yeah and can be any part in sl

and if a mesh object specifies "hip" or something, and you manually attach it to foot, what happens?

Nothing, rigged mesh will attach the same regardless of the attachment point.

a clothing item shouldnt specify a part? since it'll just go where its meant to

can you rig to the hud attach points?

many many items that are rigged no matter what, hair, shoes, pants etc have the right hand attachment spot.. it goes where it needs to be no matter where you attach it

ok so is it correct to say that rigging attaches points of the item to SL bones, regardless of SL attach points? yeah?

correct

Yes, rigging an item to be influenced by the bones of the sl skeleton is a separate thing from the sl attach points and it will keep the same influences regardless of where you attach it (no idea about hud points)

if i upload a shirt, the default attachment when you add to an avatar will be a hand. you can choose your own so that it wont take off the hand/rings/whatever else the person might be wearing, but no attachment point will actually effect the item- it will go where its meant to no matter what

i generally pick a left pec or something that people are unlikely to have something attached to, so that adding my item wont' take off anything else they're wearing, so that might be why you see all sorts of attachment points, but thats just out of courtesy to the customer. it doesnt actually impact the mesh location

ok then the answer has got to be "no" about rigging to the hud, because those are attach points, not bones. Woot!

I swear, this SL thing would fall apart without smart women.