Hi Headhunter, " with splitting materials in the child of a mesh object?"...I am not too sure if I understand you correctly but if you mean, giving a child which is a mesh object a different material from the parent (main), the answer is yes and no Vue hipcups here. I have tested this only with models from Zygote and Poser. " but if it's a child in a group it freezes up."...errr....I am a bit lost here, do you mean that grouping serveral child together? Just to be sure we are on the right frequency and I try further...by "child" you mean other part that is an object mesh itself that is link to form the model. Example whiskers, tail...etc..are child to the Lion figure body....right? May be it is best that you provide in detail step form what you are doing or send me the same file you working on so that I can simulate the same senario and see what happened. Bill