Secondary shapes woes

[Sergio Mucino]

Hopefully, this will be a simple question. We've got a hand model in one of our shots who's shape has changed a bit. We have a new model for the new shape that was modified to a very specific shape at a specific frame. The problem is that the old model is point cached in the shot. I thought I would just be able to set Softimage to Secondary Shape Construnction Mode, and select the new mesh as a shape key, so that it'd blend with the old mesh. However, for some reason, whenever I do that, Softimage switches back itself to Animation Construction Mode, places the Shape Combiner there, and won't let us move it. I'm guessing it has something to do with the Point Cache (must it be below?), but not sure why. Anyone got any pointers into how to get this to work? The other alternative of course would be for me to figure out an ICE tree that would calculate the deltas between the old point positions and the new ones, and add those to the OLD hand so I get the movement in the point cache in the OLD hand, but with the shape of the NEW one, but it's gonna take me a little while to figure out this tree right, and we're kinda burning the food here (pardon the pun). If anyone has any pointers into how to fix this, I'm all ears. In the meantime, I'll keep working on it with the guy struggling with the shot. Thanks! --