'but I have no idea what the lampFlaps and lampBase do' I can explain that one, les. LampFlaps and lampBase are materials. Normally, they're never seen, but if you parent a light to a figure and save it, you'll see that those 2 materials have been added to the list. That explains what they ARE. As for what they DO, I'm not certain, but I think that, because lights use the EDGE ONLY display mode, they require materials in order to display at all. But thats only an educated guess. mac