What is a pmd file, why are they appearing in folders they didn't exist in before, why is Poser suddenly looking for them, and why are morph dials not working in some of my saved scenes? (It started at the same time, and on the same scenes, so I'm assuming it's somehow related...)

A .pmd file is a system for storing morph data externally from a .cr2, it was introduced with Poser 6. The intention of .pmd files is to reduce the file footprint of characters with a lot of morphs and also reduce loading times for said characters. You may toggle Poser's use of .pmd via preferences/use external binary morph targets. Up until poser 8, using the .pmd system had a chance of causing scene corruption... Apparently all of the bugs have been ironed out but people are still pretty skittish about using it. there's a rather simple method for creating various morph injection poses via the .pmd system. It's not possible to edit a .pmd file with a standard text editor as you may with most Poser files.

That's the long story short version of .pmd, Most of the old timers round here will probably tell you not to use it and to turn it off in prefs. I personally don't use .pmd unless I'm going to create an INJ, and then only long enough to generate the necessary file. If you are using .pmd make sure to keep the file where Poser will look for it relative to your .pz3 or .cr2.

A .pmd file is a system for storing morph data externally from a .cr2, it was introduced with Poser 6. The intention of .pmd files is to reduce the file footprint of characters with a lot of morphs and also reduce loading times for said characters. You may toggle Poser's use of .pmd via preferences/use external binary morph targets. Up until poser 8, using the .pmd system had a chance of causing scene corruption... Apparently all of the bugs have been ironed out but people are still pretty skittish about using it. there's a rather simple method for creating various morph injection poses via the .pmd system. It's not possible to edit a .pmd file with a standard text editor as you may with most Poser files.

That's the long story short version of .pmd, Most of the old timers round here will probably tell you not to use it and to turn it off in prefs. I personally don't use .pmd unless I'm going to create an INJ, and then only long enough to generate the necessary file. If you are using .pmd make sure to keep the file where Poser will look for it relative to your .pz3 or .cr2.

A good concise description.  Certainly makes me an old timer as I never use external binary morphs as, although it is stated that all the problems are fixed, I have lost too many files due to corruption to really trust using them.   I know some people have said they now use them without problems but for me it is a case of once bitten, twice shy.

You will find .pmd files in use for all SM native figures and CP G2 figures, including Miki 4.  As described in the other posts, it is a convenient method to reduce file size and quick loading.  You will commonly find them in the same folder where your .cr2's reside.  As mentioned, most bugs have been eradicated with the current Poser versions, however, there are hard to predict instances where .pmd files become corrupted.  Use at your own risk. 

To disable it in the future, in Poser's General Preferences, uncheck 'Use External Binary Morph Targets' in the Misc tab.  Scenes and figures containing them will still be loaded , but .pmds will not be created when they are saved...

To disable it in the future, in Poser's General Preferences, uncheck 'Use External Binary Morph Targets' in the Misc tab.  Scenes and figures containing them will still be loaded , but .pmds will not be created when they are saved...

Agree, you should urgently follow this advice. Never trust PMDs. They tend to coruppt your morphs.

     .pmd => Poser Morph Data.     I used to avoid PMDs like the plague, but SM fixed them for the current version of Poser.  I now use them and haven't had any problems.  If you're using an old version of Poser, I would disable PMDs;  if using P10/Pro2014, I would enable PMDs.

Thanks, I didn't turn them on on purpose, cats must've walked on the keyboard again...will turn them off.

This is a good topic as I've wondered about the .pbm myself.  Also ... the .fbm and a third one with a "j" in it I can't recall or bring up a figure containing it right off.  Most of the time I can't get any dial with these extensions to work at all and I have PP2014.  Could someone explain them to me and perhaps help with getting them to work ... if I need them to.  Thank you.

JCM = joint controlled morph?

YES!!!  thank you.  So ... how can I get these dials to work?  I have a library of libraries to work with ... oh, so many runtimes.  (over 15 years of them!!!).

JCM, joint controlled morph. Commonly used for correcting bending issues in figures prior to weight mapping. It's a morph that is linked via slaving to a particular movement (master) within a figures rig. JCM's can be thought of as the precursor to the Poser dependency function as the concept is basically the same. Let's say you create a figure and can't quite correct some issue (via joint editor settings) with mesh deformations during a particular skeletal movement... a common solution would be creating a morph that is linked to that problem joint movement in order to smooth out the offending deformation. The Perfect V4 morph packages by Xameva and Meipe are JCM's, as is the common Bicep Bulge morph and in figures with a lower jaw actor Mouth Open. Prior to Poser 8 introducing Dependent Parameters JCM's had to be coded manually into a .cr2 by inserting the master/slave relationship via text editing.

FBM, full body morph. Another form of dependency. In this instance a master dial located in the figures body that controls several morphs located in various actors. FBM heavy or FBM emaciated are common examples. You may spawn a FBM dial by morphing various body parts (within Poser or in an external modeler), setting (only) these morphs to their intended values in these body parts, selecting the top category for the relative figure (illustrated by a figure within a circle) in the heirarchy, go to Figure menu, select Create Full Body Morph. The master dial will appear in the figures Body actor, dial all component morphs to 0, set master dial to 1... presto, FBM. Be careful when creating FBM's that the only active morphs within the scene (including props) are those which you intend to comprise your FBM, otherwise these unintentional morphs will become part of the dependency.

PBM, partial body morph. Basically the same as FBM's. The master dial need not be located in the Body actor however.

Whew, hope I got all that right... long day at work and I really need a hot shower to clear away the cobwebs in my head. As far as your other questions, perhaps I'll be back for further discussion later... perhaps someone else will chime in? If not I'll take a crack at it. :)

primoge.  I bow to you!!! thank you.  Now ... why don't they work?

Did you delete any of the component morphs or the master dial? Are you dialing from a slave dial rather than the master? Aside from that I would actually have to see your .cr2 files internally or at least have those particular problem characters within my Poser environment to even begin to guess. It's actually pretty easy to break morphs through various mistakes as I've discovered. Someone more experienced with the peculiarities of Poser's internal workings (say, a PhilC or LesBently or Nerd3D or Markschum) might be able to help more effectively. I'm still very much a novice in the Poser guru department, my strengths reside more in the modeling and texture painting arena. Poser's a pretty complicated thing once you move past the "make art" button, considering how long you've been using Poser you already know this... "easily create 3d character art and animation." Lol.

One more note, you do not get a JCM to work... it works (if functioning correctly) automatically when you cause a rotation in the controlling joint. You want to dial a FBM from the Body, not from one of its components. For PBM, say Adams Apple or some such you would want to dial from it's logical location (i.e. Neck) rather than Head. Circumstances vary.

Also if you are recombining or saving morphs you kind of need to watch out for JCM's. It's best to save your morphs from a figure that has a zeroed pose because Joint Controlled Morphs can creep in to your new saved morphs unintentionally if a pose is adding one in. They are invisible in terms of their parameter values because they are controlled by the joint (or other part's) movement. If you ever spawn a new morph and find some unwanted distortion is slowly being added in a hidden JCM is almost always to blame.

Forgot to mention earlier that with any master dial morph you can mouse to the right of the parameter and click the little circle arrow icon, this will bring up the master parameter indicator where you can see exactly what morphs are dependent in relation to a master parameter. Also, clicking the arrow directly to the right of this icon and selecting edit dependencies will reveal such information.

Elaborating on HandspanStudio's recommendations, any Python scripts that reveal hidden dials or reset values are invaluable... Dimension3d has free scripts that do both, found here:

http://d3d.sesseler.de/index.php?software=poserpython

One reason I avoid pmd files is because the links to them are hard coded, e.g., ":Runtime:libraries:Character:People:James:JamesHiRes.pmd" That means that if you ever decide to reorganize your directory structure or simply rename a directory, the links will fail.

But let me add a question here. I always hear that pmds reduce file size and speed up loading, but aren't you just dealing with two files instead of one? Where does the reduced size and better loading speed come from?

Bingo!  I've made "characters" based on models already in my runtimes ... if I modify them I can't replace the original character I made with the new one ... I lose all the morphs I made from the original one I made.  This all makes sense to me now!