Hello, Im wondering if it is possible to extract just the boots from my Victoria Changing Fantasy Suit, and make a prop or conforming figure out of them. I tried using Hierarchy Editor, but that didnt work, had no subset option to save just the boots as a figure, and no option to save as a prop at all. Is there some way to extract just the boots from its library files or would that be prohibitively difficult? Thanks :) Logan

If you have Poser 5 you could use the grouping tool to
select just the boots and create a prop from them.

Go to Editing Tools. The Grouping tool is the 4th one
from the right, the box looking thing with a dot in the
middle.
Click it and a dialogue box pops up. Everything goes
gray. Now click on an item and it turns red. So click
on the boots. Use the - sign to remove parts you don't
want and the + sign to add them back if you removed
the wrong part.

Then in the dialogue box click Create Prop.
You should now have a duplicate of a boot which you can
save as a prop. Do the same thing for the other boot.

Hello dbowers22, Thank you for the suggestion, but Im afraid it isnt working. the vicki changing fantasy suit seems to have every piece, the armbands, the skirt, the boots, all attached to each other. Plus and Minus buttons have no effect, and the delete key deletes the entire outfit regardless of which specific part is highlighted. Is there any other way to do this? Logan

You could make the rest of the outfit transparent or make them invisible!

Yep thats what ive done so far, but I wanted to see if I could extract the invisible items so that If I want to bring in the top, and skirt, and boots, I dont have to have three full sets of invis VCFS items in the scene bloating my .pz3 and making the hierarchy editor look like War & Peace ;) Is this something that could only be done by dissecting the .cr2? Logan

Open the Obj in Uvmapper, using the materials select the boot then invert the selection and hit delete (not sure if the free uvmapper can do this you may need pro).....save the obj, lets say the suit was call CFSuit.obj, so save it as CFSuit-boot.obj or something like that, now open the CR2 in a text editor (edit pad lite is great for this and free) and change the reference to the obj to read CFSuit-boot.obj and save the cr2 with a new name, you now have a pair of conforming boots ;o) the obj reference in the cr2 will look like this BTW figureResFile :Runtime:Geometries:DAZ:CFSuit.obj there are 2 of these to change.......Steve

I'm assuming that the entire outfit is contained in one big OBJ geometry? You can test that by importing it into Poser (all options unchecked). If so, you'll need to cut up the OBJ file first, then prepare a CR2 to use it. Not as difficult as it sounds, fortunately. Do you have either of the following? 1) John Wind's Compose or 2) UVMapper Pro? Either of these will make short work of dissecting the mesh, and more importantly, will retain the vertex ordering so that morphs will still work. Some modellers will mess this up. Let us know what you have, and what sort of experience you have doing this sort of thing, and instructions will follow. :)

Cross-post... Free UVMapper can't delete mesh, only the Pro can do that...

Good Evening Gentlemen :) UVMapper Pro = got it practical experience = dont got it Or, for you mathmeticians out there, my UVMapper experience is diddly divisible by squat. Logan

OK it appears it is all in one big .obj, and when I hit Select by>Material, im faced with: Boot Cuffs Boots Soles standing by :) Logan

Ok we'll do it step by step, i don't have the suit so i'm winging it on that...what you need to do is find the materials for the boots so check whats what in poser just so you know what you need in uvmapper.......open the obj in uvmapper and go Select-Select by-Material....you'll see a list of materials on the obj click then Ctrl click the ones that are on the boots......hit the Tab key on your keyboard and you'll see a 3d image of the boots so you can check all is ok.......if so hit tab again and then go Select-inverse, or Ctrl+Shift+I then hit the delete key, you'll be left just the boots......save these as i mentioned in the last message and hack the cr2....are you ok with cr2 hacking, if not fire back.......Steve

You got it....you need to Ctrl click the "Boots" so you have those and the cuffs selected then follow as above.....Steve

Attached Link: http://www.morphography.uk.vu/texthack.html

Steve had it right - to amplify a bit:

1. Assume you want just the toes, feet, and shins to get the boots by themselves. Add thighs if they're tall boots.
2. Open the geometry OBJ in UVMapper Pro.
3. From the select menu, choose select by group.
4. In the group list, select everything that isn't toes, feet, shins (and maybe thighs). If you hold down CTRL while clicking, you can select many items.
5. Press Delete, and OK the dialogue that asks you if you really want to. :)
6. If you press Tab, you'll see the 3D preview to check if you got the right bits.
7. MOST IMPORTANT: save the model under a different name!
8. Hack A COPY OF the CR2 as Steve describes.
9. Open the boots in Poser to check if they work, then save back into the library to get the thumbnail.
10. You can hack the CR2 further to clean out unwanted materials etc., but I'll leave that for now... There are some tutorials at my site that should help with that stuff.

Cross-posted - I don't type as fast as Steve. :) I'll leave this here in case it's useful.

Message edited on: 09/09/2004 04:31

Message edited on: 09/09/2004 04:33

You spell better though Bob :o).......Steve

Gentlemen..........These boots are made for WALKING!!! I think its an official success :) Somehow the thighband came thru with the export, not sure how but ill go thru the UVM steps again. If its not fixable, I could care less, its now only ONE item to make invisible. Ive now got, in addition to my VSFS 1 and VSFS 2 .cr2's, a VCFS-Boots.cr2, and im about to make a VCFS-Bodice.cr2, and a VCFS-Skirt.cr2, and once ive got seperate items, ill do some magnet work on the skirt and bodice and expand my Handspan Studio Elf's wardrobe :) Thank you so much, your instructions couldnt have been easier to follow! Logan

Yesss... :) Since you had to include the thigh groups to get the whole boot, anything else in the those groups would be included as well. If the thigh band is a separate material, just select by material in UVMapper and delete that too. If not, you may have to select it by hand.

this is surreal!! The thighband doesnt exist as fas as UVMapper is concerned. There is no thigh group, nor is there a right thigh material, yet in ALL three new .cr2's ive got a thighband as well as the bodice, skirt, and boots! Really wierd, but what the heck. Ill just set them to invis in the Edit>Materials and then resave the .cr2 I spose. Logan

If you select the band in Poser, the corresponding body part name should appear underneath the document window. But, yeah, make it invisible, it isn't using a lot of resources. :)

You can take the obj into Anim8or (a free modeler) and cut the boots out of the obj, and save them again > import the boots into Poser and make smart props out of them T.V.

Boots don't work very well as smart props, in my experience. Since these ones cover thigh - shin - foot - toe groups, there would be some part of them that didn't bend properly no matter how you parented them. The method we've been through here has the advantage of preserving the grouping information (which Anim8or doesn't do), so that it's easy to make a conforming item with what's left. Anybody looking for a free solution should try John Wind's Compose, which can delete by group and / or material in the same way. It requires Java, but will work on Macs also.

I see you already have some answers, I don't have time to read them all, if they work thats great, if not this is a method I used to do a similar thing, I'm not saying it is the best method, just that it worked for me, and sometimes it can be good to have alternative methods to try. This is the method I used. Open the cr2 for the Fantasy Suit in a text editor, determin the name and location of the obj file. Sve a copy of the cr2 as "Boots.cr2" (for example). Import the obj file into Poser, un-tick all import options. Open the Grouping Tool, use "Spawn Props". Delete the original obj you imported from the Poser document (NOT from disk!), then delete all the objects that are not part of the boots. Export all the boot parts to one obj file "Boots.obj", tick only "Include Body Part names", "Include Existing Groupes..." and "As Morph Target..." in the export options. Reopen the "Boots.cr2" in a text editor. Edit the two "figureResFile" lines to point to "Boots.obj". Resave the cr2. Reostart Poser and test "Boots.cr2", Hopefully you now have a conforming pair of boots. Notes: I am not absolutly sure I gave the best export options for the obj file, but these have worked for me in the past. Although the cr2 only contains geometry for the boots it still lists all the actors from the original file. If you like you can go through the cr2 and change "hidden 0" to "hidden 1" and "addToMenu 1" to "addToMenu 0" for various actors to hide them from the menu, i.e:

actor hip:1
        {
        name    GetStringRes(1024,6)
        on
        bend 1
        dynamicsLock            1
        

There is probably a lot of stuff you could delete from the cr2, but off the top of my head I am not sure what is safe to delete and what is not, you would have to experiment, safest is just to leave it all there.

Smart prop boots
Low boots can be parented to the foot with inherid bends checked. They will follow the movements of the toes, foot, and shins.
High boots have to be parented to the shins > they will follow the thights, shins and foot movements.
Works most of the time> if you need more, you can always add a magnet or two.
T.V.
Any clothing can be cut out with anim8or, saved as a separate obj, and reused as a smart prop.
Smart props follow the movement of the item just above and below it in the hyrarchie ( if you put the vink )
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I use it all the time. A lot faster and less trouble than boning and playing with joints .. LOL

Message edited on: 09/09/2004 18:13

Looks like that thigh band is the VCFS item listed as Right Thigh in its body parts. That right thigh isnt a selectable option for either Materials or Groups in UVM. Ive taken a look inside the .cr2 I found where the figure { name vcfs is located, and changed these to figure { name Boots figure { name Bodice figure { name Skirt To have custom figure names displayed Ive found a LOT of references to rThigh so I dont know how simple it would be to edit out the band in the .cr2

Look in the cr2 for another obj reference. havne't looked at the VCFS in a long time, but I know it's got switching geometry. There are 2 main OBJs, one for VCFS1 and another for VCFS2, but there's also some extra objs. I think if you get rid of those references, you should be good to go.