3DS Max skin wrap detaches when file is re-opened

[Anonymous]

I've been working on my final project for college where I have a rigged character with clothing skin wrapped to it. 

I noticed that when I shut the file, even after adding a point cache and saving, when I opened the file again either all or simple sections of the clothing were back in their original static state. 

I decided to work around this by just keeping the file open so that I could get this animation done on time. I managed to animate the whole scene, rendered a 2/8ths of it, then my PC powered down. When I started it up and loaded the file - all the animation is still there, however, the skin wrap on the character's shirt has stopped affecting half of the vertices. 

I was able to save the animation and import an older version of the character/clothing, however, when I load the animation on to the character - it doesn't seem to be loading everything I've saved. It just leaves out some of the key frames or ignores certain aspects of the rig.

I don't have the time to re-do the animation so I'm really looking for any kind of fix for the skin wrap issue. 
As I said at the start of this post - this is a college project, and being a student, I don't know everything that others may consider common knowledge about max. 

[Anonymous]

Here's the scene file

[Anonymous]

Don`t use Turbosmooth on your driver mesh, or any other topology changing modifier.

This will always break the connection to the Skinwrap mesh.

Try to convert the Skinwrap to Skin modifier for a quick fix.

[lorddavius]

Hey @Anonymous I made a video that might help you spend more time animating and less time frustrated troubleshooting your file.

Basically, when using SkinWrap you'll need 2 meshes - one is the driver and one is the renderable. The driver will just drive the skinwrapped meshes and the renderable will be the one that will appear on the final render.

But you also have some problems on your base mesh as well. Take a look at the video and how to solve them.

Cheers!