heyas; yes, i use 3d explorer to check the normals. 'cuz it loads a heck of a lot faster than poser! :) the uvmapper thing to fix black polys is... um... er... well, hit the help thing, and look under hot keys and find 'fix deranged polygons' or whatever it is, and hit that button. i don't think there is a way to predict if the program is going to read/write your vertices clockwise or counter-clockwise when you detatch the pieces. it depends on what order you drew them in, and what order you cut them in. if you can keep track of all that... you need a life. ;) don't check each part, check the whole obj, once it's done, but before you do the phi conversion or whatever it is you're going to do with it.