Once you're done unwrapping your model, go to the tex tools menu and select 'tools', and then select "Smoothing groups from UV shells". This will automatically assign smoothing groups according to how your UVs are split up.
it would be easy to script, if autodesk hadnt forgotten to publish the "get suboject selections" functions to maxscript. Via c++ you can access which vertices are selected, but in maxscript they forgot... one could publish that function with a plugin so.
Xoliul: span takes you 2 edges and fills in the selection between them. its a good way of selection partial loops or rings. "Ay yo fiffty, go grab that rocket launcher" Racer: were you at swordfish?
to take it further if you need to use colours half way between the colour channels, you can then select one channel then use ctrl-alt-shift on another to remove that from the selection giving you the middle colour
Select your objects and in the Lighting window select the Object tab. Then in the Advanced Parameters dropdown, choose Create New... You should then have a whole bunch of new options to choose from including baked tag and system tag.
I have an old script that works well for this. With an object selected it will refresh all materials assigned to that object. With nothing selected it'll refresh all materials. I have it assigned to a hotkey. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1889770/alexxUpdateFileTextures.mel
Typically you can work that way (g to extrude again without making a new selection.) Technically the face isn't selected; the polyExtrude node is. Try clicking the circle icon on the outer are of the manipulator. (toggles local/world location)
Ribbon > Object Paint > Paint Objects Add whatever mesh you want to place on something else to the "Edit Object List". Set the "Paint On" to "Selected Objects", then select the object you want to paint on to and click the Paint button.
I would advise against any "Delete All by Type" as that clears the selected attributes on everything in the scene. It may or may not be what you want. To be safe, select the objects you want and do Delete by Type without the All.
Add and Edit Normals modifier> select all normals> Unify(this will bake the normals) If you haven't already got baked normals then you can select all faces> polygon:smoothing group rollout> clear all and set a number