transparency suddenly starts working...

Aha - if new group is added by me, I also link to mesh in temporary package, and then clone & recolor it - although the materials are linked correctly and different textures imported, BodyShop sometimes applies the same material (original) to both subsets in the temporary project. I suppose that it happens when 'Directory of Compressed Files (CLST)' resource includes reference to material definition.

in the second matd
there is no stdMatAlphaTestEnabled

Never seen such TXMT yet 8-/ What name the mesh has? Just cloned teen hula skirt - property is there.
Anyway, you can try to add it by yourself - but you'll need to sort TXMT properties after adding one.

thank for all advice-but now i really feel dumb and ashamed-so i will start from beggining again-

hey
it shows fine now
i redid all
thanksyou all