Manually reading an obj file has advantages for hand editing, and temporary watermarking or signing, but... normally this would be for editing points or materials etc. Using software like 3DExplorer or whatever it's currently called allows you to edit the material settings, part naming, and other things for several file formats. The primary advantage of an editable format like obj is bypassed by that facility. Same with the .mtl file generated by wavefront object format, it's a handy way to edit material settings seperate from the actual geometry file, again the need is bypassed by utilities like 3DExplorer. About the only advantage that obj now has over other formats is the facility to hand edit vertex and vertice, even writing your own object if you have the patience to bother these days. Unfortunately as a text form rather than binary the file size becomes hugely bloated with complex models and that's a disadvantage because of the amount of ram eaten by it (still an issue for some computers). And of course programs like Poser that choke on the refresh rate. Unfortunately not having Lightwave the facility it offers is unavailable to me, I threw my money at Maxon instead. :) Deep Exploration, that's what it's called now, and it looks like it's been improved considerably... damn my bank account has suffered enough lately... sigh