I'm currently working a modified character for Littlefox's Cookie that I hope to get out soon, only I'm having problems with getting shoes from her various outfits to fit properly. One issue is that the rFoot and lFoot bones in some shoes are parented to BODY rather then the shins. It's easy enough to fix, but it's not something that I can fix in *my* product.  The other issue, which I haven't been able to fix, is that the shoes shift a bit when I bend Cookie's shins. I've tried everything I could think of to fix it, but the solution still alludes me. Any Ideas?

Try:

Select the shoe figure.
Open the hierarchy window.
Select a hierarchy chain.
Click the keyboard "Delete" key.
Accept the pop up warning message about not being able to undo.

It is better to use this method to remove unwanted IK chains over using a text editor because there are lines in the actor section that need editing as well as the more obvious IK lines in the figure section.

Well, the shoes in the picture don't even have IK chains, so that's not the problem.  The issue seems to be the scaling of the thighs and shins.  I apply the same scaling to Cookie and the shoes, but the shoes still fail to conform properly when bending Cookie's shins.  Any ideas how I could fix it?

Quote - Well, the shoes in the picture don't even have IK chains, so that's not the problem.  The issue seems to be the scaling of the thighs and shins.  I apply the same scaling to Cookie and the shoes, but the shoes still fail to conform properly when bending Cookie's shins.  Any ideas how I could fix it?

Ah your figure modifications include scaling, unfortunately that is a known issue in poser, conforming clothing does not work properly with scaled bodyparts. has to do with how scaled joint centers do not translate between base figure and conformers.

Thanks for the info.  Is there a way to work around the scaling issue to get the shoes to fit right?  I've tried tinkering with the joint parameters, but I guess don't know enough to set them properly.

Quote - Is there a way to work around the scaling issue to get the shoes to fit right?

You have to apply equivalent scaling to the conforming item.
This can be done using the scale dials.
Once you have the number(s) make a pose to apply them.

Well now, we wouldn't even be having this conversation if that worked correctly.  As you can see from the picture in the first post, the shoes have the same scaling as the figure, but they still don't fit when the shin is bent.  Someone mentioned that I should check the scaling zones in the shoes, so that's the next think I'll try.  Unless you have any other ideas.

If you use an orthogonal camera and set the Document Display Style to Outline, makes it easier to check if the joint centers of the feet and shoes match. You can use the Joint Editor on the feet, then Paste into Background, then select the shoes to see if they match.

Parenting the shins of the shoes to the shins of the character, BEFORE conforming may help. If not, I think the following procedure is worth a try, but no guarantees.

Construct a pz2 with the relevant scaling, and using all the joint parameter channels from your modified figure, from those actors which are common to the shoes. Also include the 'endPoint', 'origin', and 'orientation' lines from near the end of each actor. Inject this pose into the shoes, BEFORE conforming them.

The theory is that if the shoes have exactly the same joint parameters then they must bend in exactly the same way. Because the shoes are slightly bigger than the feet, you may still need to tweak the size of some of the falloff zones slightly to encompass all the polygons in the shoes, but it should at least put you in the ball park.

Please ignore the bit about "Parenting the shins of the shoes to the shins of the character." That's total rubbish. I don't know why I said that.

Poser doesn't work well with scaling.

Two options:

Make the scaling permanent:
Export the scaled object.
Re-import it.
Use the SetUp room to modify the joints to match the new object.

You have to do the same with all clothing items, too, of course.
(But you can use the modified joints of the figure as a starting point)

You can re-distribute the modified figure and any clothing if you encode them against the original meshes.

Second option:
DO NOT CONFORM.
Scale the clothing the same way you scaled the figure.
Then pose it the same way you posed the figure.

Finally parent the clothing to the figure, so you can move the figure around without the clothes falling off.

Of course if you re-pose your figure, you have to re-pose your clothing, too.

Both options ae not very "user friendly", so you relly should avoid scaling in Poser.
(Not to mention that scaling usually deforms/breaks a figure's joints)

Second option: DO NOT CONFORM. Scale the clothing the same way you scaled the figure. Then pose it the same way you posed the figure. Finally parent the clothing to the figure, so you can move the figure around without the clothes falling off. Of course if you re-pose your figure, you have to re-pose your clothing, too. If you can re-pose a scaled figure and then the scaled clothing manually, it should be easy for the programmers to include an option to do this automatically. Why don't they, I wonder?

Thanks for the discouragement!  (ya, that's not something you hear everyday)  It got me to give up on my previously fruitless path to look for yet another.  Since Poser has problems matching the joints on scaled conforming figures, I tried to reduce the problem by hacking the shoe figures off at the shins.  The shoe figures without thigh bones didn't have that problem anyway, so that fixed the bending issue in the shins here as well. 

However, there still was a problem with the feet.  Seeing that the shin scaling was specifically causing the problem here (setting the tracking to "bounding boxes" can be useful), I moved the shoe shin scaling to the shoe BODY and rescaled the feet and toes to match.  The solution I ended up with is a bit of a hack, and it'll still require redistributing cr2 files for the shoes, but at least it works.

Now, I just have to fix some of the morphs and it should be good to go soon!

I made a dwarf character (from WoW) and found that even when scaling the dress she was wearing, the sleeves ALWAYS ended up looking weird.  I found that using a magnet placed in the right area on the arm would allow me to move the offending sleeve.  I know it might not solve the problem if you're distributing to other people, but for "in house" renders of your own, it might be something to try :D

Magnets work well in a pinch, but not exactly fun when doing hands.  ;)