I'm slowly starting to model the Uziel, other assignments are keeping me busy, joints are my priority right now and I've already run into a problem...
So, a question to those with a bit more Max experience:
Is there a better way to merge/cut different pieces than the Pro-Boolean?
Created this to get a rough idea how to connect the arms, but after using the boolean, I can't convert the pieces into editable polys anymore, so I either have to make a fully detailed part before cutting or I have to poly-model all the joints and connections seperatly 
Anyone got a better idea?
I know what your going through, half the time you use Boolean or Pro-Boolean operations on anything other than a standard primitive it screws the mesh up completely.....
Here's a workaround I came up with by trial and error....
Select the faces that are going to be part of the join (in your example I'd make some more geometry on the cylinder first), so in your example this would be part of the cylinder and part of the sphere, detach these faces from the mesh and isolate these new objects (but don't move them), now do your boolean operation and you've got less mesh to tidy afterwards. Now remove from isolation and Attach this new object to the rest of your mesh and weld the vertices (if you haven't moved the objects then this should work fine).
I know it's not an elegant solution, but it's the best workaround I could think of, hope that helps.
EDIT: and 1 more thing, you should be able to convert anything you can see in Max into an editable poly, so maybe you need a re-install as that sounds like a glitch to me.
