I exported a few figures from Poser 7 as .OBJ files as usual.  I wanted to alter materials by bodypart so I decided to import them into Bryce 4 since it doesn't import via material zone like Bryce 5 and 6 do.  But when I tried to import them, the OBJ files were not where I'd saved them.  I tried doing a search in Windows 7 but the files were not found.  With Windows Explorer, I looked in the folder to which they were exported (I verified by trying to do it again from Poser) but the files were not there.

I launched Bryce 5, navigated to the folder, and there they were.  Bryce 6 could see them too.

I made sure that file extensions were not hidden and that all files, including hidden ones, showed in Windows.  It's weird that Bryce 4 can't see them, but why can't Windows 7 see .OBJ files?

well, having a few hundred OBJs on my system, I can tell you, Win7 has no problems at all with OBJ files. sees them just fine here....

Obviously, if it can see them though Poser and Bryce 5 and 6.
Why can't my Windows 7 see them through Explorer, and does this have something to do with why Bryce 4 can't see them?

I don't know; I started with Bryce 5. But unless Bryce 4 can't handle objects (wierd, but not impossible; Bryce 4 is going waaay back...;) you might ask the folks in the Bryce forum here; they'd probably have a better explanation...

Bryce can handle OBJ files from waaaaay back, and I've been using it (and Bryce 5 and 6) for years.  It's such a weird problem, and frankly, I wasn't sure where to post this.  I think I'll take your advice and ask the folks in the Bryce forum.

Check your view of Explorer in Folder options and make sure you can see all the files you want.

Are you sure you're exporting them as OBJ & not OBZ? Poser 7 has the option to save things compressed & Bryce won't be able to use them if they're compressed.

Yes, I did that.  Made hidden files and file extensions visible too.  I can see the old .OBJ files transferred over from my old computer with Windows 7, but Windows 7 and Bryce 4 cannot see the .OBJ files Poser 7 makes on the new computer running Windows 7.

Yes. I don't use compressed files in Poser.  What's weird is that Bryce 5 and 6 can see the files, but not Windows 7 or Bryce 4.

Can you open one of those OBJ in Bryce5/6 & export it back out? Bryce 4 might be able to see it then, does anyone know if the obj format has changed since Bryce4 was released?

OH yes before I forget, are you running Bryce 4 in XP compatability mode? can you try it with Vista mode instead & see if that fixes it? are you running it as administrator?

Quote - Check your view of Explorer in Folder options and make sure you can see all the files you want.

Did that already.  No hidden folders and no hidden file extensions.

Quote - Can you open one of those OBJ in Bryce5/6 & export it back out? Bryce 4 might be able to see it then, does anyone know if the obj format has changed since Bryce4 was released?

OH yes before I forget, are you running Bryce 4 in XP compatability mode? can you try it with Vista mode instead & see if that fixes it? are you running it as administrator?

I opened one of the .OBJ files in Bryce 6 and exported it out.  Bryce 4 and Windows 7 still couldn't see it.  I tied running Bryce 4 in XP mode (SP2 and SP3), Vista, and again in Windows 7 as administrator.  Nothing changed.  And yet Bryce 4 and Windows 7 can see the old OBJ files my old computer made just fine.

It seems that they don't like the OBJ files that Poser makes on this computer.  So I tried exporting something from Poser as a LWO file and a 3DS file.  They couldn't be seen either by Bryce 4 or Windows 7.  So it seems that Bryce 4 and Windows 7 don't like any files that Poser 7 and 8 make...on this computer.

windows itself should not care what is in the file, it simply uses the extension to pick a related application. Any application should see the file, if the operating system can see it,  but may generate an error trying to load it.

I would suspect an authority issue , possibly one app is creating files as administrator and the other app doesnt see them if its a user.

I suggest you look at the security on your old files and the two apps involved , and see if that sheds any light on it. That should be in object properties. If windows 7 has it, the admin event viewer might show some security issues.

Quote - windows itself should not care what is in the file, it simply uses the extension to pick a related application

Yes.  I know.

Quote - Any application should see the file, if the operating system can see it

and the application supports the file type

Quote - I would suspect an authority issue , possibly one app is creating files as administrator and the other app doesnt see them if its a user.  I suggest you look at the security on your old files and the two apps involved , and see if that sheds any light on it. That should be in object properties. If windows 7 has it, the admin event viewer might show some security issues.

All the files in question were created by the administrator (me) on the old computer and this one.  Permissions are granted for anyone to create, access, and modify files.  I checked the event viewer but there was nothing regarding a conflict of authorities.

I read somewhere the other day that extensions are treated differently in Windows 7 if they're upper or lower case, so OBJ is not the same as obj. I could be wrong as my memory isn't too good this early in the morning but I'm clutching at straws here, I'm really stumped! ;)

Maybe time to contact Microsoft. Other than that, I found a similar problem via Google - images saved in PSP seen by PSP but not by another app or Windows. The solution there was turning off UAC but that person was using Vista. The only other thing I found was files not showing up until Explorer was refreshed (F5) but I don't think that would apply if you've gone back multiple times and not found it.

Is it possible that Poser is running under another account? Are saved images lost as well? Longshot - is indexing service running - not sure whether it applies to just viewing in Explorer or only searching. When you can see a file i.e. in Poser's open file dialog, right click and look at properties - is the location what you think it is or some user data folder that Windows is putting it in?

You might try usinf Everything (http://www.voidtools.com/) a very neat little file search utility. If it can see the files, maybe the author can shed some light on the problem. He's pretty savvy on the inner workings of NTFS.

Let us know when/if you find the answer, I'm really curious as to what it might be!

Do you have the option to see all extensions?

I read that  there is a registry key you may need to change: registry key called "NeverShowExt"....do a search in your registry to see if you have this key and it is attached to .OBJ

Sharen

here is a link that explains the NeverShowExt:  it may help explain:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2979598/Invisible-file-extensions-on-Windows

Where are you saving? Both WIndows 7 and Vista are very reluctant to let you place files in the Program Files (or Program Files (x86)) folders - instead, any attempt to write to those folders is shunted to UsersYouAppDataLocalVirtualStorepathyouweretryingtosaveto. AppData is a hidden folder, so if that is what is happening you will need to enable the display of hidden files and folders in the Folder Options applet in Control Panel (or just save to a location outside Program Files).

Quote - Where are you saving? Both WIndows 7 and Vista are very reluctant to let you place files in the Program Files (or Program Files (x86)) folders - instead, any attempt to write to those folders is shunted to UsersYouAppDataLocalVirtualStorepathyouweretryingtosaveto. AppData is a hidden folder, so if that is what is happening you will need to enable the display of hidden files and folders in the Folder Options applet in Control Panel (or just save to a location outside Program Files).

Interesting stuff:
First, I looked again at the folder the OBJ files were supposed to be in (Bryce 5.5 directory).  I'd already enabled all files visible in the folder options so I assumed that all files would be visible.  Then I saw the "Compatibility Files" option at the top of the Bryce 5.5 folder.  I clicked it, and many more files appeared, including the OBJ files.

So Windows 7 could see them.  Honestly, I'm not getting the concept of having to do something to see all files when All Files Visible is enabled already.  But at least there's a way for me to see that Windows 7 really does see files I've saved.

That option is not present in the Bryce 4 file dialog though, so that still meant that Bryce 4 could not access the files I now knew were there.  My next step was to disable the UAC completely.  I restarted the computer, launched Bryce 4 and looked in the file dialog, and there were the OBJ files...visible.

To test things, I made a new OBJ file in Poser 7 and saved it.  Bryce 4 could see it.  You'd think things were fine now, right?  I launched Poser 7 again, and for some reason it asked for my serial number and the serial number of a previous version of Poser.  Why?  My Poser 7 install was not an upgrade.  Is this because I chose to run it as an administrator?  And why all of a sudden?  Anyway, I looked high and low for my old Poser 4 serial number, but couldn't find it and finally decided to copy my runtime to an external hard drive, uninstall Poser 7, and do a clean reinstall.  The setup disc, which ran perfectly last week when I loaded Poser 7 onto the new computer, would not work.  I ended up copying the entire contents of the setup disc onto my external  hard drive and installing it again.  Then I copied over the runtime I'd saved previously.  It seemed to have worked, but now whenever I launch Poser 7 and try to save a file, it crashes.  I'll deal with that later.  I have Poser 8 and added Poser 7's runtime to it anyway.

I then went back to make sure that Bryce 4 could still see the OBJ files after disabling the UAC.  Now, it could not, even though I verified again that the UAC was disabled.  I was ready to cry and break things, but decided to continue with the suggestions all of you have given.  The first thing I did was direct Bryce 4's "Import" file dialog to the User/Me/App Data/Local folder where I found a duplicate Programs(x86) directory there.  I looked inside the appropriate folders there, and there, in all their glory, plain as day, were all the OBJ files I'd made and searched for.

While looking for more of an explanation about the Compatibility Files option in Windows 7's help option, I found yet another blurb about permissions, but what was really interesting was the mention of the Public files and how they were "open to all".  As a test, I saved a new OBJ file to my Public Documents file and then went into Bryce 4 to look for it.

There it was.

I'm still at a loss for the permissions problems when everything should have been ok.  I still might try to turn the UAC on again slightly and see if the OBJ files in the User/Me/App Data/Local folder and the Public Documents folder are visible to Bryce 4.  And I still don't understand Poser 7's weird behavior, but at least I can do what I need to do now.

To all of you...Thank You for all your input.  It's nice to know you're here.

Ah, so it was UAC related. Looks like a pretty good explanation here: www.hanselman.com/blog/CommentView.aspx

Bryce 4 would likely be using the older file dialogs. I can understand what they're trying to do, but it should be more transparent. Apparently the compatibility option makes the files look like they are there but they are really in a different location. You colud try making a shortcut on the desktop to the actual location and see if using that works - it would be faster than having to navigate to it each time in apps that don't have the new dialog. I'd just avoid saving anything to the restricted folders like program files, which is a good idea anyway.

So if someone switched off UAC before they did anything else the first time they started Win7 they'd never have this problem? sort of defeats the object of having UAC in the first place doesn't it? I know it's better in 7 than it was in Vista but it's still not quite there yet.

Good to know all this, it truly was a learning experience for us all.  Glad it finally worked for you.  Sharen