I am a total rookie. I am just getting to learn the most fundamental controls and tools in this "far-from-standard interface" ;) So it's no surprise to have lost my obj. I brought a "hand" from the library to the scene (replacing the figure), and now I can't find it! I know it seems ridiculous, but like I said, not knowing very well the controls to move around it's totally normal to find yourself in this situation. If I was in 3DSmax all I'd do is use "zoom extent", which will center the obj in my view and voila! I guess I have 2 things to request: 1. What is the control to center things in view 2. Can you point me to a site or webpage with a Fundamental Controls Tutorial? Thanks a lot, JDL

If you click on edit restore camera it will put the camera back to the default position, you shouldnt use the face camera or the hand cameras for posing because they point to the figures hands or face.

As for tutorial, search the forums for "geep". Dr. Geep has tutorials on just about everything that's Poser related (and then some).

Centering an item is not always easy. The geometry itself will have a default position in Poser space that may not be in the center of the Poser universe. Let's assume that the default position is centered. In that case all you need to do if its a prop is select the item, and zero the x, y, and z translations in the Paramiters Pallet. If its a figure you will need to zero translations for the root actor (usually "BODY"), and the base body part (usually "hip"). If that does not do the job, just yell, and we'll look at other ways cntering things. Restore Element (Ctrl+E), and Restore Figure (Shift+Ctrl+F), can also be useful here, though using these will also restore the rotations, scale, and other paramiters. You can control most things by selecting the item and using the paramiters pallet, others by from the menu bar Object > Properties, and materials from Render > Materials. A bit of experimentation with these should be enough to get the basics. After that, look at the tutorials at this site, and others, such as Poser Pros, RDNA, 3D Commune, and Nerd 3D. And if you have a specific question there is usually someone here in the forum who can help.

An alternative way of finding a lost object is to select the Main or Aux camera, go to the menu bar and hit "Object->Point At...". In the resulting dialogue, scroll down (if necessary) to what you are trying to locate and select it. This should point your camera so that it's looking at the offending object. Then select the shy object and use the dials to translate it in x/y/z towards you.. Cheers, Diolma

Wow! I must say, I still don't like much the lack of features in this forum (as I am acostumed to CGtalk.com), but YOU PEOPLE are amazing :) Thank you so much for your very informative replies. JDL

regarding centering if its an imported wavefront obj: - on the import options screen, unchecking everything will import in the same scale, positions, dimensions, etc - if you need to have several items perfectly centered, export them out, then reimport them in with Centered and most likely Drop to Floor options checked, then the imported objects will be centered true to the poser universe center.