Milkshape = no surfaces?

I exported a model of a cube as a test from Milkshape, and wanted to draw a red rectangle around it (in the usual way with GetSurface > vertices), but Blitz reports no surfaces!

There appears to be no way around this - no surfaces, no vertex info.

Anyone seen this before, or have a way around it?

I can only think that the exported mesh has a root node and your actual mesh is a child of it.

I just checked (I use) -

cc = CountChildren(pictentity)
For i=1 To cc
ww=GetChild(pictentity,i)
If EntityClass$(ww)="Mesh"
cs = CountSurfaces(ww)
etc...

"Mesh" is returned ok.
Then cs returns zero.
Good, eh? Not!

Any ideas?

Hmm, import mesh into Decorator (available from Blitzcoder) export mesh again and then use that. I have had this once on a carrier I was working on and I had to do that as it seemed the ship just had a root and nothing else.

Thanks, that would do it.

But I was hoping that the user could load their own choice or model (which they had created - that's the kind of app it is).

This is still possible, but I can't put a 2D rect around it to show that it can be dragged. That's all I'm trying to do.

I had the same trouble with a targetting reticle in Fury Squadron. That was the way I got round it :)

Milkshape has a bug in exporting. It doesn't export entity names, or children names. I don't know if that would affect it? What i ended up doing was taking my model into Ultimate Unwrap, and adding in the names these.

Thanks, Ross.
But as I said I was hoping that the user could load their own choice or model (which they had created - that's the kind of app it is).

Ah, well, at least I know it's not me, and I can give a warning, or pass on your advice.

Again, thanks to all for your comments.