I wanted to edit the .NIF mesh file for meshes/architecture/ships/bloatedfloat01 and basicly break it into two pieces... one that's just the ship's wheel so i can turn it into an activator and throw a script on it, and another that's just the rest of the mesh. can someone help me do this? I've used blender enough that i'm comfortable doing the afforementioned task, i'm just not sure how to open the file.

Search for "blender" at TESNexus for a handful of tutorials geared towards Oblivion modding. The "http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12248" guide here is an excellent first choice. TES Alliance (linked in my sig) also has some excellent modeling classes and tutorials.

ok thanks, i found a program to convert the .nif to .obj so i can import into blender, edit it, export as .obj and convert back to .nif.

except when i load the file into the CS it's rediculously tiny and i couldn't find anywhere that listed the scale settings i'd need to use in blender to make it the right object scale in oblivion.

You do not need to convert it to .obj Blender can import .nif files directly if you have the Nif plug in installed ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/niftools/files/blender_nif_scripts/2.5.x/2.5.07/ ). then you just import the NIf directly into Blender. I don't use Blender but I believe it is the same as 3ds Max.

Just in case here is a copy of them completed for you ( I also remade the havok to remove the ships wheel collision from the ship as well in case you wanted to place it elsewhere) there are 2 Nifs 1 of the ship piece with the wheel removed and the collision remade and the second of just the wheel with collision made for it so it can be used as an activator (tested both in game to ensure they were working and they seem fine. http://www.4shared.com/file/4H6Ep6tB/Ship_and_wheel.html --- let me know if you have any problems with them.

the ship's wheel is good, but i think when u removed it from from the other .nif you accidently removed a section along the bow of the hull just below the railing.

OOPs -- I'll take another look at it this afternoon and resend to you.

thanks. i can still use it as a placeholder for now, but at least i have the wheel so i can throw my script on it. I'll be sure to mention u in my credits once you get the hull section corrected. admittedly i've only used blender before for creator content on imvu, and that's a lot simpler than what's needed for oblivion. don't need to use shaders or have to worry about colision or any of that more advanced stuff.

Actually had time to check and http://www.4shared.com/file/mVGV3eyf/shipnowheelFixed.html --- That piece was attached as an element to part of the wheel and I didn't notice it was selected when selecting that part to delete and deleted entire element instead of just the wheel portion -- Easy to fix but can't believe I missed it ! (Let me know if there is anything else !!)

much better, thanks so much

The question is what version of Blender you have...
because currently only 2.49b can import/export nifs with proper version of NifScripts installed...

i'm using version 2.45 because the later versions no longer have the built in cal3d exporter i use for imvu. that's why i was trying to convert to another file type before importing into blender.

actually JD, if you're interested in working together, i've got quite a few things i'd like to do... mostly pertaining to ships, pirates, etc... Sadly oblivion doesn't have anywhere near near the variety of meshes that morrowind has. better textures, but less variety. it'd probably mostly be combining parts of different meshes or breaking existing ones apart into smaller sections. Though i could use a good cannon model. sailors casting fireball at each other just doesn't have the same effect as a cannon going off.... heck even an enchanted cannon that shoots fireballs would be cool, but what's a pirate ship without a cannon? and on that note i'm thinking about adding firearms to the game as well like a pistol and musket as a marksman or maybe staff weapon type.