Well, I've resolved this problem by other means, but I thought I'd post it out of curiosity. I've been working on a photographic studio. The light-stand/boom stand figures are posable with parented spotlights, so you can actually point the flash-head and get the correct lighting. Each figure's light has a unique name and matching unique shadow cam. So, all went well until I was testing. I loaded 2 of the same figure, knowing that the 2nd one would inherit the 1st one's light, (I was trying something out). What I didn't expect was that when I tried to delete the light or either of the figures, poser (P4) froze on me. So, to recap. Open 2 instances of a figure with a unique parented light. Try to delete the light or a figure. Freeze. Has anyone else ever had this? mac

I can't say I remember if this crashes Poser for me or not, but then I try to avoid loading two instances of a figure with lights parented. Even if Poser does not crash, It seems to get confused by having the same light loaded twice, for one thing the intensity of the light is likly to double. I have a feeling that Poser actually does load two lights, it's just that they both have the same name, so they can't be differentiated. Do the lights use 'parent' or 'smartparent' statements, if it's 'smartparent' then you could try changing it to normal 'parent'.

hi les, I'm using 'parent' statements. I don't think smartparent would change much. Adding 2 figures like this isn't a thing I would normally do myself, but I was testing and trying to break things. Well, I suceeded there. As I said, it's no big deal. I resolved the issue by making 10 unique lights with different properties. That way, the users should never need 2 of the same light. But I'll put a large warning in the help file anyway. But someone, somewhere will do it. One other thing, though I doubt if it could make a difference, is that these were all saved out of P6. But of course, P4 just ignores what it doesn't understand. Mind you, P6 adds some real crap to files. I can see poser bloat becoming a major problem. Every figure now has a 'CenterofMassPropGoal' actor and body part. It's supposed to help with IK, and even if figures don't need it, P6 automatically adds it the second you open anything. My figures don't even have weld statements, never mind IK. Not to mention that P6 adds shadow cam materials, complete with all the shaders and all sorts of other weird rubbish. The cr2 is becoming a jungle. Oh well, thanks for the reply. cheers mac