I'm trying my hand at making my own weapons. Instead of making them in ZED, I'm using another modeling program and then importing the models (through Milkshape) into ZED to align them correctly. I'm using this tutorial to guide me through the process, but I'm stuck on a few fronts. First, how do I convert an imported .3do to a thing (to replace the walkplayer, as the tutorial says)? Second, when I try to go to the 3D preview, I get the following error message: "Warning: Cannot load for sector 0 surface 0". Can anyone help me, please?

you need to read the other weapon tutorials to figure out how to load get your guns working. a thing is a 3do, in an abstract sense, but you need to set up templates for jedi knight to load the new files.

the second issue is easy, you need to save your 3do that you've imported in a project folder all by itself with all the resources needed (also in proper folders; such as 3do\, mat\, 3do\mat\, etc.) you are probably getting that error when you open the 3d preview because you haven't set up your directories properly so that ZED can find and load your custom resources.

you also could've exported the file improperly, but start by nailing down all your basic troubleshooting issues first, and then expand to your 3do.

"how do I convert an imported .3do to a thing"
"a thing is a 3do, in an abstract sense"

To clarify: A thing is not a 3do. A thing can be represented visually by a 3do, but a thing can also be represented by a sprite or by particles. A thing is created with much more than its visual representation; it can have physics flags, movement frames (for animation), collide type (none, spherical, or based on 3do surfaces), etc. These are set up in what is called its template.

General method to replace the walkplayer 3do: Open a level in ZED. Open the template creator, select the walkplayer template, click on the 3do, select your new 3do. Then, save the level and try it out.

Thanks, Zed. Trying it now.

EDIT: Two things: 1. I can't change the sector of the weapon to 80000000. Also, when I go into the preview, all I get is a cube covered on the inside with dflt.map. Where is my weapon, and how do I texture it now? The tutorial doesn't cover that. Sorry about all the stupid questions, but I'm not familiar with ZED.

you change the flags to that, not the sector.