Thought I had this down but guess I am more confused than ever as Carrera/RDS handles my groups totally different.

I have tried using PhiBuilder (2.1) and still having problems. 1st Problem is that full obj export from RDS or Carrera doesn't always point to All of the Objects... So in PhiBuilder I manually inserted the obj. Here is PhiBuilder Text:

objFile :Runtime:Geometries:MINE:PoserCrane.obj
1 CenterBase xyz
2 TireFenders xyz
2 Tires_Rims xyz
2 MOTOR xyz
2 LegsFrameBody xyz
1 CraneBase yzx
2 Cab xyz
2 BaseCrane xzy
3 1stLevelCrane xyz
4 2ndLevelCrane xyz
5 TackleAndEndCrane xyz :Runtime:Geometries:MINE:TackleAndEndCrane.obj
6 TackleCover xyz
4 BaseHydraulic xyz
5 ExtensionHydraulic xyz :Runtime:Geometries:MINE:ExtensionHydraulic.obj
3 Ropes xyz
4 Block xyz
5 Hook xyz
1 LegsRite xyz
1 LegsLeft xyz

Here is Hierarchy in RDS/Carrera:

PoserCrane:
LegsRite
LegsLeft
RotateCraneBase Group
CraneBase
Cab
MOTOR
ExtensionHydraulic
BaseHydraulic
CraneBooms Group
BaseCrane
1stLevelCrane
2ndLevelCrane
TackleAndEndCrane
TackleCover
BlockAndHook Group
Block
Hook
Ropes
CenterSection Group (nonmoving-just tilts w/legs)
CenterBase
Tire_Rims
TireFenders
LegsFrameBody

Basically, I am making a mobile rough terrain crane where the CraneBase can spin around at 360degrees but I want control over the BaseHydraulic and BaseCrane to lower and raise (within the rotated CraneBase).

Any Hints? Clues [for the clueless]? etc.? Oh yeah, am not a fan AT ALL of setup room - bones are for people not mechanical.... and have P5 and PPP... both give same problem of moving whole CraneBase when trying to lower the hydraulics and cranes.

first thing..there should only be one "1" and the rest are children of that main object. So figure out what the main object is that when it is moved, the rest of the model should move with it then go from there making the other items children of it. next, tho I dont know what you are after..if there are things you can combine into one object with different materials you should do so. For instance, tire rims and tirefenders are part of the wheel assembly. These could be one group with two different textures (one for the rims, one for tires) unless you expect to have them posable separately from one another. again, I dont know what you are making or how it looks..but you have all your rotational orders set to xyz. If that is correct..great, but more than likely you need to change those to a proper setup ('twist', 'side-side', 'bend'...in that order). and why not just go ahead and bring those exterior geometries into the main one? BT

You mean go to each item and insert their actual obj file Like I had to do with TackleAndEndCrane.obj and ExtensionHydraulic.obj?

nope, I meant remove those two things and make them part of the original mesh...ie one mesh obj for the whole thing :)

but using PHIBuilder - and doing Hierarchy convert from File (P5 & PPP) - wouldn't recognize those 2 items (rest were ok) until I added the obj information. Is this a PHIBuilder thing or a problem with RDS/Carrera OBJ export? I actually developed the crane character in Autocad2k so can manually do something different if that helps. If I import the prop - crane - all the material and groups are recognized; just in case that means anything... BTW, thank you for your help as my client is biting at bit to manipulate the crane for a training cd.

it wont recognize it because you're breaking the name length limitations cant have a body group over 16 characters in length...too bad the free phi builder doesnt flag that one for you. the one I made flags that and also checks other things.. anyhow, there are no issues with it that Im aware of. I'd still make it all one mesh and rename the parts. besides, if you dont poser isnt gonna use it anyhow because of the long group names. BT

ah ha! naming issues - should have figured that as that is why I had to upgrade autocad!! TY TY TY Will go break this down without being so descriptive. And of course pray... :-D

You made one BT? where is it???...Steve

sittin' on my harddrive as part of the program I use to make poser characters. The reason its not 'public' is because it would take me longer to write the 'help' file than it did to make the program because it does so much automatically. stuff like... *auto creation of ik strings *auto rotational orientation setup based upon personalized text files that can be loaded with a click *key press changes of rotational order (if you want to tweak) *check for right and left body part (gotta hate when you make a model and find out when your almost done that you didnt name something right) *checks for standard naming *can edit the obj names *checks for illegal names (like 'body', 'curve', 'morph' [poser reserved name] or names over 16 characters in length) but thats only part of the whole thing *it packages (including the eula for whatever store you are sending it to), *autocreates readme files with all associated files in the text, *packages and checks to see that all files are actually included in the zip that are called for in any cr2, pz2, pp2..etc. *auto-matpose maker..which does batch processing *performs 'whiteout' (changing all diffuse colors to white and all other colors to black) for new figures created *auto renames dials from that xyz rotate crap to twist, side-side bend *strips morphs *creates null figures just added the ability to *make an ezpose-like setup *and mirror obj (means you can make one thing like a boot and it'll automatically make the other one for you (model, cr2, and all) *muli-replace..(search and replace text in multiple files) *unpacks multiple zips at one time and installs them and other stuph... I really intended to release it and let it grow because it runs from textfiles a user makes..so you can make preferences for it to work from without any programming. I guess its 'scriptable' in a way. anyhow, like I said..it does so much I'd be til christmas making a manual or help file. I started, and actually finished one screen..but that took me nearly a month and I had 8 more screens to go. (and I hadnt even touched the complex stuff it can do) so for now, its still my little toy that only I use to make characters. I make part of them, turn on the app..and watch tv while it works. In theory, it could make an entire character by itself after only 1/2 of the model is made, but I havent tried that. :P BT

btw, I havent added 'lbuttock and rbuttock' to the hierachy text file so it didnt know what to do with those body parts in the pict above..however, if when I add that to the text file..itd make the whole thing by itself. I made a centiped with 181 body parts..it'd take forever to make a phi for that by hand or even with the free phi-builder.. it took me 15 seconds :P BT

heyas; also, do NOT use capital letters as the first letter in your group names. poser doesn't like that. do not use any spaces or punctuation, either. (the underline might be okay, but i would take it out).

Well, as an update: I renamed with no cap in first letters, put my extensionHydraulic into extendHydraulic and made all items that I needed to control xyz trans wise into 1 position. This worked - phi created the file and poser Hierarchy read it fine. Pain in the butt to rotate but if I select each part - rotate and save as full body morph - Seems to work. Thank you all for your help. Another stage of learning poser (been using it since version 1) has been accessed! ;-)

PS worked in P5 and PPP - sorry....

dont need to do the full body morph thing... since you are making a 'stiff' model that requires no blend zones, open up the cr2..go to the bottom of it and change the line that says "allowsbending 1" to "allowsbending 0". then you can pose it however you want and no blend zones are applied. Try it. you can also make individual parts 'non blendable' if you have other parts that you need to have the blend zones. I'll worry about telling you how to do that if you actually need it. luck BT