Here I go again... To sum up progress to date, I can now get the materials in the order I want them in all my props, by inserting a usemtl list at the beginning of the obj file. Like... usemtl window usemtl glass etc. What I can't crack is the cr2. I've tried the usemtl list, and it don't work, despite rbtwhz asuring me that he can do it. Dunno how. It sort of works for me, in that it changes the order, but never to what I wanted. So what I did was, made up a blank obj in uv mapper with 21 materials (it was just a panel split into 21 segments), assigned the materials in uvm and copied and pasted that list as the 1st g group into my cr2 obj. So, that works, but.... ONLY if you add the actor, body part and 'add child' statement. So now I have the materials in the order I want them, but a useless body part at the top of the menu that I don't want. Grrrr... I know I can make it invisible, scale it to zero, etc, but I don't want it in my menu. I've tried various combinations, but poser will only accept the blank actor's materials, if the dratted thing is added as a child. Does anyone know what I can do? The reason I'm so fanatical about this is, I'm building figures with 20+ materials and if the order is random, it makes life hell for the user. I'd really like a permanant solution to this. mac PS Am leaving for a 2 day shoot tomorrow morning, so will catch up saturday.

This is from a quick python utility I wrote that parses an obj and builds a list of unique materials. Once the list is built, it sorts the list and inserts it above the list of verts...

Below is a snippet from running Victoria 3 through it.

To see what it does, insert the following at the top of the obj...

Begin Ordered Material List

g Materials
usemtl EyeSocket
usemtl Eyebrows
usemtl Eyelashes
usemtl Fingernails
usemtl Gums
usemtl InnerMouth
usemtl LCornea
usemtl LEyewhite
usemtl LIris
usemtl LPupil
usemtl Lacrimal
usemtl Lips
usemtl Nipples
usemtl Nostrils
usemtl PubicHair
usemtl RCornea
usemtl REyewhite
usemtl RIris
usemtl RPupil
usemtl SkinArm
usemtl SkinFeet
usemtl SkinForearm
usemtl SkinHand
usemtl SkinHead
usemtl SkinHip
usemtl SkinLeg
usemtl SkinNeck
usemtl SkinScalp
usemtl SkinTorso
usemtl Teeth
usemtl Toenails
usemtl Tongue

End Ordered Material List

Loading from a cr2, in pro pack it works fine (no geom .rsr to contend with), the list shows up as expected within the material editor. But, standard p4 could care less. Importing the obj (in either standard or pro pack) results in the list being the inverse of the ordered list (above) in the obj.

Inspecting the associated geom .rsr shows the list as:

SkinTorso
Nipples
SkinNeck
SkinHip
SkinFeet
SkinLeg
Toenails
SkinForearm
SkinArm
SkinHand
Fingernails
SkinHead
SkinScalp
Lips
EyeSocket
InnerMouth
Nostrils
Lacrimal
Eyelashes
Eyebrows
Teeth
Gums
LCornea
LEyewhite
LPupil
LIris
RCornea
REyewhite
RPupil
RIris
Tongue
PubicHair

Which is the order they appear in the obj (sans - inserted ordered list). Still, standard P4 doesn't follow this list either.

-Rob

heyas; there is a channels setting to have a body part not included in the menu, and not selectable, et al. let me think.... ::thinks:: it's either 'addtomenu 0' or... the other one. 'hidden 1'? but i wouldn't encourage sticking trash in your obj or your cr2 like you are trying to do. that would annoy me more than poser's fascist materials order.

So, there's no way in poser 4 to do this, is the short answer. I tried your way, robert, and poser ignores it. Damn! Bloodsong, I already tried 'addToMenu 0'and poser happily adds the body part to the menu anyway. I mean, it's logical that if you tell poser what to do, it does the opposite, isn't it? Hidden just makes it non-visible in the doc window. 'but i wouldn't encourage sticking trash in your obj' Why not? No one's ever likely to look at the obj except me. EVERYONE looks at the material order. I rest my case. mac

heyas; because, trash in your object (and cr2) is trashy. people do export the objs to other apps, and the hidden stuff might pop out and annoy them. etc etc. but that's just me. okay, 'addtomenu' is ignored, but there's another tag there that does work. are you sure hidden isn't invisible AND non-selectable and not in the menu? whaddya want me to do, look it up in my book?

Oh, well done, bloodsong! Hidden IS visible, but non-selectable and not in the menu. For some bizarre reason, 'addToMenu' is ignored completely by poser, 'Hidden 1' works fine, and changing 'on' to 'off' makes the part invisible. So I needed to set 'Hidden 1' and 'off', and disable all the trans dials. Hummmm.... is it all worth it? Well, it will be for the figures with more complex materials. As for trash in the obj.... well, what can I say? I don't LIKE doing it, but I build for poser. If someone else wants to use the obj in another app, they should at least know how to deal with it. Thank you very muchly. mac

hah! TOLD YOU SO! remember that, next time you doubt me! ;)

ME doubt YOU?? As if.....! At least you got a chance to say 'I told you so!' LOL. mac