After recommendations from odf, I've started using a neat array of five lights, and it would be nice to save them to my library. In brief, the light setup is as follows: MainLight (a spotlight) LightSquare (a single-sided, invisible square parented to the MainLight) AddLight1 through AddLight4 (four more spotlights, parallel to MainLight but offset by a distance of 1, and parented to LightSquare) This allows me to move MainLight around and have the other four lights track it, and I can change their offsets from MainLight by scaling LightSquare. The five lights tend to give softer shadows, much like using a diffuser box on a real-world light. Anyway, I'm trying to save this lighting setup, but when I try to save it in the Lights section of the library, it only saves MainLight. When I try to save it in the Props section, it doesn't include the lights. Any suggestions?

When you went to save your light array did you click on select subset and check on each light you wanted to save? Still won't save your prop or any parenting but it will save all your lights. But if you have the square present already, then when you later bring in your lights they should smart parent to the square.

When I went to do the select subset, only the MainLight was shown. The ones further down the parenting tree were not shown. Isn't there a way to save an entire scene (lights, materials, etc.) as a prop?

Poser, as far as I know, will only save props in the Prop library, lights in the Light library and so on.

I think the only way you can do this is to save as a PZ3, edit that file using a text editor, then rename to PZ2.

The best way to see exactly what you need to have in the file, would be to save the lights and prop seperately (to be used for comparison), then when editing the PZ3 you need only what is in the LT2 and PP2 files (the difference will be that the PZ3 will have the parenting information).

I think there are some light sets in the FreeStuff that use this technique, so examine them to see how it's done.

And I officially unmask my ignorance with this followup question: Just what's the difference between a PZ3 file and a PZ2 file, and once I have the PZ2, is it restricted in which directories it can live in? (But behind the unknowns of your answer, I sense the solution.)

Attached Link: The Poser File Disposition Guide, Part 1

A pz3 is a Poser document or "scene" file. A pz2 is a pose file. A pp2 is a prop file. A cr2 is a character file. All except pz3 must be placed in the correct path within the poser library. I don't think nruddock's sugestion will quite work, because a pz2 can't load a prop, but the idea will work if you use a pp2 file extension. Editing down a pz3 so that it only contains the lights and shadow cams, then saving it as a pp2, is probably the most elegant and professional way, but it is also a lot of work. Here is an easy way to achive what you want. Download and install my 'MinFig' from the Free Stuff. With your light set loaded in Poser load MinFig. Parent "MainLight" to MinFig. Save MinFig back to a Figures pallet with a new name (say "MyLights-001" for instance). Props lights and cameras parented to a figure will save and reload with it. Because in your case everything is parented to, or part of a parenting chain that leads to MainLight, if you parent MainLight to MinFig, then save it all the children will save with it. For more info on where Poser files go see the link above.

Sorry about the typo

P.S. I should add a word of caution about saving lights as discribed in post #6. If you load a light that has the same INTERNAL name as a light that already existes in the Poser document then you will get problems. For one thing the two lights will merge and become one light with double intensity. Note that the internal name is not necessarily the same as the name that appears in the menu. The cure for this, if you are following the method in post #6, is to open the cr2 you saved in a text editor and do a 'Search and Replace' of these text strings: 'spotLight' with 'MyspotLight' 'LIGHT' with 'MyLIGHT' 'SHADOW_CAM_LITE' with 'MySHADOW_CAM_LITE'