I have a prop that is only there for interacting with my script, and I want the user to be able to see it when working in the posing room, but I don't want it to show in the render.  Is there any way to do this?

I have tried applying a totally transparent material, and that does hide it in the render, but it is very hard to see it in the posing room.

did you try unchecking visble in camera?

Bill

Also uncheck visible in raytracing and casts shadows.

If an object is not visible in camera or raytracing (thus invisible to IDL, reflections, refractions) and cannot cast a shadow, then it has 0 impact on the render. It is only seen in pose room.

Note! Visible in camera is a recent addition to Poser. If you're one of those vendors living in a Poser 5 + Daz world, you're out of luck.

Quote - Also uncheck visible in raytracing and casts shadows.

In earlier versions which lack the 'visible in camera' option, the steps above are sufficient as long as you always render using raytracing. I imagine most people do, but I have no data to support that - so you may not want to risk it for a commercial product.  

I use one of the wireframe object display style modes, in such cases.  Depending on context, that may or may not help make the object more evident in the workspace.  :unsure:

I believe the one you really want can only be edited within the Poser file itself. Open in a text editor and search for "visibleInRender". Set its value to zero.

Probably a good idea to set the other visibilities/shadows to zero also as stated above.

Thank you, everbody!  You are all awesome, but PhilC is the most awesome this time, because that totally worked.  Thanks, Phil!

I set visibleInRender to 0 for all occurences of it in my .cr2 file and now I see it in my preview, but not in the render.  BTW, I did have to set casts shadows to false as well.

Also, I do have an older version of Poser (Pro 2012), so the 'visible in camera' mentioned above was not available to me.

Thanks again,

-digitani

Phil is always the most awesome. Even his facial hair is awesome. :D>

visibleInRender goes back at least to Poser 4 so should be available to anybody.

For Pythonheads: actor.SetVisibleInRender( 0 ) will achieve this. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to work out how to turn it back on again. ;)

what's wrong with just going into the parameters tab in poser and clicking on properties and making the prop invisible?  did you try that?  I know it is basic but maybe he doesn't know this method?

Quote - what's wrong with just going into the parameters tab in poser and clicking on properties and making the prop invisible?  did you try that?  I know it is basic but maybe he doesn't know this method?

What's wrong is it would not be visible if you make it invisible. The stated requirement is that it be visible in the posing room.

Quote -  I want the user to be able to see it when working in the posing room

The original question was basically asking how to make it invisible in the render only, because if you make it generally invisible, then it's invisible in the posing room, too, and that is not desirable.

well wouldn't he then just make it invisible when he's finished posing and is ready to render?

The OP is asking how to avoid what you're suggesting the user be forced to do.

It's like you go to the doctor and complain that it hurts to lift your arm, and the doctor says don't lift it, then.

I just re read his original post and I have to say it is a little ambigous.  He may be meaning exactly what you say because he doesn't know how easy it is to turn objects on and off.

But anyway he now has two methods he can use depending what he wants to do.  And he could well be a beginner.  

This would actually be useful for a lot of things. Thanks for that.

~Shane

just to mention, 'visible in camera' chekbox in PP2012 property gui; can also be edited in cr2:

locked 0
backfaceCull 0
visibleInReflections 1
visibleInRender 1
visibleInCamera 1
visibleInIDL 1

Hey, estherau, thanks so much for your input, but Bagginsbill was right.  I'm developing a tool that I want to distribute, and I want it to be as easy to use as possible, so I don't want to tell the users that they have to make the prop-based controls invisible manually before rendering.  I still appreciate your help, though. :-)

EnglishBob, I am a pythonhead, so thanks for that little tidbit as well.

-digitani

oh okay.  hope it works okay.

The phil C method is used on a lot of dresses that have handles that show up in the pose room but not in the render.