Ok my progress thus far:

I've made it through (just watching so far) too many tutorials to count.
I've found out how to "slice"  but its called cut through in Carrara, (not used it yet though well see :/)
I've managed to import V4, cut off her head and toes - AND get her into the modeling room with a cylinder.  As sad as it sounds, these are great feats thus far.

Now to follow this clothing tutorial I must "freeze" her in the modeling room - hopefully so that she cannot be moved, selected or altered in any way.  

Anyone able to walk me through doing this?  Weld is apparently not = to "freeze" as doing that deleted her completely.

Thanks in advance

Nope.  Thanks for the try though.  When I do that with the model selected, I go into the modeling room and I am still able to select points and move, manipulate them - 

It seems to me it has to be possible in this program somehow otherwise it would be very difficult to model clothing in it - if you can't avoid selecting the dressmaker dummy.

by "cutting off the head and toes", do ya mean "slicing" them? or do ya mean just selecting and deleting them?

yeah selecting and deleting - I have to freeze the model before the tutorial gets to the slice part where I actually use it. 

As far as I know there is no way to freeze part of a model so it can't be selected or moved in the vm.
If you are looking to start modeling using objects as reference (vs background pictures) a cheap copy of Hexagon would get you there much faster.
(unless you are on a mac- or laptop - then all bets are off)

wayne k
guam usa

Yes I've heard as much, unfortunately after spending roughly 2k on the programs I do have over the last couple of months, (and that doesn't count the $$ for the new PC to run them) Im going to have to stick with what I have for now and try to make it work. : /

If you open say V4 in the Assembly room and lock,  Convert V4  to a Vertex in the Model room and work on.
Open say a cylinder (vertex), in the Model room ,and work on in the Model room .( using the V4 as the dimension/scaling  base.)

If you go back to the Assembly room you will find V4 and the Cylinder are locked together.

I think maybe that this is the intent of that tute?

Quote - ...I've managed to import V4, cut off her head and toes...

Digital vivisection is one of the great joys of modelling

It isn't exactly what you are after; but you could select the dummy and hide it.
View -> Hide Selection (ctrl )
I'm pretty sure you can't select or manipulate a hidden object in the model room in any way; but you can't see it either. It's easy enough to bring it back.
View -> Reveal Hidden Vertices (ctrl shift )

There's times you need to see the dummy, and it won't help you there.
Once you get the general shape in order; you don't really need to see the dummy all the time, it will help you out there. You can just toggle the dummy in and out of view from time to time to check for pokethrough and fit.

   There really isn't a "Freeze" command that I know of in the vm room but I would do what "dvlenk6" suggested in Hiding the "dressmaker dummy" so it is not visible in the modeling room.  You can make the Scene preview window in the VM room much bigger and if you look at your model in the Scene preview you will see that your dressmaker dummy is still visible but it is not visible in the actual modeling window. The scene preview updates with each mouse click so the feedback while modeling is okay. 
 I uploaded an image .  The vm modeling window only shows the clothing item with the Dog hidden,  while the Scene preview window shows how your complete model looks.  It is not the best modeling workflow but it does work and allows you to select your clothing vertices etc without selecting/moving the hidden polygons.

Mike
 

Brilliant one Mike!

Yes.   Thank you all very much for your replies and suggestions.  I took a day or so off and away from it but I think tomorrow I will get back to work and give it another go = )

Using the preview window is about the only thing that will work. I have asked for a function to lock a polymesh but based on how the current bug report/feature request list is being handled I have little hope of this being considered. Of course the preview window is small, and does not maintain size after re-sizing (if you are in the habit of changing rooms for a better look, say). Oh, and don't get too careless around hidden objects. Sometimes just to be ornery Carrara WILL perform operations on those hidden and presumably impossible to select objects. I have had this happen enough times to where I generally avoid using the hidden function at all. Never happened in Carrara 3, but that's progress for you. Still, the method does work. You can get a pretty good idea of what a shape is doing with peeks in the preview window. Actually, is simplest just to keep the model you are making in a new instance of the VM, and never have the body you are fitting to in the same room at all.