I started coding for XNA a couple of weekends ago and all was going well. Found XSI Mod tool for 3D models and started playing around with that. I was loading up various models through the supplied XNA Viewer util, all was well. Then last weekend I started learning about projections, worlds and views. At first I was using a vertex shader which took me a while to figure out the actual dimensions and axies of the viewing fulstrum. Once I had that going I decided to load up XSI Mod tool to make a model of a simple hammer for loading into my tinkering app. After solving numerous technical problems I finally realised that the model I was using seemed to have no skin.
The XNA publish feature broke, for no particular reason, so I simply copied the files from the export directory. This didn't seem to work. I loaded up the XNA viewer, that comes with the mod tool, and it also did not display the model.
Re-installing the app didn't seem to fix it.
I am assuming that the XSI model is self contained.
Hopefull this isn't a DEAD end.