Swapping bound geometry with unbound geometry

User Guide > Rigging > Character Setup > Skinning > Smooth skinning > Editing smooth skin >

You can switch an unbound piece of geometry with your character’s bound geometry and transfer all your smooth skin’s weights to it with the Substitute Geometry menu item.

Substitute Geometry lets the various stakeholders in your production pipeline (like modelers, technical directors, and animators) work on the same character at the same time without having to redo the character’s skin weights multiple times.

NoteWhen the piece of unbound geometry you want to swap is the duplicate of a skin (bound geometry), then Substitute Geometry will only produce valid results if the skin’s skeleton was at its bind pose when it was duplicated.

Limitations

Does not allow you to swap pieces of bound geometry.
Does not support modeling operations after the skin in the bound geometry’s history. All modeling nodes between the skin and the bound geometry’s shape node must be removed before substituting geometry.
Does not support subdivision surfaces.
Does not work with surfaces that have blend shapes.
Vertices on the new skin that are some distance from the original piece of bound geometry may not map well and may require re-weighting. You can improve your weighting results by using the Re-weighting Distance Tolerance perimeter in the Substitute Geometry Options window.