Right, I'm no Max expert, but I do know how to solve your problem!
Create your cylinder, make sure it's got plenty of height segments, and place it in your scene. Set up a series of bones inside the cylinder, adding any IK modifiers that you need. Now, select your mesh
on it's own, and apply the skin modifier to it. In the rollout box, there should be a small window and underneath it should be a button labelled "Add Bone"; click the button and add all the needed bones to the cylinder. Ta-da! Manipulate the bones and your cylinder should move with them!
If not, you might need to adjust the envelope of the bones. Naturally this is done by clicking on the "Edit Envelopes" button and then changing the envelope of each bone so it encompasses at least part of the cylinder. I think the default radius for the envelope is about 13.5, so if your cylinders radius is less than this, you won't need to make any changes.
Does this help alieviate two years of 3D Stress Max?
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