The mention of bullet physics in the new Poser release reminded me of the work Phymec has done with Blender (recommend a view of Phymec's channel on Youtube if you're interested in bullet physics)

I believe Phymec uses the HACD library on sourceforge to create the sub objects before the physics is applied.

I had a look at this a while back but it was way over my abilities.

Has anyone used HACD with Poser? It looks like it could be a good way to create shatter type geometries if I've correctly understood how Phymec used the libraries.

Should  have explained the purpose , the interest in HACD is that it would be great to create dynamic effects like window glass shattering or a meteor hitting the side of a building etc and it seems to make more sense to do this via a script. Unless I misunderstood its purpose HACD breaks down a mesh into submeshes. Phymec was using the library with a voronoi algorithm to create shatter effects.

For a simple plane like glass, you could do this fairly easily with a script.  (And it's been done, by me and by PhilC.)

You have to build a customized OBJ first with new vertices and facets shaped to match the appropriate shatter pattern, then animate the movement of the pieces.  

The problem comes with more complex things like a brick or steel or wood frame building.  Bricks would have to be modelled separately, and you'd have to account for the rebar in the concrete, or the studs or beams in a frame structure.   Way too specific for a script to handle.

Thanks ockham, I will look into that approach for the window glass. As you point out for large structures its too complex. I've tried simulating a brick-by-brick approach before but it takes too long to set-up+calculate and for a middle distance shot it also seems a bit overkill to go into that detail. 

Sounds like volumeBreaker for Max. Carrara has a similar function - Explode or some similar IIRC. Only played with it once for a few minutes years ago to destroy Mugsey's Latchworm, didn't really know what I was doing.

Hmm, volumeBreaker looks very good, yes I wasn't thinking that kind of detail but certainly the same kind of effect

I've used explode in Carrara before but couldn't control the size very well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9In7kV2dQk)