When transferring a mesh from one's favorite modeling app to Poser, it seems that one has to either lose the smoothing info (dxf) or have one's mesh triangulated (3ds) - or both. Can anyone make a good suggestion here - preferably a no-need-to-buy-extra-software type of suggestion ? PS : I'm X-posting this on Poser and Character Creator forums Thanx for any suggestions.

Use OBJ whenever you can Thip, and if you need a sharp edge split that polygon from the rest iof the model......Steve

Hi, Steve. Unfortunately, I work in Truespace and Amapi (as do many other would-be creators like me), and those apps can't export OBJ. What would be the next best possibility? And if you could elaborate on your hints on edge-making, I'd be one happy modeler - I've been fighting just that problem for weeks, using every combo of beveling, smoothing, sharpening and God knows what else. An' it still ain't working 8-(

...forgot to add that I'm trying to share my meagre skills at modeling for Poser in Amapi, and the Lightwave export is no good, as non-Pro Pack users can't import Lightwave

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/lithunwrap

There is a UV wrapper program called LithUnwrap that can import COB files and save them as OBJ files without having to triangulate first (though it has to triangulate when saving 3DS and DXF for some reason).

I'd try James program and also look at www.anim8or.com its free and imports LW and 3ds and exports obj...it triangulated the porche from truespace but 3 sided polys shouldn't be a problem in poser at least i haven't found them to be.....now i'm not sure how you can do it it TS but in cinema you select a polygon and disconect it, for example look at the top model and how horrible it looks its an extruded plane with 12 points and 9 polygons, if i disconect it it becomes 9 polys with 36 points so even though cinema treats it as one object it is infact 9 and if i pull on a point it will create a gap rather than pulling the model shape about...if you can't find this in TS let me know and maybe we can work on finding it i do have to get some work done in it myself for the magazine but well as you know learning a new app!! LOL.......Steve

This is what the forum's all about! Present a problem and get TWO perfect solutions in less than a day. Both Anim8or and Lith work perfectly. Lightwave export from Amapi goes through Anim8or like a certain substance through a goose, and COB from TS ditto through Lith. Thanx loads, guys - and everyone reading this, please give'em a big virtual hand 8-)

Excellent tip, though Anim8or seems to produce larger .obj files than Poser does. Did a bit of experimenting, and came up with these numbers: Export from Amapi as .lws then import into Anim8or and export as .obj = 135K Export from Amapi as .3ds then import into Poser 4 and export as .obj = 129K Import 135K Anim8or .obj into Poser 4 then export as .obj = 103K I don't know what Poser does to shave about 25% off the file size, but it could amount to a handy saving on larger models. Just though I'd pass along the info. gps

MOST handy for us poor sods on 56K modems, gps. Another big hand for the file crushin' man ;-)

The size reduction when exporting from Poser is because Poser doesn't use normals, they are dumped. Thip, you can use the Masher in your CR2Edit to do this, you'll be done before Poser can even load. By the way, you are way overdue to be sent the latest ver5 beta, I'll get it out to you today. I am doing tutorials, some stuff needs more to explain than what can be crammed into the Manual, very little will be needed to update it(others who are curious: Thip wrote the Manual!) Some of these tutorials are at: http://www.zenwareonline.com/cr2edit/tutorials/tutorials.html New features include: ERC automation, added to original EMC Multiple body part and morph deletion, including ERC Multiple morph transfer ERC morph transfer Recent Files List Dial reordering, so you can put all those chest morphs in the order you want Batch scaling of OBJ's HR2, PP2, PZ2, FC2 opening added Embedded OBJ extraction from all files Remove Kinetics Create null figure for ERC, ERCUnique Name for same MAT file creation, with many options MTL file creator, for P3 users Tutorials on Web accessible from the app Made install independent of Poser folder Dial speed adjuster(not much good, needs some more work) All-new dual window editor, for opening two files at once edit and save ability for both windows, can open all Poser files, opens 22mb V2 in less than 10 seconds on 1ghz machine Choice of OBJ Mashing: OBJ (remove VN lines only) Morph (remove all but V lines) Obj screen: new easier method of renaming and deleting groups and materials User choice for size of UVMap created, primary and secondary Tool to create a new CR2,PP2 and HR2 from files that have embedded geometry; it extracts the geometry and converts the file to use the OBJ that is created, so that the OBJ can be changed in a modeler without having to rebuild the entire CR2/PP2/HR2 Added Make Master CR2 for any figure - strips out materials, morphs including FBM Added obj morph mirroring Enhanced group and material saving in obj window Added removal of groups by PHI hierarchy in OBJ window Optimized Mac line ending fixer, and altered to handle PPP files and Vicki2 Added find/replace for second editing window, MTL support for Editor, right click popup editing commands plus standard keyboard shortcut support Enhanced Material Coordinator, puts materials present in OBJ but not in CR2,into CR2 File Sequence Re-Number-er Automated Geometry Swapping, CR2 and PP2 Dan http://www.neca.com/~dwilmes/cr2edit.html Sorry Win only for software http://www.zenwareonline.com for ZenPaint, ZenTile, ZenGrid and VueMaster

I tried using the Quicktime 3DMF format in a Mac program called modeler. If you can get quicktime 3D, you may be able to convert to OBJ file format.