HI all. I am in the process of buying poser 4 and pro pack and have found many cool downloads for it here at renderosity.com I have a few questions which you may be able to help me with? Is it possible to import a 3d studio model into poser for use in a scene? e.g I saw some really cool star trek models on the net but its a .3ds format and I wanted to use it in poser 4/pro pack. Also when you export a poser model to render in another package do you save the pose in poser then export it to the other 3d package as a .dxf? or is there an easier way? I am new to all this so please be gentle, I am asking so when my new copy reaches me I will be prepared, I will also try searching around for tutorials but thought to ask you guys for help as I usually get great advice from forums I used in the past. Thank you in advance for your help,all of you : )

Most of your questions will be answered when you get Poser and start working with it. Poser has a narrow import/export base, but with the ProPack, you should be able to work with just about any program. Poser will import most 3Ds files.

Poser sometimes chokes or crashes on certain types of 3DS files. I don't know why, but it just does, although not often. You'd generally want to use Poser's Wavefront .OBJ format for exporting, since it creates a .mtl (material) file which will tell your 3D package what colors or textures to apply. DXF is no good, really, because it has no UV mapping info in it, which means applying textures would be extremely difficult or maybe even impossible to get right, not to mention the DXF file sizes are huge, byte-wise.

You can bring in most .3ds files easily with a couple of caveats. 1)Turn OFF all IK on your figure and any conformed clothing, I do this first thing anyway, since it helps me to pose the figure. I hate importing a prop only to have a figure go haywire. This trick fixed almost all my problems. 2)When you import, have it enter grounded at the center of the universe (between your figure's feet). This will enable you to find it, should it be small. Importing a fountain pen into the middle of the body will not help you move it to her hand (it really helps to see what you are doing). 100% is the size of the figure (about 6'), and you can scale a prop later or when importing. 3)Import, position, and parent props before you pose the figure, if possible. (This really helps if you are trying to get a helmet on a head or other close-fitting situation.) Be sure to parent it to the relevant part of the figure! 4)When exporting, use .obj format as mentioned above, if possible. The Pro Pack does have nifty plug-ins, but I haven't tried them to see if they work. Most 3d tools will work with .obj files, and many of the conversion utilities will help translate if necessary. Also, you can use .obj files and bring them into UVMApper (excellent and free) to make you own texture map templates. Have fun! Carolly

When importing objects created in another program, you will often find they are VERY large compared to your figure. This is because Poser uses very small dimensions compared to most 3D packages. - Mark

Save as 3DS not as MAX. Poser imports 3DS.