BT,

For the links breaking up, try unchecking the Edge in Degrees option or playing with that slider. That tries to look for large flat areas and treat them like a single polygon. That may be what's going on.

The solid effect on the shader probably is due to the size of the model. If you scale it larger in the Vertex Modeler, you can probably get it so that it works with the shader.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara and LightWave plug-ins