What is it, why is it here, what is it for? Files named like this, starting with "pzSav" and with a random string of characters just in front of the pz3 extension keep showing up along side my bona fide files. This is on a Mac running OS 10.3.2.

I usually get a pvSav file when Poser crashes or a render fails. Sometimes, it is a lifesaver and sometimes it's a useless truncated file.

Never got those with P4 under XPp. Is it a normal P5 thing or just a Mac thing?

Haven't had any crasheswould it result from a user aborted render?

Possibly, that might fall under the "failed render" category in Poser's weird line of thought. I have PPP/WinXP (that's a lot of P!!), but I also had them on P4/WinMe.

Where do you see them? Marque

Marque, They are in the directory/folder with the "normal" .pz3 file.

Are they showing up while you are working in Poser? I just wonder if they are like MS Word's temp file, which opens when you are using a file in Word. But, like I said, the only time I've noticed these pzSav_blah.pz3's is when, for some reason or another, Poser didn't finish doing something. Sometimes it opens and is a perfect copy of whatever I was working on and sometimes it is a single light, black and off, with nothing in the pic. If you don't need it (ie, it's not the instance when it just crashed and actually saved your work), delete it.

When Poser saves a file, it sometimes renames the original to the pzSav_originalfilename form. When it's finished saving, this backup is deleted; if it crashes while saving, you can rename the backup to get your work back. It would be a wonderful feature, except most of the time the pzSav version isn't made, and I haven't been able to find out why. If you have Windows Explorer (or equivalent) looking at the appropriate folder while saving, you'll see these pop up from time to time.

I think this is a Mac only feature, this is why you almost never get a corrupted Poser file. I find them occasionally, but not sure what causes them to be created.

jerr3d, sounds like, above your post, EnglishBob just said he sees them using Windows. (That right EB?) Are you both using P5? Or are either of you seeing these with an earlier Poser version?

P5 only, IIRC. Also, renaming and using them does not work, but if you delete them, sometimes the original file is no longer functional.

I used to get them in PPP also, but without the "#######"

Nance: that's right, Poser 4.03, under Windows 2000. Jerr3D: I think Triarius used the ##### as a placeholder for the rest of the filename - I certainly haven't seen any hashes. Say if I'm saving a file named 'fred.pz3', then the temporary file (if it exists) will be named pzSav_fred.pz3. Triarius: Don't I know you from somewhere? :) I admit I have never tried using one of these pzSav_ files for real, that was just an assumption I made. A poor one by the look of it. My bad. :)

Well that's odd. I've been using P-4.03 under Win95 then XPp and never have seen one of these pop up. Waah! If you guys get'em.... I want my own stinkin' "pzSav" files!