Using Blender 2.79 for meshing/UV mapping, GIMP for creating the .png textures, and SimPE .72 for the rest.

I need clarification on how to set up a mesh for more than one group and one subset. I did the JWoods meshing tutorial and successfully created a table with only one group and no recolors. That went fine, I have a crude but perfectly functional table in my game. However, I ran into problems when I tried to continue on by following IgnorantBliss's tutorial for adding subsets to an existing mesh. I wanted to make the table's tabletop a subset.

I don't have Milkshape or UV Mapper. I used only Blender for both the meshing and the UV mapping so I couldn't follow exactly the steps in JWoods's tutorial where I had to split a mesh into two groups to import into UV Mapper, UV map it, and then import the pieces back to be rejoined into one group. I just created one table mesh and UV mapped it entirely in Blender, then exported the .obj.

So when trying to follow IgnorantBliss's tutorial for adding a subset to an existing mesh, I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to have done. Do I need to split the mesh into two groups in Blender and export each group as a separate .obj with its own UV mapping? Do I need to UV map the mesh, then split and export?

This is what I actually did:
1) In Blender, I split off the top of the table and exported it as a separate .obj to be the new subset.

2) In SimPE, I imported the tabletop as a new group into the existing GMDC. SimPE imported it as "tabletop_mesh" even though the .obj was named only tabletop.obj, and SimPE provided no opportunity for me to change "tabletop_mesh" to simply "tabletop".

That's as far as I've gotten since I understand that you're not supposed to have underscores in the names of your GMDC's groups (or other resources, like TXMT, etc.) and maybe I would be better off starting over.

So before starting over, I'd like to have a better idea of how I should have set up and exported the table's mesh. Thanks!

UVmapping - you've got two options:
- Two subsets using the same map/textures (useful if you want the option of the two subsets having different colors from the same set of recolor files - If they can easily share an UVmap and you've made textures for this already, then there's no point in splitting it apart. It's also possible to make a file self-reference the TXTR in the TXMT so it only uses one TXTR. Saves a lot of space and recoloring time).
- Each subset using a different map/texture (useful if a mesh you're converting/making needs two different textures and you don't want to remap them into one texture).


There's not a particular setup - it changes a bit depending on what you're making and which mesh you're basing it on (mesh parts, GMDC resources, etc.)

The most important thing to know is that you need to use the same subset names for the entire object. Rename groups before exporting, especially if you're using Unimesh (GMDC file in 5gd/simpe format).

If you use OBJ files via "import", you don't have to rename in Blender - you can add+rename directly in the OBJ importer (the "Rename" option is the same as "add", but allows you to rename the group before adding it. "Add" just adds the group with the original name). The OBJ format doesn't keep the mesh group order, it usually imports alphabetically, so keep that in mind when working with transparency and such). You can also rename subsets in one of the GMDC tabs if you've added it with the wrong name.

The safest thing is to keep away from underscores (only alphanumerical for renaming subsets - trust me on it making things much easier... The - and _ are used for spesific purposes in the subset naming, so best avoid those where they're not supposed to be).

For internal naming of resources, generally only use - as spacers, and only in the first part of the filename, and don't do anything after the []
In the "rename file" box, generally keep to this format:
Put-filename-here-[autotext.name.date.no.touchie] (from here let SimPE do the work)
PutFilenameHere[autotext.name.date.no.touchie] (also fine)
When renaming a subset, keep the - or _ after the filename
Put-filename-here-[autotext.name.date.no.touchie]_SubsetNameHere_TXMT....
Put-filename-here-[autotext.name.date.no.touchie]-SubsetNameHere_TXTR....
(I'm sure there are variable opinions of what people like to keep in the internal filenames, but I've found this works fine for me, and haven't had any trouble doing it like this - I've come across files where the main issue was internal file naming, though)

(I find it's useful to keep the autotext, because it keeps the time/date of when I made the file - kinda useful after a ton of edits and I for some reason need to know when I made something)