Okay, you're designing a buiding, ship, spaceship, whatever; what's the best way to articulate the doors, etc., especially when you have a lot of them. I'm stll working in P4PP and think bones are 'not' the way to go... I'm begging for advice... what's the best approach...pretty please, with sugar on it!?

You could attach them as separate parented props, if you don't want to go through all the joint setup and grouping.

damn, you're fast. I considered that, was worried it might tend to fall apart.

I've always preferred the "reset the joint parameters, smart prop & hack the pp2 file" method over making a cr2 out of the prop.

hmmm, Cooler, could you be more specific or point me to a tutorial?

Gort

I don't know of a tut anywhere, (PhilC & Dthurgreif walked me thru the joint parameter procedure about 3-4 years ago) so I'll try to walk you through it here

1. put your door in the closed position
2. with the door still selected open the joint editor (it's on the top toolbar in Poser under "Window"
3. You'll see two sets of crosshairs (Red & Green) probably at the center point of the door. Drag them to the center of the hinge, at the edge of the door.
4. Close the joint editor & check the door to see if it opens & closes properly
5. Rinse & repeat for as many doors as necessary :-)
6. Save the prop to the appropriate library.

Smart propping...

1. Make sure the door is positioned where you want it.
2. Parent the door to the main body of the model
3. Save it to your library, selecting "Yes" when asked if you want to save as a smart prop

Hacking the pp2 file (note this is optional I just like the way it looks :-)

1. open the file in a text editor (UltraEdit is my personal choice but any good editor will work)
2. Scroll down to your 1st door
3. assuming it opens like a normal door the x & z rotations can be removed and the Y rotation renamed to Open-Close or whatever you want. here's an example from one of my props...

rotateY yRotate
{
name Open-Close
initValue 0
hidden 0
forceLimits 0
min -100000
max 100000
trackingScale 1
keys
{
static 0
k 0 0
}
interpStyleLocked 0
}

Now when you open the prop in Poser & select any of the doors you should only see a parameter dial named Open-Close instead of the usual x, y, or z rotaion dials.

If you have any other questions or if you'd like an example of one of my props I've done this with just let me know (coolerBear@att.net) & I'll email something over.

Cooler, why do you prefer to prop version over CR2 version? Advantage/Disadvantage?? I was wondering the same thing about one I'm doing that's going to have 6 ship portholes....

.

Tha main advantage of a prop version over a cr2.. is no joint parametres to futz over 8 ) plus you can set the min max so teh door opens properly... i.e. min -90.000 max 0.000 the door will only swing to the left.. and whilst hacking the file.. set forceLimits to 1 that way reguardless of teh document settings limits will be imposed.. this prevents the door window etc from sliding through the wall... when you save the prop... select save subset.. then select all teh bits involved.. that way when you load it everything's there... Cheers

thanx Wiz... I was a bit pressed for time so I had to leave out some of the niceties.

igohigh... there are some other advantages. I find "hacking" a pp2 much easier, it's a simpler file so there are fewer places that I can screw it up :-)

Also using our door again as an example, Although it's smart propped into place it can still be moved independently on the XYZ axis (i.e. if you want to "blow the hatch" or rip a door off it's hinges it's much easier to do)

.

Incidentally, you can use ForceLimits in a CR2 just as well as a PP2. I prefer to set things up as CR2, even though it takes more work, for three related reasons: 1. A PP2 can't be deleted in one piece; you have to delete each of its parts separately. 2. With a CR2 you always know which part is the one to grab when you want to move the whole thing around: the BODY. A PP2 must have a central part, but there's no automatic name for it, so you have to look in the hierarchy to be sure. 3. Scaling is tricky with a PP2. There are ways to hack the file, using "propagatingScale" statements, but that doesn't always seem to work well. With a CR2, you can scale the BODY and everything else changes with it.

...

...

Thanks a ton Cooler, dragon, wizzard, et al,... the pp2/cr2 hacks were the part I was unfamiliar with... and what I think I was looking for. Thanks all. -Gort

cool tips guys

Get the best of both worlds, Use a NULL Figure that only has a BODY actor, parent all your props to that in Poser, resave the NULL Figure to a figures pallet, the props will save with it. Next time it is loaded you can delete all the props at once by deleting the figure, you can use the BODY just like in a normal figure. You can edit the cr2 in the way discribeb by Cooler. You get all the advantages of Cooler's method, plus all the advantages Ockham mentioned. Linked above is a file you can use as a NULL Figure parent for your props. Save it to a character sub-folder and change the file extention to cr2.

More cool stuff to play with, thanks for starting this Gort! And thanks Cooler, Wizard, Ockham, and Lesbentley! I'm gonna give them all a try on my cabin and see which one seems best 8p I'll be bouncing off the walls for while!

I'm with ockham on this one. A cr2 is a lot less hassle to delete, save, etc. Incidentally, cooler's example would read like this, if you want it to open without crashing through the sides. rotateY yRotate { name Open-Close initValue 0 hidden 0 forceLimits 4 min 0 max 90 trackingScale 1 keys { static 0 k 0 0 } interpStyleLocked 0 } 'Force limits 4' means that it won't rotate beyond the limits you've set. (If you change it to 'Force limits 1', poser will change the 1 to a 4 when you save it). The limits you set don't matter because you can change them in poser. The important thing is to force them. Leave them as they are or set them to -360/360. Then, in poser, open the prop and double-click the open/close dial NAME. In the dialog box that opens, you can set any limits you want. (minimum always has to be less than maximum) Another point is that you should disable the 2 rotation dials you're NOT using, so they don't go mad. Like this.. rotateX xRotate { name getStringRes whatever initValue 0 hidden 0 forceLimits 4 min 0 max 0 trackingScale 1 keys { static 0 k 0 0 } interpStyleLocked 0 } The above dial will be visible, but not work at all, because the limits are both set to zero. This means you can't accidentally move it on the wrong axis, but it also has the advantage that you (or any other user) can use it by resetting the limits. mac

PS Another advantage of the cr2 is that it accepts MATs without a lot of hassle. I've made 'SET' files for my doors and windows which, when applied, reset the joint parameters and rotation limits so that the user can open them outwards instead of inwards, with one click. Of course, you can do this with props, but the SET needs to be prop specific and will only work on the 1st instance of any prop. So, if you have more than one door or whatever, you're sunk. If anyone's interested, I can post an example. mac

I like the cr2 method also. No big reason, but it was the first way that some of the old hands around here taught me how to do. I did not even know this alternative method existed! What happens when you want to replace an opening door that suddenly needs remapped or altered? I think this will be hard to do the cr2 way. Would the pp2 route be easier? It sounds like if it were a pp2 then one could delete a door and reposition a new one and use the same procedure to remake the new prop. With cr2 wouldn't we have to totally reset up the figure? Am I missing something here? I hope so cuz I have some things I need to replace in a cr2, and I don't want to just make the part invisible and have to shlep on the new one... sigh. Thanks everyone!

Caraveggio, If you want to remap a door in cr2 form, it's easy. All you need to do is remap the obj file (which the cr2 points to) in uv ampper, then save it and delete the accompanying .rsr file. The original cr2 will still be valid, but your obj will be a new remapped one. If you need to alter it, well that depends on the type of alteration you're doing. If it's new geometry, you could still use the cr2 if all the body part names are the same in the new obj. You may have to reset some joint parameters, but that's easily done in poser. If you're talking about makng a new figure, then it's like any new figure. Make a new cr2 or hack an old one to suit. mac

Sorry mac, I indeed know you are right. That same idea was forming in my head right after my post. Thanks, caravaggio

I wouldn't make them a prop or a conforming item, I'd make them a group in the main CR2, with an external CR2 call if you must (be better in the main OBJ file, though). Big advantage to this would be the operators would we listed with that part right in the main item, plus I think in the long run it would be easier to set up. I did a sailboat once with an hinged front hatch, plus a companion way cover that slides front to back, plus two doors under this hatch that slide to the side, didn't take very long to set up, and once you did one you could clone that group in the CR2 and just move the centers (simple math) for the next one. I also removed all the channels I didn't want used and forced limits so nothing opened or shut too far. If you are doing an _exact_ fit for the door you are going to have to set every one up individually anyway.

I wanta rid on that boat! They're a..I mean she's a butt..I mean beaut!! =8p