Listening in the Avastar User Group tonight I found out there is a problem with both Blender and the SL Viewer when working with Collision Bone exports.

The viewer does not preview the weighted mesh you are uploading correctly. That means you will have to upload the mesh item and try it on to see whether it is working or not. This seems to be a problem in the SL Viewer code and apparently is reported as happening in Singularity too. I expect we’ll hear of the problem in other third party viewers too. 

I suggest uploading to ADITI (preview grid) until you are sure things are correct.

In Blender the ‘Blender Collada Export’ is failing to correctly export rigged items that weight to the collision bones. That means you cannot export Fitted Mesh for SL using Blender.

The Avastar add-on has its own Collada Export. That export is working. So, fitted mesh can be exported from Blender using Avastar.

Gaia Clary is working on getting a fix into the main Blender release. Once that is added, Blender with or without Avastar should be able to export Fitted Mesh.

It seems the Blender Collada Export strips out non-m-bones. The previous work we did with mesh clothes always rigged to the m-bones (e.g.; mPelvis etc.). That is no longer true. So, Blender will have to be updated.

I expect a JIRA to get filed to fix the viewer problems. A Blender issue will get filed. Eventually this will all get fixed. But, for now it is a drag.

If anyone has found the problem and a work-around other than ‘use Avastar’, contact Gaia Clary. She’ll likely publish the work-around on her blog. Also, if you let me know I’ll see that it gets published here. Thanks.