Exporting armor for Skyrim, appears stretched/exploded in game

[lb10111]

I've been trying to figure this out for the last few days and I am out of ideas. Basically I am trying to create a piece of clothing in 3ds Max, and it appears fine in nifskope and the Skyrim CK, but in game I see what's in the screenshot below. I am using 3DS Max 2015 and the niftools plugin here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/5622/?

 

The workflow I am using is as follows:

 

- Import the female body in to max with the \character assets female\female_skeleton.nif skeleton

- Model the clothing as editable poly then collapse to editable mesh

- Unwrap the mesh and collapse the Unwrap UVW modifier

- Add skin wrap modifier, using the body as source and face deformation and weight all points

- Convert skin wrap to skin and delete skin wrap

- Add BSDismember modifier and select all faces

- Select my mesh, the body mesh, and the entire skeleton and export to nif

- The import and export settings I use are the same as in every Skyrim tutorial I have seen

 

Obviously there is an issue with the weights or the skeleton, but I don't know how to find out. I would greatly appreciate any assistance with this!

 

 

[lb10111]

Here's another screenshot of the body exported with my mesh. Another thing I noticed that never happened when I used to do this a few years ago, is that when I try to export my mesh from max I get "Failed to find suitable root node" error. So I have to select my mesh, the body mesh, and the whole skeleton in order to export. It used to be that I didn't have to select the skeleton. Perhaps I'm using the wrong version of niftools. Which is the best version for 3DS Max 2012 or 2015?

 

Also, if I start a new scene in max, import the body and the skeleton, and then import my mesh it appears all stretched just like it does in the screenshot. I'm thinking the problem must be with the plugin or the weights somehow getting messed up.

 

[lb10111]

So I reinstalled Skyrim and it seems to have fixed that, but now there's a new problem. The hands, feet, and head do not align with the body. And the body looks all glossy:

 

 

 

Any ideas what's causing this?

 

I can use the mod slots for the BSDismember and it looks just fine in game, but I want to eventually make full body armor.