Hi there, I'm very new to poser (purchased poser 5 secondhand) & have no clue how to open some of the files. I can open the .pz3 project files, but am stumped on the others... there are .obj, .rsr & .cr2 files as well as others. I tried importing the .obj files, but they are textureless... no idea how to open the other 2 formats. Can someone please help?? I'm trying to open the xmas tree (indoor) from Poserworks along with others. I'll buy a book this weekend, but would love to get started today. Any help would be wonderful! Thanks. Regards, Michelle

First of all, welcome to Renderosity and the Poser forum. (and the Poser addiction). The rsr files are thumnails. You don't actually open those, Poser uses them to generate thumbnails for some items. (That's actually a carry-over from Poser 4 - Poser 5 uses png's for thumbnails. The cr2's are accessed thru Poser's Figures library. The .obj's in the Geometries folder are used to generate the geometry for the cr2's and pp2's . (Do not move any of those obj's because Poser will look for them in the place where they're supposed to be when you load the Cr2. The best thing to do is to look thru the manual (or if you don't have the printed manual, then there is a pdf version of it on the CD) for how to load Poser files and import other types of files (ch. 14). Also, click on the Poser Forum banner at the top of the Forum, and that will take you to the Backroom. There, on the right you will see a menu that looks like the libraries menu in Poser. Click where it says "tutorials", and there you will find everything you need to get started. And if you have any more questions or run into any problems, don't hesitate to come here to the forum and ask. People here are more than willing to help out a newbie (as I discovered when I was a newbie some 3 or 4 years ago). Jeff (martian_manhunter) Poser Moderator

Those files are accessed through Poser itself; you don't need to open them individually. OBJ are the actual 3D meshes; RSR contain the thumbnails for the library items, which include CR2, PZ2, PP2, HR2, FC2, CM2, LT2. Open Poser, and when you look in Figures>People (or whatever), each item you see is the thumbnail depiction for a CR2 file (in P5, the RSR will be 'mined' for a PNG image file when that library folder is first opened by the program). A Face library will be composed of FC2 files, a Prop library will be composed of PP2 files. etc..

If you are trying to open the Xmas tree, it should have come in a zip file that had the correct paths to the libraries, starting with "Runtime." Unzip the file into your Poser 5 directory, tell it to retain subdirectories, and it should all end up in the proper library locations to use. Don't try to open the files from the zip, or individually in Explorer (assuming you're using Windows)

Good luck! It's fun! :-D

And that is why Dr. Geep is Da Man!!! Excellent chart!

Thanks Geoff. ;=]

Wow... thank you all for the responses. I was waiting for "just read the manual idiot!"... which is the point, I don't have it! :( So thank you for not flicking me off. :) Anyway, I can open certain things without a problem. Others... AAARRGGHH. Use this as an example: http://freebackend.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=104. I've extracted into posers directory... now step by step, how do I open this in poser? I see "cookie" objects in the Geometries folder, but I don't open those right as it is textureless? Which file do I open? Very confused.... Michelle

Without downloading and extracting it myself, I'd say look in your "Props" directory for a logical folder name, such as "Christmas" or some such. Another tactic would be to re-run the .EXE, and at the end, the DAZ installers normally ask you if you want to view the Read Me file; say, "Yes," and it should tell you where the files are located. The key to remember is that everything you download and either unzip or install should end up accessible through your Libraries, and if you're not totally comfortable with the program yet, by all means read the Read Me files to find out where to look.

Here's a trick I use when installing, as well: I have a dummy directory on my HD which contains a copy of Poser.exe (no need to copy any other files or subdirectories). I install my new products to that directory, rather than to the working Poser directory, and then I look through them before moving the "Runtime" and "ReadMe's" folders to Poser proper. This allows me to do a couple of things: change MAT poses to Camera files, since my Poses library is packed to the gills, and by simply moving Pose files to the Camera directory and renaming the extensions from "pz2" to "cm2", they work just fine (DO NOT TRY THIS UNTIL YOU ARE VERY COMFORTABLE WITH POSER!!!!!!!). I also change the "ReadMe's" folder to "Read Me," which is how I have it in my set up, and I can also create and use subdirectories for the different vendors, which better organizes my ReadMe files and makes it MUCH easier to know who created something when I want to credit them.

We're really very friendly around here, magnus13; it's much less likely you'll get an RTFM response than at some websites, if it's clear that you're sincerely asking a question :-D.

Hi, Yes, there is a cookies diretory in "props" in the "libraries" folder, but I can't open anything there... at least, not by using "file", "open". Should I be importing?

Ahhh.. "imported" a file & it worked. See, I was just trying to "open"... yay!

If the pack/object you downloaded is "poser ready" (most products you find in poser categories on websites are) than you shouldn't be importing anything - just look at the readme file in the compressed file, if there is one, otherwise browse your libraries and look for newly added categories (only a few install the objects inside already existing ones, but they are usually noted in the readme anyway). Most objects - i mean meshes, physical objects (well, virtual ones...) - show up in the figure or props libraries, so it is usually the first place to look. Textures usually show up in the pose folder (which isn't extremely intuitive). Lastly, some packs do not install everything as "ready to use" but require you to rearrange the files into the various directories before using them - check to see if you end up with some subdirectory in the poser main directory that wasn't there before (IIRC the installation only put a runtime directory there). If this is the case, first look inside that "new" directory and see if it contain a "runtime" subdir - in which case just cut that and paste it in the poser main dir and answer yes when the system ask if it should overwrite the files (in windows, if you're using Mac i don't know). If neither this is the case, and the dir only contains the various files, only thing you can do is look at the chart from geep above to see where to put them. Sorry for the confused explanation, and i hope this help, Grim

I just read your last post - maybe we were just addressing the wrong problem - since you said you don't have the manual - are you using the libraries? They should be on the right side of the screen, accessible by clicking on the small line there (or by using the view/libraries menu item IIRC). You should only use file/open to reload saved scenes (.pz3 files) and file/import to load non poser-ready files (such as 3dstudio meshes or .obj files without poser support). Poser-ready files should be loaded through the library, otherwise you can run into big problems with moving parts.

I was waiting for "just read the manual idiot!"... which is the point, I don't have it! << Actually, there is a pdf copy of the manual onn the CD, and it can also be found in your Poser 5 directory (the poser installer automatically copies it to there). That document is identical to the printed manual

You little beauty! Thank you Grim! :) I didn't have that up. I thought I was going bloody crazy as I couldnt see anything people were saying should be there! I'm so happy! I'd hug you if I could! :) .... off to have a celebratory beer & recover from my embarrassment...

Glad that helped - now just show us what you can do ;)