I have no idea why P7 does this.  From time to time, I cannot get the focus distance guide to appear.  Has anyone experienced this and if so have you found a solution?

Gracias,
                       CG

Make sure that the camera name in the parameters pallet matches the camera name in the document (scene) window.

Even then the focus prop (to give it its full name the "FocusDistanceControl" prop), only shows whilst you are actually using the focus_Distance dial. At least that's how it works for me in P6. It's possible to make a pose file that would force the FocusDistanceControl prop to display all the time, but I'm not sure that is a good idea.

I never change the camera names and I've verified this is true in the current project.  I've been using the focus distance dial.  The render shows that this is having an effect, but the guide is simply not showing up.

Thanks for your input though, I do appreciate it.

I thought my idea about having the correct camera view selected was likely to be the answer, but perhaps this is a bug in P7. In which case I have no answer, sorry.

I don't think it was meant that you had changed/modified the camera's name.  It's just that sometimes Poser doesn't realise that you have switched cameras, and it draws the focus control gizmo from a different camera than the one you think you should be affecting (the one you are seeing the view from).  Example would be parameters pallette saying "face" though you have switched to dolly via the icon.  You will see the dolly camera's view, but adjusting the focus is actually still affecting the face camera.  Sometimes you can even see it happening, when the line of sight of the two cameras intersect.

OK so I was able to see the Focus Distance Guide, but I had to zoom way out from my subject.  If I zoom in (no matter what camera I use), the focus distance guide disappears.

OK so I realize now that the focus distance prop is at a SET location.  So going forward, I have to align my subject/scene to the location of the Focus Distance Guide and THEN do adjustments.  Annoying but it works.

Do you mean it's working correctly?  It's quite intuitive when it works right...

Ooops...

What I do is set up the scene, then adjust the focus.  You want the crosshairs to disappear just into your subject.  If you have two actors in the frame, the reticule/crosshairs should be placed between them, at the midpoint of an imaginary line between the two heads .   Just adjust it until you get a sense of the reticule's position.  It's too bad DOF takes sooooo long to render, or we could all just trial-and-error it...

Is "reticule" a word, or am I just drunk?

I've read a few messages on here that start with "I'm an idiot,.."

So it's my turn,..

I'm an idiot.  For the focus distance guide to work properly, you must have the camera set to POINT AT the object you want to apply DOF.

The DOF guide lines will then appear with the correct orientation to the object your camera is aimed at.

I suppose, you could also do this dynamically, by having the camera POINT AT a primitive sphere.  Then the DOF would be oriented wherever the sphere is placed on the subject.  Just make sure the sphere is set to raytrace invisible before rendering.

BTW, I did notice that with extreme perspective, the preview camera is way off from the render.

Thanks for all your help everyone. :)

CG

Glad it's working now.  Funny, though, I didn't ever have to do that.