I currently have a good clothing 3DS file that I would like to make into a Poser clothing file and unsure how to proceed. I understand the clothing conformity based upon Nerd3D's tutorials but I need to figure out how to be able to get to that point from the 3DS file. I've read several tutorials and my head is just swimming. I was hoping for a fresh brain to help me located the steps, if there are any. Thanks so much.

The first thing is to get the mesh into *.obj format. Poser can do this for you, just export the mesh in this format. The options are confusing, but the first two boxes may be all you need and I think you can ignore the weld option. I think that is for rendering programs. You can use UVMapper to define the groups. If the item is placed on the figure in Poser and with the use of various display and transparency settings, the location of the groups can be seen and translated to what is in UVmapper. Because the mesh is not obj to begin with, you will not be messing up a map and you can do the actual mapping as the last step. I don't know any tutorials, but here are some guidelines: 1> Cut the clothing mesh (garment) into groups that closely match the body groups they cover - use the existing mesh, do not add vertices to match it precisely. Practice will give you feel for which side of the line to choose. 2> Name these groups identically with the body groups they cover. 3> Add one additional target group distal to each branch of the IK chains and name these the same way. They need not be very large, and should be inside the body, and made invisible. (The catsuit has target groups also: One at the end of each arm. One at the end of each leg. One at the neck.) 4> For your CR2, use the catsuit of the intended figure. Change its geometry call to be your garment. Delete any groups distal to the target groups in the Channels section. In the channels of the target groups, delete any channels referring the groups not a part of the model. (If you have a garment that ends at the forearm, a hand group is needed so that the forearm group can follow it. In this hand group, there will be no finger groups so references in the channels of the hand to fingers will confuse Poser and Poser does not like to be confused, so lose them.) 5> Delete references in the first section of the CR2 to any groups not present and delete IK chains and weld lines that either apply to groups not present, welds between the last real garment group and the target groups, and if the garment is made up of unattached pieces, those welds as well. 6> Delete the materials section. Your garmnt will have different materials and you do not need the catsuit materials in the file. If you do it correctly, Poser will rewrite the materials section the first time it opens the new CR2. It will randomly color each group, but you can fix this - either in Poser, in a text editor, or with a MAT.pz2 that you could make for the new figure. This is not the only way, but it works, and you get ready made JP's.

Ok I've already done the .obj export. I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see what happens and let you know if I run into any trouble. Thanks a lot!

Oh BTW it's a total body cover robe (everything minus hands from what I can see) so it's gonna take quite a bit of work from what I read from your post. Another question - I downloaded this free 3D model from the web. If I am successful in this project can I post the changes as a freebie if I give the original source credit? I don't want to step on anyone's toes. :)