Hi all, I'm finally getting around to converting some of my models for use in Poser, and much to my dismay the results are pretty horrific. Obviously something is drastically wrong with some of the cylinders; I've also seen similar "distortions" in subdivided box primitives. I think there was a similar thread recently regarding Poser's definition of cylinders as compared to Maya, but I don't recall any definitive answers. I model in 3DS Max 2010 and export to Poser using the built-in GW OBJ Exporter with the Poser preset checked. If anybody has any advice on what exactly Poser needs in terms of a model's construction I'd really appreciate it. For the record everything imports just fine into every other 3D app I have. (Carrara, DS, Vue) Thanks!

You can get by without changing the construction.  Just look at the CR2 or PP2
file and change the line 'smoothPolys 1' to 'smoothPolys 0' for the whole prop,
or only for the parts that bulge if you can treat them as separate body parts.

Or you can sometimes fix the geometry by subdividing long cylinders or rectangular
shapes, or by splitting or beveling the angles at the ends of such long shapes.

PS: The 'smoothPolys 0' isn't always good, if the shape is blocky enough that
you're relying on the smoothing to make round parts look round.  But I'd say
your circles have enough subdivisions to look round with smoothing turned off.
Poser does a certain amount of smoothing either way; it just does more smoothing
when 'smoothPolys' is 1.

Thanks for the reply ockham!
I tried killing the smoothPolys, but it didn't work. When I model I selectively define smoothing groups and crease angles in Max to get the look I'm after. Do you know if these steps get lost in the translation over to Poser?
At least for the cylinders, I'm starting to think that the issue is with how they're "capped" in Max. I usually tesselate the caps to avoid having a 48-sided N-gon, but I'm not sure what Poser needs.

To keep hard edges in Poser you need to split the verts in UV Mapper.

Here's a quick demo of the difference a split end can make.  Both pictures are with Smooth Polys turned on.  The bulge went away after I split the two little edges at the end of the baseboard.

Smoothing groups and crease angles don't carry over.  Poser only understands
the groups ('g'), the material zones ('usemtl'), the vertex lines ('v'), the UV lines ('vt')
and the facet lists ('f') in an OBJ file.  Anything else just goes over its head.

On the caps, a radial tesselation is good.  You definitely don't want any polygons
with more than 4 sides.

There is a Crease Angle parameter for each body part in the CR2.  If you
don't want to fiddle too much with the mesh, you could try setting this
number to the same value you used in Max.   The Crease Angle doesn't
always prevent bulging, though.

cylinders bulge because poser tries to smooth over the end cap. select the end cap and cut and paste it back. that makes the end cap not connected to the sides of the cylinder and poser wont smooth it.   Split vertex is sort of a overkill version of it.  disconnects more than you need .

Changing the crease angle in poser 7 may be sufficient. A tiny chamfer on the edge also can work .
Poser also hates internal polys . so if you have a cylinder with any end caps left inside because of extrudes , it helps to find and kill them

Quote -
Smoothing groups and crease angles don't carry over.  Poser only understands
the groups ('g'), the material zones ('usemtl'), the vertex lines ('v'), the UV lines ('vt')
and the facet lists ('f') in an OBJ file.  Anything else just goes over its head.

I use smooth groups that I set up in 3dsmax,Poser reads them just fine.

from the manual :" Poser will recognize and support existing smoothing groups in imported geometry. Thus,

if you import figures or objects from another 3D application, Poser will apply smooth

shading according to the imported smoothing group definitions, in the same manner as if

the smoothing groups had been assigned within Poser."

Heres a pic from Poser 5 that illustrates some of the problems . Crease angle in Poser 7 eleiminates most of these .

From left to right

• default 
• small chamfer on top edge
• ends cut and pasted back
• internal polygon from an extrude
• split vertices

Interesting stuff... It makes sense that Poser should at least transfer Max's smoothing groups, but I don't know about the creasing. For example in Max I selectively adjust crease angles of edge loops in areas where I want a "machined-looking" edge. A general crease setting Poser would cancel that out in my mind at least :) **markschum- ****Here's a similar test with the cylinders. I exported them directly from Max into Poser 7 without messing with anything. The chamfer does seem to do the trick.**** **

ah the green one is a known issue. we're not actually sure what it is, other than it's a bug.