I have a fair number of props which all have the same materials. They're all parented, so MATs aren't a problem. The problem is that each MAT refers to a specific prop. I tried deleting the name and just leaving 'prop', but poser tells me there's danger of creating a no-name actor. Any way of forcing the MAT to apply to all props? mac

WEll, I didn't quite find what I was looking for, but what I did find could be pretty damned useful. I saved a cr2 figure with 2 parented props and built a MAT from the cr2. Here it is (I stripped down a bit to save space) ------------------------------------ { version { number 4.01 } actor BODY:1 { channels { rotateY yrot { keys { k 0 90 } } translateX xtran { keys { k 0 -1 } } translateY ytran { keys { k 0 1 } } } } prop area02_1:1 { channels { rotateY yRotate { keys { k 0 90 } } translateX xTran { keys { k 0 3 } } } material front { KdColor 1 1 1 1 KaColor 0 0 0 1 KsColor 0 0 0 1 tMax 1 } } prop area01_1:1 { channels { rotateY yRotate { keys { k 0 45 } } translateX xTran { keys { k 0 -1 } } } } figure { material floor { KdColor 0 0 0 1 KaColor 0 0 0 1 KsColor 0 0 0 1 tMax 0 } } } ----------------------------------- Fairly standard. But the interesting thing about this is, it will affect the props NO MATTER WHAT FIGURE is in the doc window. And once the props are saved as smart-props, the minute you open them with ANY figure at all in poser, the MAT works every time. I had them parented to a room. I opened them with the P4 fem and the MAT still worked. So, this means all you have to do is parent any number of props to whatever figure you like, resave them as smart-props, then, as long as there's some kind of figure in poser, the MATs will work. I don't know if this is anything new, but I didn't know it. I assumed that, to accept a MAT, a prop had to be with it's own parent. It seems it can be with an 'uncle' or 'aunt' too. LOL. mac

heyas; why do you have rotations and translations in there?

'why do you have rotations and translations in there?' Because that's what I mostly use MATs for. (Or 'SETs' if you want to adopt the convention dodger uses). The rot and trans values in the one above are random. Just to let me see the effect. That's why this whole deal is so handy for me. I can assemble entire sets from props with a SET file. mac

Yep, it's it doesn't matter what figure the prop is parented to. Neither does it have to be smart porped, just so long as it's parented to some figure it will work. It can sometimes be handy to have an invisable minimal figure, with no geometry or materials, particularly if you are making a set. The elements of the set can be smart proped to it so they snap into the correct position relitive to each other, in addition to being able to apply pz2's to the props, you can move, rotate, or scale, the whole set by movion, rotating, etc, the BODY of your invisable minimal figure. You can even put ERC in the figure that will controle slave channels in the props (See my "OmniLight with ERC control", in the free stuff for an example). To make a minimal just convert a Poser square into a figure in the heiarachy editor, then strip out the geometry and materials in a text editor.

Right, les. I messed around with invisible figures, but with the pack I'm making, almost everything is in cr2 form, so people can't build a scene without some kind of figure open. This means it's a perfect way to make all my MATs (or SETs) for the props without adding invisible men. Scaling/rotation is a good option, but not one I'll need, and as for ERC, I'm trying to avoid it altogether. mac