This is the seocnd in a series of questions I'm posing regarding frequently requested changes. The first one dealt with OpenGL, and is floating around here still. This one deals with the interface issues of Poser, and specifically Poser 5. I'm not looking for whining or bashing -- it's not that kind of thread (and if ya post some, well, ya dinnae read well, do ye?). What I'm curious about is the specific changes you would like to see made to the user interface of Poser. Although I have some fairly strong views on it myself, it's become apparent that there are some really, really good ideas out there, and I'd like to sort of gather them together and talk about them some. Among the things I'd like to see changed is the material room layout -- it seems I never have enough room for the various nodes, and I can't read the texture names on image maps without gettin really close. Since I have P5 and used fireworks to resize all my pngs to 130 by 130, I'm not so concerned about the library, but there could be more done with it, perhaps (something like carrara's slide out panels, maybe?)... Among the things I would like to see retained are the camera controls, the memory dots, the tool buttons and preview buttons. The light thingy too -- except I'd like to be able to modify it like you can in Bryce. What are your thoughts?

I don't know if this has been implemented (I don't own P5): A Zoom tool like Rhino/Max/Photoshop/"insert image editing program's name here" has. It would make character manipulation and creation far easier. Dockable menus/toolbars/manipulation palletes. It'd be nice to stack 'em all to one side of the screen as a group ala Rhino3 and Maya. Solid Object Bones. It makes things easier to see when building a rig. Instead of using a giant Magnet to create morphs within Poser, replace that with creatable/editable spline curves. So you can just move a point or two on the curve to get a facial morph like raised eyebrows or a smirk....or both. Being able to test a model without leaving the setup room. These are just a few ideas though, as I said, they may be already worked out in Poser 5. I don't know.

on the bones, Teyon, try selecting one of them, and then change the display mode for that element (either through the display drop down at the top, or using the drop down next to the display buttons). I like that magnet idea. It would be more flexible overall as well. They did introduce a zoom tool in P5. It works sometimes, too. lol They sort of came closer to the palettes in P5, but dockables arent there yet. I'm personally none too fond of them, but I'm a noted minority. Excellent ideas. Thanks for the responses!

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks. :)

Message edited on: 06/18/2004 21:54

hmmm...seems only willing to switch as far as Wireframe. Won't go to the shaded modes for the bone elements it seems. Pity, would have been a nice surprise to see it in Poser Pro Pack. One little thing about a certain menu...it would be nice, in the Group tool's menu, to relocate the Invert Group button so that it isn't right above the Include Group button. While setting up my character today, I almost inverted groups 4 times.

Among the things I would like to see retained are the camera controls, the memory dots, the tool buttons and preview buttons. The light thingy too -- except I'd like to be able to modify it like you can in Bryce.

The things I'd like to see changed are the exact same things you want to retain. Well, not everything you mentioned, but specifically the controls interface (cameras controls, etc.) I want the ability to strategically place multiple targeted cameras in the scene so animation can be more easily rendered at specific angles for video post. Plus targeted cameras are much easier to work with. That light ball control thing in the upper left hand corner... just ditch it. It's confusing and useless when working with spots. I want targeted spots, not just free floating. I think most users would find it much easier to work with lights in Poser if they could manually place targeted spots in a scene directly. See 3dsMax for a good example of targeted spots and how efficiently they are added to a scene. Other than that, the majority of my "wish list" consists of workflow and animation enhancements. ;-) Message edited on: 06/18/2004 22:10

The most obvious thing about the Poser 5 interface as compared to P4 is the width of the paramiters pallet, far too wide IMHO, the P4 pallet was too wide, but P5 is way too wide. Use narrower dials, and allow the pallet to be shrunk even narrower than the dials them selves. Using the mouse it's easier to drag out a corner of the pallet than to hide/show it, ok I could use Shift+Ctrl+N, but I'm mouse orientated. I use the paramiter pallet all the time, so I always want it on screen but as small as possible so as to use the maximum doc window size.

I don't seen to be able to nail down to paramiters pallet like I could in P4, every time I open Poser 5 the pallet pops up to the right of the screen instead of off to the left where I left it the last time I used P5.

Could you allow the selected dial to be controled by the arrow keys, or some other keys, it's easier to get fine controle with the keys.

When I double click a dial I'd like to be able to set the trackingScale (Sensitivity) for things like translations rotations etc.

In the "Chose Parent" box I would like to be able to resize the box.

The right hand pallet (the one with figures, props, etc) should stay on top of the doc window. It would be nice if the pallet cascaded to fill the whole screen, I don't need to see the doc window when I'm choosing a prop or pose, it would be nice to see all the props without scrolling. Cascading menues would be nice too, especially for the Body Parts menu.

With the UI dots, if I select the camera dots, or pose dots, I would like them to stay selected untill I change it, not shift focue according to what I have selected, so many times I have clicked on a dot thinking it was a camers dot because that's what I selected, the camera dots, only to find it's now a pose dot because I moved a prop.

I'd like the Open and Save dialogue boxes to remember the last used folder.

When I save an image I would like the default name of the image to be the same as the pz3 name, that way when I do progressive backups I can check the image to see whats in the pz3, and save a lot of typing.

I'd like to be able to save a MAT pose, in fact I like a lot selectivity in what I include or exclude from a pz2.

I'd also like a new file format, same as a pz3 really, but to be able to select the eliments to save to a pallet, so that I could include selected lights props and figures, but exclude eliments I don't want.

I would like Poser to parse files based on their extention, not on which folder they live in, so that I could move poses and hair to the the same folder as a figure, that would make organisation and work flow so much easier.

I've been using Poser for years now but I still double click in the figures pallet when I want to load a new figure, then have to cancl and use the double checks, its just so un-windows, and counter intuitive.

I'm sure there are a million and one other things I've forgoten to mention, but this will have to do for now.

Some things I really love about P5 are the little camera icons above the doc window, and the icons on the left of window for swaping cameras.

I'm starting to get a good feeling about Poser 6, I don't know why but I'm starting to trust you, perhaps it's just that you are asking us the users, and seem genuinly interested in our oppinions, which is a novle experience. I hope you are also going to seek comments on how to improve the Poser scripting language.

Ditto everything Lesbentley just said! Also, replace the Python palette by something more like a file browser. It could look like the present hierarchy window, but with subfolders instead of body parts. Same thing for the main library stuff. P5 introduced a very strange set of repetitive multi-layer menus. A single hierarchy browser would do nicely there as well. (Experienced users don't always need the thumbnail pictures; perhaps a right-click would show the icon for a few seconds.) And the animation keygraph needs improvement. At the VERY least, make it easier to pop up and remove. Hit Esc to kill it instead of having to chase the weird little upper-left box with the weird little hand icon. Ideally, should be able to co-ordinate two or three graphs at once, like my TripleGraph script.

I agree with ockham about the animation. I would like to see the lightwave 5.6 type of key framing for poser. It is quite similar to the poser one but much better. I think the keyframing in the older lightwave is the best in any 3d program. I would also like the ui pose and camera dots to be in a fixed position so that they don`t fly off the screen at times. One thing I would like is to be able to copy and paste ALL parameters in the joint editor and setup room and so on it would make creating figures and adjusting them much easier. Cameras being "real things" so you could make the camera pan and zoom etc to exact places, which would make animation easier.

It would be good if this thread could be edited and sent to curious labs as actual suggestions for poser 6.

I am new to Poser but there are a few things I'd like to change (and if it is already there and I just don't know how to use it, please tell me!). In the material room, every time I enter the room the help file shows up on top of the document window. I tried to minimize it, save the file as the preferred state, no go. When I need to open a file, a PZ3, PZZ or any other kind of Poser files, I can't use the slider in the bottom bar. It either slides all the way to the left or all the way to the right. I have to actually CLICK on it to stop it approx. where I want to go. That never happened or happens to me with any other program. I would love to have a file explorer inside of Poser instead of having to launch and use 3d0Explorer. The dials in the parameter window are hard to use. If you try to roll them one way or the other with the mouse, you can't stop at the right place. And to have to go to the settings every time is time consuming and frustrating. And if the parameter you want to change happens to be at the bottom of the list, you have to use the mouse to slide the bar down in order to have access to its settings menu. The render in Material room should match the document window size of the pose room and not the one in material room. I'd like to be able to activate the compression for PZ3 (PZZ) and at the same time keep the non-compressed saving of libraries files. As it is, it is all or nothing. In my "preferred state", the parameter window is opened and set on the right of the document window. But every time I launch Poser, it doesn't show in the workspace until I click on it in the display menu. Then it will stay on for the rest of my Poser session. The colors saved in the palette: it would be nice if they stayed there for all documents until we change them. Instead of being attached to one document, they should be attached to the workspace. The instruction manual... hum! Maybe it would be a good idea to re-write it completely for Poser 6. First of all, you can't read a complete article on a specific topic without going back and forth from one page to the other. Why is it always referring us to another section of the book? If I want to read about the material room, for example, I would like to go to that chapter and find everything related to that room IN that chapter. And there are way too many shortcuts. (Like when someone very experienced in a certain subject is explaining to a beginner but because the "teacher" does lots of things automatically, he won't think of teaching all the steps to go from A to B. The manual takes for granted that all users are experienced and knowledgeable in 3d world... not true. The CONTENT room: I am still wondering why it is there. When I bought Poser 2 months ago, I tried to use the content room but it was unavailable. I wrote to CL about it and I was told that it didn't matter since I could get there via Internet and I didn't have to use the content room. So if we don't have to use it, why take all that space (and probably file size) in Poser? The thumbnails in the libraries could be larger. Sometimes I have to download a file to be able to really see what it looks like. I'd like for Poser to find the necessary files wherever they may be in the runtime folder. Have it search by filenames instead of folder names or hierarchy. That's all I can think of for now. Imagine if I had been using Poser for many years ;o) That said, I love Poser. You asked for our opinion and I gave it to you but I am not complaining, just writing down a kind of "wishlist". Thanks for reading this. P.S. Being new to Poser, I don't have any idea of who you are. Others seem to know but maybe I'm not the only one who doesn't so could you please introduce yourself (about your role in Poser creation or upgrade? France

Attached Link: http://www.poserpros.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16569

The 3d file explorer in poser idea is not so good, it is not very practical and anyone who didn`t like the way it worked would be stuck with it. It would also make poser a bigger program. The material room idea is not too bad, maybe they could make it so if you click on the small preview you could get a fullsize (or your main window size) material. The poser manual is traditionally bad, it is time for change. You switch off the room help by deselecting it in the window menu, it sometimes comes back but eventually stops.

The things I feel most strongly about. Make poser look like a utility not a video game. User customizable fonts, text sizes and colors. User customizable dockable toolbars. Everything in the pull downs should have an equivalent in toolbar buttons and/or properties attributes (i.e. IK should show up in the properties, likewise for conform to and set figure parent and many more). Everything you can do to a figure or object should show up in the properties/parameters when you have that object selected and when you select nothing you should see the universal parameters (background color, shadows on/off, shadow color, tracking style, document display style, etc) There needs to be an easier way to switch between objects. Picking visually with the mouse has limitations and the menu at the bottom of the document window is a cumbersome method of selecting objects. The hierarchy editor works nicely but takes up a lot of space (needs to more resizable.) add more jump to presets to cameras (currently there is the left and right hand and face camera) I'd like to see almost all the cameras represented. Library could use some serious navigation aids, but i don't have much more time before i fall asleep, so I'll leave it at this much.

I would like to see

1/an object manager in which all things you used in your scene are displayed, can be selected and their properties changed.
2/instead of the confusing double-click on an object in the library to replace it, while the double check icon at the bottom is to add, I would choose Shift-click (or doubleclick) to add, and Alt-click (or doubleclick) to replace.
3/full dual monitor support so that everything can be put on the second monitor, leaving the first one (usually the largest) for the workspace.
4/ replace those icon groups for lights, memory dots, display etc by a toolbar with grouped icons (like the tools on the photoshop toolspalette)
5/ buttons to choose either of two render modes (test or production) wich are fully configurable
I may come up with more soon.

Message edited on: 06/19/2004 03:01

I keep saying this... Poser keeps using a odd mixture of standard OS elements and own-design. For instance, resizing the document window. I can't see any strong reason why that, the camera controls, the light controls, and other stuff which seems nailed in place, could not be a proper window, with the ordinary frames and move/minimise/maximise/close controls. The actual controls for the lights aren't a standard OS function, and don't need to be changed to an OS standard, but sometimes they just seem to waste screenspace while I'm doing something else. Companies such as Microsoft and Apple put a lot of work into the UI design, and a lot of that seems to be ignored in Poser for no reason I can see.

I like posers interface and, when daz studio came out, people complained about that even when they didnt like the poser interface, change isnt always good. Microsofts UIs are ALL the same so they cant be putting too much work into them. They would be better working to get some of there programs to work properly and not be third ( or fourth ) rate.

I'd really like to see much better screen real estate management. The preview window should be given priority for screen real estate and everything else should be designed to leave as much room for the preview window as possible. The room tabs up the top should go and just be replaced by a menu (and some easy hot keys). All of those space hogging round buttons should be replaced by small closely packed square buttons that you can push off to one side. I'd like to see the whole thing have a more standard windows button bar approach - right down to letting me choose which buttons I want on my toolbars so I don't have to display the ones I never use. Any dialogue should remember the options I used last time. I shouldn't have to select my export options from scratch every time I export an obj for example. I agree with all that stuff Les Bently said. I think the floating paramter dials palette should have a little pair of buttons to collapse it to a heading bar and then open it again. It's the most important part of the interface after the preview window, so why is the hotkey for it a three key combo? It should be something really easy, like spacebar for example. In the material room, I'd like the previews to allow me to select different styles - preview material on sphere/cube/actual object etc. The ability to zoom in or out on the material would also be good. For many shaders, I can't tell anything from the preview because the action in my shader is happening outside the very small area the preview shows me. If I could zoom out and pan, I would be able to see what my shader is doing. Also, in many cases the preview is actually upside down. That should be fixed. Also, I'd like to see Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+A implemented in the material room. Having to go through the pop-up menu every time I want those functions is just one more thing that slows me down.

My point is and was that major changes to the UI will be good for some people but bad for others. I agree with ajax about that $%!* floating parameter palette I usually have to switch it on and off about ten times even when using a simple scene.

Ok, working my way up from the bottom, lol (dang -- these are some awesome responses!) (Gee, I'm sorta surprised the images of what it should look like haven't popped up yet, lol) I'll agree with Ajax's want for copy & paste functions in the material room. Man but that drives me nuts with Mil3 figures. My first reaction when I loaded v3 into P5 was "I'm gonna kill DAZ", lol. (which reminds me -- I'd sorta like the ability to select multple material zones at once -- including across objects). In fact, all of Ajax's suggestions are pretty damned sound -- they make good sense to me - no major revisions of the whole thing, just better arrangement. Remember that Poser's UI is psd & XML based -- it's technically a "skin" within a browsable window. Put that info in the hands of some of the skinners out there, and Lord knows what the interface would look like. Some display elements are hard coded, but most of them are completely "skinnable". (Now there's a utility that would be handy -- one that allows you to switch in and out GUI elements. Think of the products sales! We could have DAZ Cyclorama based Poser screens! Hey! Ow! Stop throwing the veggies!) Of the top 10 experts in User Interfaces, 7 work for MS, 1 works for Apple, and 2 work for Adobe. Add in the next five and 2 each to apple and Adobe, 1 to MS. And all of them are working on 3D stuff right now -- Room analogies instead of Folders. With my systems, that would mean getting lost in a labyrinth... Aeneas - good suggestions -- per your last one, though, if you set up your render prefs in P5 for each of them separately, they will remain that way when the prefs are set. Mine don't resemble the default at all, lol. Tyger Purr -- Love your opening, lol. However, that video game look is something that makes it friendlier for the newer folks. Could also be why my kids keep looking for the health bar all the time... I agree, as well -- The properties panel is under utilized -- and as noted as well, is too damn big in P5. Expanding it's capabilities is something I would really like to see (one could theoretically shift most item specific functions to it entirely, elimnating much of the screen clutter). I'd love to take a crack at the User manual myself -- perhaps I should rewrite it and drop it in the marketplace as a PDF? Given how much I love to talk, though, it would probably exceed the file size limits, lol. As for a file explorer and Library elements, I'll talk about them later, in a different thread. Francemi's observations, as a new user, are pretty invaluable. And her note, along with ajax's about the pop up window behaviors are something that needs to be addressed soonest, I think. I believe that there will be some work done with the animation system in the next release, despite it being a "stability" release. The current group of folks involved at CL is pretty heavy on folks that like Anim, and Poser's value as an inexpensive 3D animation tool that's fairly simply to learn and has a low learning curve has given it some pretty broad acceptance beyond our little community here in "real world" situations. Heck, I create Training CD's with it -- using Judy and Don, for the most part. lesbentley's efforts to get under the skin are showing in hs suggestions -- all of them good, simple, usability related stuff of the sort wanted. Clarification: I do not work for Curious Labs. I work for me. I have a long memory and a keen eye for details that are often overlooked. My purpose for htis information does include presenting it to CL in a collated format in a friendlier manner than is usual. Dang, Teyon -- sorry about the suggestion. It was something I discovered in P5 only recently, and by accident -- perhaps it's an error? lol Thank you all -- these are awesome suggestions -- exactly the sort of information I'm trying to collect, and much of this is the sort of stuff that is most likely to be wanted for P6. Not all of it, of course -- have to save some things for P7 -- but stuff that doesn't require a major rewrite of the present code is always a possibility.

A good thing for figure creators would be an undo in the setup room, because as teyon said it would be easy to press the wrong button and in the setup room, one click can mean that you have to start again. An undo in the setup room wouldn`t have to use so much memory as it would only be "memorizing" one figure at a time.

You know, people tell me that Poser uses XML. People tell me the UI is easy to change. So, can somebody tell me how?

me, I'd never say it was easy -- but I also skinned winamp 3 and windows media players for clients, and didn't charge anywhere near enough... To skin Poser, you will need Photoshop or something that can open and save psd files (I don't recall the version) and a text editor (one with XML handling capabilities is pretty handy). Make a copy of your Poser Runtimeui folder someplace safe. Make another copy of that folder someplace where you can play with it forever. Inside that ui folder are the psd files and the XML files that make up the interface. The psd files are VERY specific in size and versioning, and in position of the elements within them -- you have to duplicate them exactly, or else you have to rewrite the XML code to ull from the proper location. The XML controls positioning of the elements within the interface and where the elements are pulled from and during what event. You will note there are a LOT of XML files, and if you are familiar with general XML rules, you wil note they tend to cross reference each other a lot. Basically, change the stuff in theis folder, and yu change the core of Poser's look. It is NOT easy. If it were, it would have been done. It is simple to do, however. It's just text files and psd files, after all...

To my mind the biggest problems relate not so much to the screen furniture as the way it all works. I agree with Les on the lights; but you should be able not only to drop a light into a scene, but lassoo a bunch of them and drag them around. This whole idea that there is always one item selected and only one item selected is crippling. It's an interface issue, but it also goes a bit deeper into the program design.

ynsaen:

that video game look is something
that makes it friendlier for the newer folks.

I think it gives a false sense of simplicity and is excruciatingly limiting to work flow.

And I believe it is one of the reasons (perhaps subconsciously) that others do not take Poser/Poser art/Poser artists seriously.

Standardization would lower the learning curve and allow users to concentrate on their production instead of trying to figure out/learn/memorize what alt + whatever does (especially when alt + whatever is the only way to accomplish your goal).

Toolbars with standardized predictable controls (minimize, close) would be a giant step in the right direction.

There are some tools such as camera control that i do not see a way to
make into astandard windows interface and that is fine. However they, at the very least need to be dockable and have a horizontal orientation.

Library:
Need icons for folders that can be individually customized.
Perhaps a small icon view for navigation in folders
Need faster navigation tools such as bookmarks.
How about short cuts to navigate from your figure, to their MATs or poses
Fast way to switch between run times.

er, thanks, ynsaen... I think... That's computer-generated, computer-readable, obscurity, masquerading as human language.

Place body parts in cascading menus. Have a "meld" function where clothes are melded to the body so that when you select thigh you always get the persons thigh and not their pants Use L & R arrow buttons to switch body sides

"Poser's Interface: What to keep and what to change? (no gripin'...)" My single biggest interface wish would be for the ability to keep several libraries open at once or even better the ability to "drag-and-drop" poser items into an open Poser view window from multiple Explorer or P3dO browsing windows. Scrolling endlessly thru folder lists and back-and-forth between libraries is an incredibly tedious disruption to the workflow.

Amen to that, leather-guy.

1. The Library Pallet should be implemented as a simple cascading menu from the main menu bar. Items should be listed in plain text, and if the user hovers over a leaf item (a figure entry, a MAT pose, whatever) for a given period of time the icon (png/rsr whatever) should appear. The user should have the ability to select options in their user preferences setting 1)time of delay before showing the icon 2)never displaying the icon 3)always immediately showing the icon 4)changing the displayed size of the icons. More often than not I don't need to see the icon to know which thing it is I want to select. For those entries allowing for optional instantiation details (ex. create new figure or replace current figure), by default a pop up window with the option selection widgets should appear to instantiate the item. The user should also be able to configure a default instantiation setting for such things in their user preferences so that the default action is taken when normal ("left" clicking) on the item instead of showing the option selection dialog. The user should always be able to 1)immediately view the icon for the selection and 2)bring up any instantiation option setting dialog by doing an alternative ("right" click) on the menu item. 2) The user should be able to set default paths to resources in their user preferences. The application should use these to begin searches for different resources - ie. the user should be able to select different default starting locations for loading/saving pz files, saving rendered images, loading textures, etc. The user should also have an option to always start with these default paths or to use the last path specified for that particular resource type when dealing with the next action involving that resource type, saved in their user preferences. 3) Since you can only really work with one set of controls at a time, displaying all of them on the screen can be a waste of screen real estate. The default should follow the Photoshop paradigm of selecting a tool to work with and then providing the controls and settings for just that tool. The application should also provide the option to allow for multiple instances of this tool manipulation area, each area dealing with it's own tool instance in the event that users do want to have more than one tool functionality available on screen at a given time.Tool selection should be provided via an optional displayed universal tool pallet, a tool menu from the main menu, a tool menu from the "right" click menu and with keyboard shortcuts. 4)The user should be able to create custom keyboard shortcuts, with the option to make those shortcuts available universally across the application. For instance if you wanted to be able to set a keyframe regardless of what you were working with in the application, you should be able to make it so (for example) ctrl-k will always make a keyframe at the current point regardless of whether you are posing a figure, changing a camera setting or even working in the material room if you want. 5)Figure/prop body part selection should allow an option to be a cascading menu following the element hierarchy of the individual figure (similar to the hierarchy/parenting window in Poser 4). It's a pain to get to the left toe of a 3rd generation DAZ figure by having to scroll to the bottom of the body part list as it is now. In fact you could do away with the separate body part drop down all together and just replace it with a cascading menu off the figure selection in the figure list. Also there should be an optional simple wire frame 2-d mini view of the currently selected figure in the "zeroed" position (regardless of current pose) showing front, top, bottom, left, right, back views with the outline of the body parts of the selected figure allowing for body part selection - as an alternative to trying to grab the body part from the main preview window or using the body part drop down list. There's more I could add, but these are basic ones that should be implemented. Unzipped

I'd like to be able to toggle with a keyboard shortcut between the 'keyframe editor' and the 'graph display'. so that it displays in the same window. At the moment I have to constantly go back and forth between them - a pain in itself but I'm also having to constantly find the green play head when I'm in the 'graph display' (another reason I would like this is because the two groups of buttons on the 'graph display' are miles apart- the keyframe type buttons need to be a lot closer to the + and - keyframe buttons). I would also like any window in poser 6 not to randomly move or change size. I'm happy with the main graphical navigation buttons on the left. eecir

I agree with much of the above, and disagree with some of it, but am too confused to decide which is which..:-))

However, one little thing I WOULD like is some audio feed-back (a beep would do, or the traditional Windows chime) whenever any process that takes (eg) over a minute finishes.
Like rendering, or doing a dynamic cloth calculation....

The reason being that I let Poser get on with it whilst I get on with something else (reading a book, solving a puzzle, eating a meal..) in the meantime.

But I have to keep looking up and seeing if Poser has finished (and if the screen-saver has cut in, watch the red disk light for a minute, to see if there's any activity..and go move the mouse regardless - just to see check).

An audio cue would help me no end..:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

Message edited on: 06/22/2004 15:50

lol!!! It is a rather mind boggling array of stuff, is it not? :) but all of it is good -- culling through it is the trick....

LOL - but DON'T cull mine!! :-))) Cheers, Diolma

I like diolma`s idea about an audio "cue" especially in poser 5 where there is no indicator for a render being finished. I like the -no gripin- by the way, though I should have mentioned it (much) earlier.

Hope this doesn't count as a gripe (and it may be covered in the voluminious material above), but... When a dialogue box appears (eg "Delete the current object? [yes] [no]"), would it be possible to make it modal (ie, the dialogue takes over from the main program and accepts all input, whether from mouse or keyboard)? The number of times I've hit "return" to accept the default -- and set off the animation instead! This would also get over the niggle of having to hit the "Yes, I really do want to quit w/o saving" twice - once to transfer the focus from the main prog to the dialogue, second hit to say "yes". And a number of similar dialogues that currently behave in the same way.. In fact, making ALL the dialogue boxes consistent would be a great help (it took me AGES to work out how to close the animation editor, and it's still fiddly). It might (probably would) get over several other niggles, such as the way that the slider arrows in the file selection (browse) dialogue suddenly take on a life of their own and go whizzing to the end of the list, and that hitting "exit" on a dialogue can very often close the library palette ('cos the main prog got the hit too - but interpreted it as a hit on the background), .. the list goes on. Please, this isn't a rant (or even a gripe), it's a plea for an interface change! Cheers, Diolma

Oh, and while I'm at it (if I'm not too late)... I never use the "translate/rotate/etc.." tools (apart from the grouping tool) 'cos my mouse/hand/eye co-ordination isn't good enough to use them. There seems to be 2 separate types of tools here; 1 set that allows you to use the mouse (immediately) to affect the currently-selected character/prop, and another set that brings up a separate dialogue. That is, some are "direct" and some are "indirect". I'd like it if these could be separated, so that I can hide the ones I don't want to hit (usually inadvertantly). I'd also like the ability to be able to select a group of objects (perhaps by drawing a bounding box that includes them, and be able to exclude any objects included by mistake, or maybe select by clicking on each object in turn), and then be able to move/scale/rotate (etc) the group of objects as a whole in the 3D space. I know I can achieve this by parenting the objects I want to affect to something, but that is really just a work-around, and usually involves creating an additional (non-scaled/moved) prop to act as a temporary parent during the move or whatever, then having to unparent the objects and delete the surrogate parent.. Cheers, Diolma

I don't know if it has been said before but today, after trying different textures for a model, I remembered one thing I would like to change in Poser: when you go in material room and browse to load a new texture, when you do it again for another material (same session), you start at Poser main folder and have to go through all the subfolders to get to the texture you need. Could it not remember the last loaded item? France

I have wanted poser to remember the last loaded item since poser 3.

Well I guess it doesn't hurt to repeat in that case. ;o) If we want to re-use the same item, it's okay, there is a list of recent loaded items, but if we change the file, it doesn't remember the last folder it went to. France

I was agreeing that it could and should be fixed.

I know you were! But you said you've been hoping and asking for that since Poser3... That's why I said it was worth repeating: I guess CL hasn't understood yet! ;o) France

noted :)

Okay another thing. That USE INVERSE KINEMATICS thing. Could someone give me one good reason it is always checked? With almost every character or prop, there is a note to uncheck those things. To me, it means that it is better if those are NOT checked. If that's the case, why does Poser insist on having them checked by default? France

Essentially because it is better to use it than not. That said, there is a long standing tradition within poser to "simply do it my way" -- which means not working within the constraints of IK. IK exists because it allows the figures to better mimic actual human movement, and it ultimately makes it easier to create poses (in particular, animated poses). However, even some of the biggest names in in the Poser world never got a handle on using it, and it annoyed them, so they started turning it off. Others started turning it off, and so forth, and so on. so, less verbose, it's on becuase if you learn to pose with it, it makes life easy. Learning to pose with it is a pain in the butt, though. So turn it off ;)

I use Ik a lot when making poses :) It can be quite useful for certain poses.

The IK for the different parts of the body should be able to be turned on and off using a keyboard shortcut and have a small indecator on the interface to show you the present state of these parts. eecir

Ok, it is better to leave them checked. I won't argue with you on that, I wouldn't know. I follow instructions in the packages I download. Still, there should be an option to turn them off without having to go twice to the menu. I agree with eecir on that. France

I agree about an easier way to turn off ik too.

noted :)