Attaching objects without affecting position/rotation

[flairrick341]

Disclaimer: absolute newbie here, returning to 3dstudio after 30+ years (last time I used it was 3ds 4.0, under msdos...)

I have a scene consisting of two meshes, say - a tree made up of trunk + foliage.
I animate this scene by rotating, deforming moving the meshes across a few frames.

I need to export (ASE) as a single geomobject, so I attach the two meshes.
This is where the two "parts" change position and rotation across the various frames.
My understanding is that this is caused by pivots.

How can I, at the moment I attach the objects, "freeze" vertex positions in each frame as if I was taking static snapshots of the whole animation?
Is it even possible?

Thanks

[Casey_H_]

A quick search revealed this: Solved: Saving a posed (or any deformed) mesh object as separate mesh object - Autodesk Community

[AndreaTJHX7]

it doesn't seem to work for me:

it just creates copies of each object, and they don't even match the deformations / transformations that was applied in each frame.

they are all copies of the meshes as of frame 0.

See attached file