Bones don't work with switch layer?

[reidbird]

I'm trying to manupulate arm / hand with bones. Hand consists of several images in switch layer (inside the bones group). When I add bones and try to manipulate, the arm moves fine but the hand doesn't move at all. If I drag the hand positions out of the switch layer so they're directly in the bones group, everything works fine (except I have several different hands visible at the same time!) I know it's not supposed to work this way, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I could always use visibility on/off for hands, but switch is supposed to work and I gotta figure out why it does not!!

Using ASPro v. 5.6 for Windows.

[Genete]

Bones only can be reached by selecting its nearest bone type (bone or switch) parent layer. So bones of inner out outer skeletons cannot be manipulated at the same time.

[reidbird]

Let me clarify. Model hierarchy is set up as follows:
- Character, bone layer
-- Head, vector layer
-- Body, vector layer
-- Arm, vector layer
-- Hand, switch layer
--- Hand position 1, vector layer
--- Hand position 2, vector layer
--- Hand position etc.
-- Leg, vector layer
-- etc.

When I set up bones in "Character" layer, with a series of bones from the shoulder to the hand, then manipulate the bones, the body, head, arm and leg all move as expected but the hand does not move. It is totally unaffected by the bones. I know this technique can be used because it works in characters I have purchased from e-frontier, but it is not working when I try to model it from scratch. Apparently I have something set up incorrectly but for the life of me I cannot figure out what it is. If I do this:

- Character, bone layer
-- Head, vector layer
-- Body, vector layer
-- Arm, vector layer
-- Hand position 1, vector layer
-- Hand position 2, vector layer
-- Hand position etc.
-- Leg, vector layer
-- etc.

then the hand(s) move with the bones as expected. Any help would be appreciated!

[mkelley]

Do this -- on frame 0 select the Hand Switch layer and, with it active, choose the Bind Layer tool in the Bone tool area. Then click on the bone that you want to bind it to.

That should do the trick.

[reidbird]

Huzzah! That worked! Thank you!

Was that mentioned in the tutorials? I didn't see it. I did, however, find it in the Help | User Interface section. Now that I understand how that works, it makes perfect sense. Thanks again for the lead.

[mkelley]

I don't know if it's in the tutorials anywhere -- might be, but it's been a long time since I've done them.

My rigging is the same, at least when it comes to hands, so I'm very familiar with how this works (typically I have 45 different hands in each switch layer).