I was able to - export V4 from Poser 2010 Pro to an OBJ - import that OBJ into Lightwave 9.6 - open the polygon statistics panel in LW - see and select the different poly groups (head, neck etc.) in the "Parts" dropdown list of the statistics panel

Now, whatever I do, I don't get the parts anymore. Only the surfaces (skin face, skin legs etc.) are available in the statistcs panel in LW.

When it worked last time SR1 for Poser 2010 Pro was not installed.
Now the SR1 is installed.
But I don't know if this has something to do with it or if I am just doing something wrong.
Maybe somebody can help me with this?

OT - Is it possible to put the image below the text intead of above it?

There isn't really any reason to actually EXPORT from Poser, just import the base OBJ file that Poser reads in the first place.  There are problems with Poser's OBJ export that you don't really need to bother with unless you really need to deal with the Poser target state (posed rig or morph target).  What exactly are you trying to do?

The base OBJ file is "C:Program Files (x86)Smith MicroPoser 8RuntimeGeometriesDAZPeoplebl_MilWomV4b.obj"

Yes I did the direct Import also. It's the same result. The parts are not listed in LW.

What exactly are you trying to do?

Frankly speaking, I am trying to get used to all this modeling etc. For learning I put the head and neck of V4 as a reference into two LW background layers. Then started to model a scull cap based on that reference. I use two layers to understand the LW layer concept and to have a reference where the head and neck part start and end. It worked fine so far (markschum told me I have to be in Poly mode to get the part list). I was able to select the head polys and the neck polys, copy and paste each one in a different layer and was happy. My modeling of course went out to be a complete mess so I had to start from the beginning. But now I can't get those V4 parts in LW anymore (I am sure I am doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what).
By the way I tried with

• LWHC_2014_PC_64
  and just now with
• LWHC_2015_PC_64

Heres a pic of my Lightwave with a V4 sitting , exported from Poser.

 Use file, load object to bring the obj file into LW.

1. Switch to polygon mode
2. Open statistics panel
3. Parts pulldown should show all the bodyparts.

You can confirm this by loading the obj from the runtime/geometries folder.

You will get the parts list in any mode , but to cut and paste them you need to be in polygon mode. Selecting vertex only for a cut and paste will work , but isnt what you want to do.

If parts dont show on a poser export then you need to look at your export options. 

My default export is weld body part seams , and include body part names in polygon groups

you can check your obj file by opening it in wordpad or other text editor , and looking for lines starting with g  thats the group name usemtl is the material (surface) name.

It sounds like you may need to log a bug report with smith micro.

That option you have greyed out  is greyed out in poser 7 as well.

you could try export as lwo from Poser. I am not sure what you will get in Lightwave but it might be worth a try.

If you imported the base OBJ into Lightwave and you can't see groups, then your problem is not with Poser at all, it's with your import procedure in Lightwave.  I guarantee you the groups are present in the base OBJ, and Poser can't have anything to do with whether or not you can see those groups in LW.  You haven't overwritten that base OBJ have you?

Markschum and pjz, I have the same settings you described. I even checked the obj that I am importing - the source obj, not an Poser export anymore (good info by the way, I did not know that the part names are readable in the obj file). But the parts do not appear in LW.

If you don't see a mistake in the LW preferences then I will go back and install the orignal LW from the DVD and try again.

Then you need to ask around in LW forums I think, your trouble isn't a Poser problem.

Thank you both. I thought I did something wrong. But now I understand the steps are right, just the result is not (and it is not a poser problem). I'll see what solution I can find.

 Hmm, I dont have an obj option in preferences but I am running Lw 8 :(

Heres a test obj with surfaces and two parts

the 3 colored sides are one part, the default surface is the other part.

rename the file to testbox.obj and load to LW

markschum, thanks for the box. I get the same result. No parts and no surface. May I ask about the surface? The obj includes the surface names, as "usemtl ...". Does modeling software interpret this as:

• "make that surface"

or does it interpret it as - "search for the xxx.mtl file and read the values out of that one"?

Anyhow I will now go back to another LW version and try with that one.

"usemtl" entries in an OBJ file define polygon selections that are associated with a given material (in OBJ format, very limited info, and specified in *.mtl as I think you were already figuring out).  Definitely something is not right with your LW import, whether it's just an option you can fix or something more serious I don't know.

Ok, I finally figured it out. There is a new option in the OBJ import settings. It must have come in with one of the LW beta updates (EDIT or it was there all the time and I changed it unconsciously /EDIT). Because at the moment all my LW updates are pointing to the same config file this was activated in all versions. It's the "OBJ ZBrush Mode". After switching it on, I get the parts again in all LW beta versions.

But now I have to face, that I don't really understand OBJ. What is a part, what is a surface, what is a group (Poser) etc? What happens when exchanging between Poser, LW, Blender, Wings, 3DCoat etc?

Do you know a ressource where this is explained in more detail? It would help to do less guesswork? I'll also google to find something.

Found something:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obj

local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/obj/

Again, thanks for your help.

Oh glad you got it figured out :)  Wavefront OBJ is an orphaned file spec but it's pretty widespread.  If you search around you can find a variety of writeups on how it works, google for "OBJ format file spec".

http://www.martinreddy.net/gfx/3d/OBJ.spec a good version

nb: since OBJ isn't really managed from an authoritative source any more, it's pretty common that different apps will import or export OBJ with a lot of variation in what features are supported or how they're implemented.

Surface is what Lightwave calls a material.
In the obj file a part is a group which is identified by the g lines
a surface is a material identified by a usemtl line

the usemtl and g lines identify which polygons are allocated to those groups. All polygons until another g or usemtl are allocated.

the .mtl file provides the parameters for the named material, but only some of them.  

good to see you have it sorted out.

a bug that might still be in Lightwave is the UV information. LW used to discard UV info if the surface was not attached to the uv map in the surface editor. You need to open the texture editor T on the diffuse and specify map type UV and the map name. You dont need to actually have texture applied , just the map.  You can tell if your uvs have been lost by either looking in the obj file for vt lines or open the obj in the free uvmapper utility.

There comes light into the dark step by step :-)
Just added two groups to a ball primitive within Poser, gave them names, gave them materials, imported the obj into LW -> and guess what. I got the parts and surfaces in LW. :-)))

Now you probably want to figure out how to get it going the other way (do your grouping and other polygon selections in LW instead of working with Poser's nasty grouping tool).

Sure, trying that next. And then hopefully can try to make that scull cap. Might be that I again need to ask questions.

My somewhat simple workaround is to export every other group of a model.  Do two exports to get all the groups.  Open both objects in LW, copy and paste one into a separate layer of the other.  You will then have all the groups on two (or more if you want) different layers.

Scott