After having successfully rigged a new character/clothing based on a V4 donor rig, I find that when I load both V4 and the new item (ivy branches) that when I conform the branches to the V4 figure, the legs and below 'jump out' from being conformed. Its always the same amount, no matter the pose. I can manually reset the dials to zero and it conforms very well, but what causes the parameter dial to change like that? 

And here's the final effect:

I've run into this issue as well with the V4 and M4 figures. It's caused by the fact that the default V4/M4 rigs have a bend automatically set to load as part of the default cr2 pose. When you clone the skeleton it also clones that set -20/+20 bend in the parent figure, and when you conform your item it applies that default bend twice... once for the main figure and a second time on the conformed item which causes poser to think you've manually posed the legs of the conformer away from the parent figure (causes the same effect as though you'd gone into the parameters for the conforming item and changed the posing of it manually only it's being done automatically when Poser conforms the item).

You'd find that the conformer would work just fine without that issue when used in DAZ Studio, It's an issue caused by the way DAZ rigged the figures and the way that Poser handles conforming items...

The only solution I've found for this is to go through the CR2 line by line  and edit it manually (in a text editor) to eliminate those preset bend values...

Thanks for the response! Explains a lot, really. But here's a question: Where in the CR2 would I be looking? some kind of phrasing would be great to help me look. 

In a good text editor (I use TextPad or EditPad lite), use the search for foot,  You will need to find the left and the right.  IIRC, the internal naming is lfoot and rfoot.  The internal naming is important so don't change the spelling.  If it's lower case, leave it lower case.

Another way that works (most of the time), is to load the Developer rig included with Morphs++ package.  Use Wardrobe Wizard to Super Zero the figure.  Double check the feet to make sure they are all zeroed.  Save this ot the figures library.  I usually label this with Super Zero to know which it is.  Use the super zero developer rig as the donor rig. 

I believe the specific offending joints to look at are lFoot, rFoot, lShin, rShin, lThigh, and rThigh... these locations have all been set to default bent as part of the base cr2 to get that bent kneed pose that the V4/M4 figures load in... As said by Icprncss, don't change the names of the joints... you'll want to look through the coding for each of those areas to find the bend settings and change those only...

I copied the base figure c2s and relabeled them as "BlankVicky" and "BlankMike", cleaned out all the built in morphs and deformers, and got rid of the default preset bends and keep them aside to use in figure development because of this exact problem...

Not being a stranger to using a text editor to change things around a bit, I appreciate the feedback on not changing the naming convention of the CR2. I should have been more precise in asking where in the CR2 I would change those preset values to mean am I looking at the key values or channels or... It's not like the CR2 is going to have something labeled "bend x amount when conforming to y"

In the Cr2 for your conforming item look for these specific locations...

In the Thighs (lThigh and rThigh) look for the "rotation Bend" which auto loads set at -2, and "rotation Twist" which auto loads set at -10

In the Shins (lShin and rShin) look for the "rotation Bend" which auto loads set at 3

In the Feet (lFoot and rFoot) look for the "rotation Bend" which auto loads set to -20, and "rotation Twist" which auto loads set to 10

Change all the above values to 0 and save (make sure you keep a back-up unaltered cr2 before you make any changes just to be safe as always). It's these preset values that cause havoc in conforming items because Poser reads those bends on the parent figure and loads it with them applied, and then reads and applies them again when it conforms the conforming item... making Poser think you've manually posed the joints on the conformer, which then causes it to shift the conformer out of alignment...

Also... some conforming issues can be solved by simply turning off "Use Inverse Kinematics" in the Poser Figures Options Menu for the conforming item (the way Ds and Poser handle Inverse Kinematics is different and having it on in Poser can cause issues with conforming items that were intended as figures for use in DS).

 Thanks all!

Took a while but finally figured out the values were attached to initValue= 

looking through 11k entries for initValue made me realize that there are tons of morphs that were carried over from the donor rig that will never be used. Is there a way to purge all of these unused morphs?

"In the Cr2 for your conforming item look for these specific locations...

In the Thighs (lThigh and rThigh) look for the "rotation Bend" which auto loads set at -2, and "rotation Twist" which auto loads set at -10

In the Shins (lShin and rShin) look for the "rotation Bend" which auto loads set at 3

In the Feet (lFoot and rFoot) look for the "rotation Bend" which auto loads set to -20, and "rotation Twist" which auto loads set to 10

Change all the above values to 0 and save (make sure you keep a back-up unaltered cr2 before you make any changes just to be safe as always). It's these preset values that cause havoc in conforming items because Poser reads those bends on the parent figure and loads it with them applied, and then reads and applies them again when it conforms the conforming item... making Poser think you've manually posed the joints on the conformer, which then causes it to shift the conformer out of alignment...

Also... some conforming issues can be solved by simply turning off "Use Inverse Kinematics" in the Poser Figures Options Menu for the conforming item (the way Ds and Poser handle Inverse Kinematics is different and having it on in Poser can cause issues with conforming items that were intended as figures for use in DS).

The easiest way to purge the old morphs is to use MorphManager. It's a free utility that allows you to strip morphs from figures and can be found here... http://www.morphography.uk.vu/dlutility.html

Neat program but left quite a few pointers for morphs behind. Certainly reduced the file size though. From 13MB to 2.3MB. Amazing a program that ... Um,  old can still the job. Kind of like me I guess.

What version of Poser are you using?

Poser Pro 2012.