Hi. 3 questions: What settings and such do I use to export .dae files from 3ds Max 2012 for import into PCS 2? I've been following http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=63643.0 as a guide so far, but the ColladaMax OSS plugin is out of date, and the newest version does not work with Max 2012. There is a Collada exporter built into Max, but I'm not sure what settings to use, and when I try to export, it states that nulls are not supported in the Collada format (I'm using helper dummies to position weapon points, like it says to do in the guide). When I tried to import that into PCS 2, the models do not show up, even though it states the number of faces and everything the subobjects have.
The built-in exporter can't do the job; I'm afraid you'll need to first export to another app (for example, an earlier version of Max) and then export to .dae from there.
I don't know if there's a workaround, but I didn't find one myself. Of course, weapon points, thrusters and such don't need to be dummies, so you could try doing them as boxes or spheres. I use spheres myself for everything that can have a radius, since then I can setup the radii in Max without having to do it in PCS2 (however, it requires you to take note of the scaling thing explained below).
Also, when I reset Xforms, should I collapse the xform modifier that appears?
Well, I always do. It needs to be collapsed at some point, and the exporter probably does it if you don't, but I see no reason not to, as you can't revert the reset by deleting the modifier anyway.
Finally, to save time, I cloned nulls and resized them when doing thrusterpoints. But after reset xforms, they reverted to their original size. How do I preserve their sizes after a reset xform?
Actually, you don't need to reset XForm on subsystem/thruster dummies: when imported to PCS2, an unscaled dummy will result in you getting an orb with a radius of 1m, and a dummy scaled 200% will get you 2m, and so on. AFAIK the physical size of the dummy doesn't matter, only the scaling factor.
So, if you want to setup a thruster/subsystem orb radius in Max, all you need to do is create a sphere with a radius of 1m and then scale that up or down until it's the size you want. If you don't reset its XForm, it should show up in PCS2 having the exact same size. Unless I forgot something, that is.