Ok, this is a PZ3 file that I made quite a while ago, about a year in fact. I decided I wanted to take a peek at it for old times' sake. So I opened Poser, and opened the file. It sat there for a while, loading, as it usually does. And then, the screen gave the little blink that means it's done, and the scene will now appear. Except, it didn't. The friggin Document Window didn't show up. The whole screen was just the brown Poser background. The drop-down menus, however, were still there, and when I clicked the Figure menu, it DID show all the figures that should've been there. But nothing was visible! And plus, when I then tried to close Poser, it wouldn't let me! I clicked the 'X' button to close the window, and nothing happened! I ended up having to shut it down through the Windows Task Manager! Any idea WTF is going on here??

I have no idea what is wrong, but have you tried importing the PZ3 instead of opening it? Sometimes that works. Also, if you don't have a UI dot set to your opening settings, do it, then if your screen gets messed up, you have a chance at getting things back where they belong.

Just tried it. A slight step up, as the Figures/Body Parts list was now visible; but still no scene appeared. I guess I may just have to give this one up as a lost cause :-(

If you have rearranged some of your directories since that period of time, it may be having a problem locating them.

That long ago you could easily have had a different screen arrangement. Go to factory state and defaults on your setup and see if that helps.

Eric: Nope, reverting to factory state didn't help :-( Blues: If the directories were changed, how do I fix that?

You can try converting the pz3 to a cr2 and openining it that way. Pdo3 can convert the file. Or, change the extension to cr2 and open in wordpad or something that can handle large files. Then you should be able to examine and find missing textures etc.

But, even if the problem were missing textures, wouldn't it give me a dialogue box asking for them? And also, when I imported the PZ3 into Poser instead of just opening it, I got an even wierder result. The Document Window DID appear, but no figures were in it, despite them showing up in the Figures List. Plus, the Rotate/Translate/etc tools did show up, as did the cameras and Parameter Dials; but when I tried to use any of them, nothing would happen except the mouse cursor VANISHING! WTF??? Is my computer friggin HAUNTED or something?!?!

Since you made the pz3 awhile back a file somewhere either got deleted or moved and the pz3 can't find it and no, it may not tell you it's missing. It's a problem in P5. [figureResFile :Runtime:Geometries:DAZPeople:blMilWom_vio23.obj] If the obj file is there, try deleting the rsr file. Poser will rebuild one.

So if it can't find a file, then it just hides the Document Window completely and doesn't let me click ANYTHING??

This happens sometimes. Though I have no idea why. Try: 1) Close the scene but not poser. then open it again. or 2) Click a UI dot or resize the window. This will sometime jog Poser into displaying everyting. Alos check to mack sure your camera isn't pointing off into space or something.

there use to be a freebie here PZ3toCR2 - Written by P. Mason aka Mr. X (mr1_x@hotmail.com).i wasn't able to get the renderupgrade light freebie to work by importing it so i tried double clicking on the pz3 file and it worked.it screwed up all my settings but it worked.try double clicking the file.

I already tried that. I told you, I CAN'T CLICK anything. Can't resize the window, or click a UI dot, or even the File menu to load a new scene! Anything I click, just makes Poser hang and the cursor disappears!

So much to read. You expect us to read everything you say??. lol Okay then, my guess is that there are too many errors during opening and Poser just freaked. Not very promising. This case might be a lost cause. You could try copying/pasting elements back into their original file formats and try to recreate the scene from the extracted elements...camera, lights, figure....etc.

Just out of curiosity, if you go to alternate views, is everything still invisible? Like, if you go to top view, is it still an empty screen? I wonder if maybe everything got shifted out of camera range.

Yeah, I figured I'd have to do that if all else failed :-)

It is a text file, so some manipulation there might help. Have you saved a copy of it under a different name and tried opening that? Ye old cut&paste will probably work if all else fails. Another thing... do you by any chance have another totally different pz3 from that same era? A contest entry, or trial scene, or whatever, as long as it was saved during that particular week or so. Try opening it. It may have all the settings you used, including placement of elements and toolbars. If it doesn't open, you have more valuable data towards chasing down the quarry. If it does open, you can then open the scene you want and see if it accepts the boost. Carolly

Yep, I have a file from the same time period -- same day, in fact; they were a serious of WIPs. But no, loading the other one doesn't make this one any less stubborn :-( I guess I'll have to try to rebuild it manually. Or just forget about it; it's not like I have a burning need to get it fixed :-)

But does the other one work? If so, then probably the file itself may be corrupted. Sometimes, only, ah s*** works with a reboot.

Yep, the other one works. "Sometimes, only, ah s*** works with a reboot." .....HUH? Ya wanna translate that? :-)

Have you tried importing the PZ3 file into a new scene?

1. Look at the computer 2. Say Ah Shit 3. Look at the computer again for the button that says reset. 4. Press the button 5. Computer turns off and back on. LOL!

When Poser locks up, have you tried hitting the 'Escape' key? It works for me in unlocking things when it's got stuck hunting for something it can't find.

Someone else had this happen a few weeks ago and I've experienced it as well. I didn't see any obvious corruption in the file though I didn't go through it line by line. I think maybe this is just one of the occasional "mystery" problems that no one has figured out yet. Sometimes Poser just seems to develop an aversion to a particular pz3 and won't have anything to do with it. Post partum depression?

Here's a classic - don't just close down Poser and restart. Don't even just reboot Windows. Switch off the computer completely, then restart, reload. has worked for me on occasion. Due to non-communication between Windows and Poser, probably. I keep every single PZ3 I ever make, all the work versions of everything, ever. So I have many gigs of them, like 40 gig or so. Many, many hundreds of files. But it means that if one file is dead, the next (or previous) one will most likely work OK. I also keep a basic render for each one so I know what it looked like. Very convenient way of keeping track of everything I do. I've been glad for it many a time. :] Fish