OK finally doing it. I'm in the process of writing down all that I know about creating models and making them work in Poser. I anticipate it being distributed on a CD. In addition to a multitude of screen shots I aim to include a large quantity of worked examples showing the stages of a models development. These would be on the CD in COB, OBJ, 3DS, SCN and PZ3 formats so that its not confined to the Truespace software that I use.
Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

Fantastic news. This is what I've been waiting for. Judging by your experience and the quality of your work, I can only imagine the quality to expect.

Being able to print out tutorials is good so this may be something you may want to consider. Also I notice some tutorial writers say now use your 'X' tool.. Duh like what is that LOL I know I tend to learn hands on rather that reading the manuals.. And often don't learn the name of things. Although I work out what they do and what they look like just not what they are called.. So a clear explanation of terms and parts is a bonus.. I think you are safe to assume that the person using the tutorial in the words of 'Shultz' 'Knows nothing' If you say 'now you take it in into the "Mega Multi Morph Squeezer from Hell"' it might pay to let folks know where to get this program.. Mention problems you encounter and how you work around them. A Glossary of common terms. You probably have this covered already but just in case you don't I thought I would mention it... Oh and my commmision for all this typeing... Just joking.. Well sort of.. OK I am.. Joking that is ;)

sounds great - we're behind you 100% one suggestion: have some version of a character creation tutorial that doesn't use CR2Edit (no Mac version), phi builder (no Mac version) or phi files, which don't work in Mac OS, Poser 4. It would be somewhat like the Metacreations manual, which uses the grouping tool and joint editor for character creation, with minimal use of a text editor to finish the cr2 file. it seems that many previous character-creation tutorials are limited to Windows platform, so "throwing a bone" to Mac users might reap some reward.

Attached Link: http://3dtutor.homestead.com

I think some explanation about the DAZ philosophy of naming parts would be helpful. I'd be willing to collaborate. I have LightWave and create my own posable figures. I've written some tutorials. Even if you'd rather go it alone, I have Adobe Acrobat. It sure makes it easy to distribute to people on different platforms.

Good idea Phil. I agree with Helen's comment that being able to print the tutorials is really useful. To hell with the paperless office, I like to have something I can read on the train to work. Maz

Best suggestion I have is to write to yourself. That is, while writing, bring back the younger you when you knew nothing at all about this stuff. Keep him with you at all times; let him remind you of all the times he pulled his hair out over things; and then write so your readers won't have to. Also, making it printable would be a great feature.

and, don't forget....different programs may use different terms for the same thing...i.e...the "ruled surface" tool in Amapi, is the loft curves in rhino. I think that would be the major glitch (If it is even major)in this plan. Go for it. Good luck.

Attached Link: http://www.thorneworks.com/tutorial/beartut1.html

Nancy sez: "phi files, which don't work in Mac OS" PHI files work beautifully on the Mac--and they're pretty easy to write by hand. Thorne's "Bear Tutorial" is probably the most readable method of using and creating PHI files (and creating simple CR2 files) I've come across--and his method works fine on the Mac. No need to hack the resulting CR2 files unless you really want to (although AZL's "Hiding Parameter Dials" is a good reason to want to hack your character files--http://www.renderosity.com/~azl/parameters.htm) My apologies to Phil--I'm not trying to hurt demand for your disk--just trying to let the Macsters know that there aren't too many things that can't be done in Poser without the aid of PC specific software. P.S. If you cover Carrara, I'm sold.

o.k., I never tried the beartut will try it maybe my problem was the spaces before each line in the phi file are those tab stops, or some exact number of spaces, or some other Windows control character?

Please include PDF files on CD.

The tabbing is not crucial, just hit the tab in BBEdit and everything should work fine--but the SPACE after the word objFile IS! A simple PHI file would go like this--- ***** objFile :Runtime:Geometries:SchoolStuff:Notebook.obj 1 back yzx 2 front yzx 2 pages yzx ***** You just have to worry about the space between "objFile" and the colon and remember that PHI files are case sensitive. If I have a problem with creating a CR2, it's usually one of those two problems.

Thanks for your responses folks, some good points raised there.
I'm aiming to write it for a generic 3D modeling program not just based on Truespace. I'm going more for what to do with the tools rather than repeating information that may be found in your software's help files.
Regarding format I'm currently writing it in HTML. I want to make it easy to cross reference, navigate and link between sections. Can I do that in Adobe Acrobat PDF format? If so can I convert HTM to that format?
Thanks

Yes--PDF is capable of handling linking--and there are a number of benefits to using this format, it allows you to use a wider variety of image formats without having to convert for browser compatability, it keeps the images and pages self contained (rather than a bunch series of pages and JPEGs stored in various folders), it requires no tweaking or rewriting code--and you can save it from a number of desktop publishing or word processing programs (even Illustrator files work in PDF format) and the final tutorial files will look EXACTLY how you intended them to look, regardless of platform (basically, the resulting file will look like a virtual book--rather than a webpage). Its as easy to use as printing a document (without the messy cartridges).

Yes, you can convert HTML to PDF format. I often do this for certain documents before I physically print them out. It doesn't do background images, though.

Another nice thing about Acrobat files is that you can set security. So, for example, you can allow printing, but not changing the text or images. I once had a well-meaning soul rewrite a portion of a little manual I wrote for work, causing a narrowly averted disaster with a client. After that experience I always set security. Just make sure you use a password you won't forget AND save at least one unprotected copy of the file. Of course, it's Adobe, so Acrobat is not cheap - but full of features and useful once you've got it.