I know I read this somewhere that this can be done, but cannot remember where, so I will ask the question with an example. In Vue d'Esprit, you can hide objects to change the appearance of a scene or objects that you don't want active when rendering. Saves rendering time, especially for those quick preview renders. How does one do this in Poser 5? I've searched high and low but can't find a button, dial or text menu that seems to apply. If it's in the book, it's not in an obvious place. Help is appreciated.

i dont know about P5, but in P4 u can go to the properties of an object (double click it) and u will be able un-check a little "visible" box to make the part invisible. if that helps any.

Well shoot......sure enough. You can't double click but P5 has a popup box for each figure/part of a figure selected. Each of those little boxes has a properties tab with a "visible" and "visible in raytracing" box, both of which are checked. When you "uncheck" the "visible" one, the item disappears and I would guess "unchecking" the other causes it not be be rendered. Thanks for mentioning the "properties"....that turned on the old "light bulb" :)

Or you can open the Hierechy editor (from the window menu). Click on the eye that is next to the part you want to make invisible. Much quicker this way if you have a lot of props/parts to hide. Compiler

Not only is the Hierarchy Editor quicker, but I've found in P4 that things made invisible under Object Properties are often impossible to make visible again---they remain grayed out and cannot be reselected, even if you go into the HE. So my project of the month is retraining myself to do invisibility through the HE every time ;)

heyas; to make an entire figure visible at one fell swoop... go to the figure menu, and do 'hide figure' or hit ctrl-h. note: you cannot hide the last/only figure in a scene. does anybody remember in p4/ppp if invisible objects render? i think in p5, there's a separate switch for visible and rendering. oh, also, if you place figures and props and get them just right, and don't want to accidentally click and move them, you can lock them. for props and body parts use object: lock actor. for figures, use figure: lock figure. once you conform and tweak a conforming clothing figure, it helps if you lock it, so you don't accidentally drag it off when you mean to pose the figure. it also helps if you hide the conforming clothing, so when you go to grab the figure's body part, you're not accidentally grabbing all the conforming figures' body parts instead.

Yes bloodsong, there is a seperate switch.....it's on the properties tab where you can uncheck "visible in raytracing" if you don't want it to render and uncheck "visible" if you want to hide an object or part of it. Good tips on "locking"......it's something I invariably forget to do....and am constantly pulling things apart as a result :)

heyas; actually, now that my mind unfogs, the 'visible in ray tracing' doesn't make the item render or not. THAT particular switch makes the object visible in ray-traced reflections or not. er, i think. :)

Well....you could very well be right! Sort of like "not rendering lights" in Vue?? In all honesty, I have not really experimented with it.....just assumed...and you know what they say about "ass-u-ming" :) If you recall if there is a way to prevent rendering of hidden objects, please post.

heyas; okay, hidden/invisible objects don't render. you know, it's like when you turn your figure's feet invisible inside the conforming boots. we knew that. :)

I'm not sure if I'm confused yet or not! :) In any event, I'm glad I've learned how to make stuff invisible.....the rest we'll find out as we go along :)