(Sorry to threadjack a little but it's on topic)

First, thanks Joe...I'd been hunting the net for a week looking for this exact information!

Now my problem.  I'm trying to create a simple figure in the method you describe above, just a metal snake 5 segments long with simple ball joint bends at the joints.  It's just 5 cylinder segments, each the child of the one before it (like you would expect a snake to look). 

Everything works as you describe, through the hierarchy editor, create new figure, edit joint centers, etc.  Then when I save the final figure and try to reload it, only the 2 end segments are visible.  The center 3 parts are invisible.  They show up as body parts, and manipulating them moves the end segment I can see that is their "child" as if they're still there, but they're nowhere to be seen.  I don't have any overlapping geometries and everything is checked "visible" in their properties.

Any idea what's going on?  Thanks in advance.