Please help me refresh my memories:

where and what are the settings to safe files without .xmp in Poser 11 ..??

thanx on advance ..!!

Any particular reason why you don't want these metadata containing files?

I just use Netherworks Creator's Toybox to clean them up before distribution. There's a setting in File Optimizer that deletes the sidecar xmp files for you.

Just curious @Glitterati3D, is there a particular reason why .xml files shouldn't be bundled with products? Unless they contain no useful information, I mean. They seem to be a vastly underused feature that no one takes advantage of.

For reasons best known (I hope) to themselves, Rendo has banned them. They are not allowed in product files.

Oh, well I can guess why, if they unexpectedly contain information identifying a vendor's username. Easier just to purge them from products. Maybe now that they own Poser they will find a reason to make appropriate use of them. Or not.

Can someone answer whether this Creator's Toybox Python script is MacOS compatible? The promo images I see on Netherworks' product page only shows Windows style paths and window frames.

an0malaus posted at 2:31PM Sat, 17 August 2019 - #4359672

Oh, well I can guess why, if they unexpectedly contain information identifying a vendor's username. Easier just to purge them from products. Maybe now that they own Poser they will find a reason to make appropriate use of them. Or not.

Can someone answer whether this Creator's Toybox Python script is MacOS compatible? The promo images I see on Netherworks' product page only shows Windows style paths and window frames.

It should be. Poser includes Creator's Toybox in the Scripts supplied with Poser. Check under Scripts: Netherworks.

there should be a setting inside Poser to safe without .. there was in Poser 10 so I asume it's in Poser 11 as well

@ an0malaus

the reason I want to disable is because .xmp enabled saved files are harder to work and re-work with in other versions of Poser .. :/

@EClark1894, my macOS Poser Pro 11 has never had Creator's Toybox included. Why would they bundle a commercial product still sold on Renderosity for $24? That would kill all sales, unless it's only bundled with Windows versions of Poser.

@digiPixel I don't understand, but I'm sure that's my problem, not yours. @Glitterati3D and @FVerbaas' answers are the correct solution, I'm sure, so I want to avoid unnecessary argument since you've received the right advice from others.

I would like to understand, though, since when I look at .xmp files saved with poses on my system, they only seem to contain innocuous data:

[Well, that's a pain. There seems to be no way to display XML code fragments without them being hidden. They preview OK, but disappear in the post]

I would have assumed that older versions of Poser which don't support .xmp files would just simply ignore them. The whole point of XML as an extensible format is that version information is contained in the file and only that which a version of Poser that does read xml understands will be populated into the library fields for display. I've not seen any information which shows that Poser processes that data in a meaningful way.

From all of that, perhaps it's just too hard to coordinate separate vendors using non-conflicting categories for products that assist the user in sorting or finding them. I had a look through both my Poser 11 and Poser 10 preferences files and library preferences, but couldn't see anything which would suppress XMP creation. Maybe @Bagginsbill has an answer, since I seem to remember his involvement in library development matters.

I have a feeling that it's the pmd files that the OP means.

I was thinking the same thing Ghostie ... based on this comment:

"@ an0malaus

the reason I want to disable is because .xmp enabled saved files are harder to work and re-work with in other versions of Poser .. :/"

This suggests to me that you are looking to get around the PMD (binary morph) files, which are saved in a compressed format, similar to a ZIP file so that the downloads are smaller.

There is a setting in the Preferences dialog (Edit > General Preferences), then click the Misc tab. In the "Save Files" section, UNCHECK the option to use external binary morph target, which will embed the morphs inside the character file like in the old days. You can also uncheck the "Use File Compression" option to save the library files in the old uncompressed format (in other words, CR2 instead of a zipped CRZ).

But, if you are actually asking about the XML files, what those do is save metadata that allows you to enter more specific search terms for the library. By default, Poser saves the XML files with basic information, like date created, date last modified, and file type. But you can add additional information in the Extended Details panel (see the pages from the manual above), or you can also choose the Scripts > Metadata Builder command to edit one or more files at the same time.

I think most people delete these XML files because "date created", "date modified" and File type don't really add much info. But I'm sure if people start using them and filling them out more, to help make library searches easier, Rendo would accept them.

PMD being the actual question makes complete sense, if XMP is just a red herring. Let's hope there's a confirmation of just which file type is actually the problem.

Unpopulated XMP files are not allowed.
Populated XMP files are welcome.
The majority we see are unpopulated.

Great! Thanks for that explanation @donnena. That takes the mystery away completely. Why include them at all if they contain no meaningful information.

Your last sentence is the mystery!!!

I would hazard a guess that the concept of a comprehensive content management system, demonstrated to varying degrees of controversy and success by other software platforms, was the driver behind adding .xmp metadata files in the first place. By having them as XML format files they're completely accessible to third party analysis, without needing hooks into Poser's Library databases, though that could be accomplished, but also avoids the need to increase the complexity of the databases themselves. The downside is that without investment of resources to actually populate them with meaningful data across the suite of bundled Poser content (I've never looked. Maybe that is there) and also provide guidelines or extra mechanisms which take advantage of the feature and effectively demonstrate its benefit to users, many are unaware of its existence and have no idea how to make use of it.

I've always been under the impression the XMP files were automatically created by Poser once you save whatever it is you're working on. If that's the case, how on earth do you "populate" it?

I just opened one from a set I beta tested, and when I mentioned to the creator they can be deleted as they're not needed, the creator insisted they need to be kept because of important information in it. Well the only "important information" I could find was the "format", "creator" and "created" items. There's also a Description rdf:about="" option, which i see does NOT have any information between the quotes, so am I assuming THAT's what needs to be edited to make it "populated"? Obviously the format, creator and item created will be obvious when someone sees the item in the store (not here at Renderosity).

OK, I just selected the item in PP11, and when I click on the "i" icon at the top right corner of the thumbnail, it displays a list of close to 30 items, yet only 3 or 4 actually have data, but when I look at the XMP file, I don't see where all that information would be collected, unless the Description information is where it's listed. IOW, I've never seen a fully filled out XMP file with all the information listed.

A curious mind wants to know.

The pages from the manual above, along with my reply, explain how to add info to the XML file. If you only want to add info to ONE of them, you can press the Edit button in the Extended Details panel and add the information there.

If you want to edit one or more, there is a Python script (screen shot shown above) where you an edit one, or all in a folder, or all in a runtime. The easiest way to do it is to change all of the COMMON information first (like creator, created date, product name, etc), and then edit the UNIQUE info in each file afterward.

Here's an example of using the Metadata Builder to add information to the XML file.

OK, I just opened an XMP file for a product by another vendor, and it DOES list all those items, they're just not filled in. IOW, there's nothing between each of the quote marks for each item in the list.

Now I wonder why one XMP file has all those items I saw when I clicked on the "info" icon in my Library but nowhere in the XMP file was there a place to add that information, yet another XMP file has the full list, even though not filled out. I would think Poser would create the same basic file each time.

Deecey posted at 2:13PM Fri, 23 August 2019 - #4360260

Here's an example of using the Metadata Builder to add information to the XML file.

AHA!! Thank you Deecey, that answers one of my questions . . . how to populate it. I'm still wondering why one XMP file I opened had the full list of items, and one didn't. ~scratches head~

You can also populate a SINGLE item by opening the Extended Details panel (which is what displays all that stuff in the XML file), and then clicking EDIT in the extended details panel to fill in the parts you want to fill in.

Thanks again Deecey. I don't know how many times I've seen the Metadata Builder in the Scripts list, but just never paid much attention to it. I just opened it and took a look around. Soooo, I've definitely learned something new today.

If you use the Metadata Builder script and fill it in, the library will display the info when that prop/figure is selected; it can be used as a brief readme.

Yes Seach, I had clicked on several thumbnails, and it displayed a list, but for some of them there was only 3 or 4 items filled in, and some had nothing filled in, though I think those were the items that DIDN'T have XMP files. Since Poser creates them automatically, I wasn't aware, until today, how you would fill in that information. Now I know.