Quote - Thanks all!  I'll give it a try as soon as my blood transitions from a roiling boil to a gentle simmer.  Really, I appreciate the help, but is it me, or is this program really tough?  It's like nothing I've ever used before, mostly because of the really poor documentation and dearth of comprehensible learning material online.

Mike

It's because their documentation is written by the software techs.  The documentation is poor and not understandable.  The video "tutorials" are little more than a sales commercial.

Don't get me wrong, I use and like DazStudio, but you are truly on your own learning it.  After a year of struggling with it, I broke down and took a $25.00 DAZ class at Visual Arts Academy.

If you are interested in the basics, there is a book available (Figures, Characters and Avatars) which is well written for that purpose.  In addition, for the 20 something dollars for the book, you get several hundred dollars worth of software with it as well.  The CD which comes with the book contains Hexagon 2.5, D|S and Carrara 6 Pro, along with several hundred dollars worth of characters (Gen 4), morphs, clothes and props as well.

You can get the book at Amazon or at Daz, but you get serial numbers for Carrara and Hex as soon as you pay if you purchase at Daz.
http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/-/figures-characters-and?item=9166&_m=d