Right, so I've just got a model in max right out of Roadkill, for some reason the model is scalled down (this happens everynow and then in Roadkill, not the issue in this case). So, instead of trying to arbitrarily match the scale of the imported model in order to bake, I'm trying to copy/paste its UV's on to the model I used to export to Roadkill.

Thing is, even though the models are the same in vertex and tri counts, and only the scale is different max refuses to load the saved UV's from one model to the other one. I tried scalling them approx the same, I tried resetting the xform, a lot of stuff, but nothing seems to work. Thing is, I really can't ever remember saving/loading UV's to work in any version of 3Ds Max.

Anyone got any input on this? Should I keep trying and hoping in future similar instances or just give up on this "feature" of max?

The model exported out of roadkill may have different vertex IDs than the one in Max. I'm not sure how it works, but it's entirely possible it edits them somehow.

Which means that copy/paste won't work as doing that relies on the vertex IDs being identical.

Save/load or copy/paste UVs relies upon the vertex order being identical from mesh to mesh.

Originally Posted by t4paN

Right, so I've just got a model in max right out of Roadkill, for some reason the model is scalled down (this happens everynow and then in Roadkill, not the issue in this case). So, instead of trying to arbitrarily match the scale of the imported model in order to bake,

just use internal units - anything else is 'fucking with your mind'. Internal units or generic units is what booth applications really work with.

I'm trying to copy/paste its UV's on to the model I used to export to Roadkill.

tricky stuff, since the vert array is most likely different like Talon mentioned - just rough same vertex positions won't do the trick the usual way.
But there is trick- someone wrote this maxscript:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/mapthief
that projects verts from 1 mesh to another (trying to find match/ pair of verts with the same world positions) and then try to apply it to the UVmap - so basically what you describe as copy UV's from one mesh to another
The only other projection stuff I know max has are RTT/offset modifier and some animation one (dont know the name anymore- to project vertex motions to a different but similar model).

The model exported out of roadkill may have different vertex IDs than the one in Max. I'm not sure how it works, but it's entirely possible it edits them somehow.

yeah like max thinking that arrays start with the integer 1 instead of 0 - so its all shifted +1, but perhaps like you said maybe even a total different order at all.

If its the vert table that's fubar, and it sounds like it is. You can try using Morphix which reorders the verts of one identical mesh to match the other. Then load UV's might work...

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/morphix

Thanks for the replies guise, I'll try both morphix and the mapthief script in the future. This time I did go with scalling though. It took some 15-odd minutes to get properly I'd reckon but in the end it worked.