Detach Skin (Smooth Bind) and History

[stebbing]

I've got a character that is bound with a smooth bind. The documentation lends me to believe that I can detach the skin with the Keep History option enabled and that this will preserve the skinCluster node. This does not seem to work.

I've tried it with a rigid bind and this seems to keep the history.
I've tried it with a smooth bind and no history of the bind seems to be preserved. Are the 3.0 docs wrong? Is the preservation of the history's skin cluster node only supported with the rigid bind and not with a smooth bind when you detach the skin?

[stebbing]

Here is an update: Under Maya 3.0 or 3.01 this feature of keeping the history when detaching the smooth skin is broken. Under Maya 4.0 it works as documented--which is to preserve the skinCluster node. Cool !!!

In reply to:
I've got a character that is bound with a smooth bind. The documentation lends me to believe that I can detach the skin with the Keep History option enabled and that this will preserve the skinCluster node. This does not seem to work.

I've tried it with a rigid bind and this seems to keep the history.
I've tried it with a smooth bind and no history of the bind seems to be preserved. Are the 3.0 docs wrong? Is the preservation of the history's skin cluster node only supported with the rigid bind and not with a smooth bind when you detach the skin?

[tom-lippitsch]

Is there a known workaround for this bug for Maya 3.01 users? It is quite annoying having to set the skinning weights again each time one needs to detach the skin.

Thanks in advance for any tips ...