I hadn't opened Bryce 4 in a while and when I did, I tried to access the Users objects section, only to have Bryce choke out a bad data message, spaz and die.....! Is there any way to get to that section and delete the entries so that I can start over again (sob! there were dozens of wonderful models installed) or am I going to have to reinstall? In Poser, I would just remove the models temporarily and install a few at a time until it choked again, but I can't find a way into its innards to do that with Bryce.

Patricia, check the threads for the last week, or do a search, this has been covered. To "put it in a nutshell", there isn't anything you can do to fix your corrupted .opb section "after the fact". The cure lies in preventative measures one would have to take before the fact. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but believe me you have a lot of company in this.

Thank you for the reply, even if the news is bad. I did searches on the exact words used in the dialog box, but came up with no relevant threads. I will go now and read through the past weeks' threads :) Is there no way to hack Bryce and get into those libraries?? It seems odd that they're so inaccessible.

The best approach is not to leave anything in user.obp that you want to keep permanently - set up some folders for your objects (I organise mine into categories, e.g. architecture, plants, furniture, etc.) and export the objects into these as soon as you have created them. That way your objects are stored singly, and if one does get corrupt, it's only one, not the whole lot. When you want to use one of them just import it into user.obp, put it into your scene, and clear it out of user.obp before you shut down Bryce (after you've saved your scene!) The difference between the Poser libraries and user.obp is that the Poser objects are all separate files that Poser loads in as required, but user.obp is a single file containing all your user-created models. Every time Bryce starts up it loads them all in, and if you add, remove or update one it writes the whole file out again. If it corrupts the file in the process, which it seems to be good at doing, there's no way you can get into this file (unless you're a Bryce programmer)and unscramble it to rescue your objects. Some people don't seem to have this problem, some do, I've no idea why. I have had so much trouble with it that I avoid using .obp now as much as possible. If I can save objects in an alternative format, such as .3ds, I do, and store their textures or .mat files with them. This also uses less space than using .obps

Patricia, your corrupted users .obp file is in Bryce home folder->Presets->Objects->Users. Just replace that with a non-corrupted obp file(such as the one in Installed as opposed to Users).

Antevark is right, if you saved your user .obp's in a separate backup, delete the corrupted one and replace with your backup....

Unfortunately, I didn't back up the objects.... Only about half a dozen were models that I had made in Bryce, with the majority being things I'd DLed over the past year and intended to use. This file system is going to take some getting used to, but I guess I can at least make copies of the other preset catagories before I reinstall (so that I don't lose all the wonderful textures and other models that I've added). They can just replace the ones that Bryce will put there, right?

Patricia, if your only problem is a corrupt user.obp you don't need to re-install Bryce. If the Bryce 4 user.obp came with any presets (I went from Bryce 3 to Bryce 5, so I don't know) just copy user.obp from the CD. If it didn't contain anything then simply delete or rename your user.obp (rename it to oldbad.obp, for instance). Bryce will run quite happily without it. To create a new user.obp, start Bryce, go to the Create menu, select Installed, and select one of the object lists under that (Imported Objects, for example). Select any two objects (select one, hold down shift, and click on the other). Then click on Export, and when the Browse window comes up go to (Bryce home folder)>Objects>User. Save your export as user.obp, and, hey presto, a new user.obp file! You can then start using it as per normal, and when you've added some more objects you can delete the first two objects you used to create it. As for copying your other preset libraries, good idea, even if you are not going to re-install Bryce. If you are going to re-install, copy all your preset files to a set of folders outside the Bryce installation folder, re-install, and copy them back in, as you say, overwriting the "vanilla" installation versions. Good luck!

Thank you all :) I'm going to begin keeping back-ups of all the models I use in Bryce from now on. A friend set me up in Poser to have a double back-up of every model I install and it's been a godsend many times over. I just need to set up a procedure like that one and train myself to use it ;) I also found a wonderful and very easy CD cataloging program (Haxial) that lets me keep track of all my CDs, so I can keep my back-ups from cluttering up my machine, too :)