Editing meshes...

What you might want look for is programs that use the .3ds format, there are some free ones available and some that are very reasonably priced. You can then use the CONV3DS.EXE programs that comes with the DirectX SDK to convert these files to .X.

The programs that Microsoft writes converters for are quite expensive ($3000 or more). You can pick up educational versions for a lot less, but they''re still expensive ($1000+) and there''s a stipulation in the license agreement that you can''t use them for anything that makes money.

There are a couple of really inexpensive modellers that work well for mesh creation/editing. Milkshape3D is only $20, and Hash''s Animation:Master is only $200.

Click here. I have a tut on creating good models in under 20 dollars. Check it out, I need some hits on my new website. By the way, I''m not the greatest writer in the world