Converting Problem
 

I've had this problem before with a previous project but never got the bottom of it and ended up just giving up. I've started making a character made from various pieces of geometry which I've merged together using the vertices. Now it's basic fleshed out form and all joined together I wanted to convert it from a polygon to a SubDiv to add more detail. The problem is it won't convert. I've tried messing around with the maximum base mesh faces, maximum base edges per vertex options but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm guessing this problem could be caused by some dodgy geometry when I was joining it togehter but it looks fine.
Any ideas of what the problem could be or advise on how to go about fixing this problem.

Cheers

look in the script editor and it should give you an idea of the problem, it could be as simple as not having the max count limit too small and if so it will tell you what number to set it at.
Also you could try the cleanup option which can find non manifold geo ect.

Script Editor
 

Sorry to bother you again can you give me some directions on the Script editor as I have no experience using that part of the program

ok you can open the script editor by clicking on the square box at the bottom right of the UI (the one with 3 lines and the top area filled in in black)
If you click on convert polygon to subd and look in the editor it should give you some info.

Result
 

Cheers jsprogg,

The script editor said I had some problem with nonmanifold geometry I didn't have a clue what that meant so I had a search around and found a YouTube video that gave examples. I'll include the link below so if anyone else out there is a noob like me they'll be pointed in the right direction. Using the clean up editor with the nonmanifold option checked helped me find where this error was occurring although it didn't fix the problem. It seemed the problem was where the cuffs joined the hands and arm. With a little bit of re-thinking I remodeled that area and everything is now fine.

Cheers again mate

Nonmanifold geometry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa75X4QhIcQ