Hey all, I am new to Poser (I've had it for 2 whole days!) and have a few questions regarding accuracy. To preface this, I am a freelance draftsman/designer (10+ years) by trade and I am used to drafting and design programs like AutoCAD, 3D Studio, Accurender and the like. I mainly purchased Poser for use in posing figures for 3D scenes created and render within AutoCAD using a third party rendering engine. I currently have a 3D project for a large material handling firm in which I need to pose some figures operating and interacting with equipment. I have already created the equipment models in real world units in CAD and am now confronted with the issue of aligning my figures with the equipment. First I exported an unposed figure in 3DS format, which I then imported into AutoCAD. I discovered the figure (in this case I used the ideal female, equal rights ya know) is less than one inch in height. Knowing this, I decided to export the equipment model from CAD and import into Poser for use as a template for character alignment. After importing, I attempted to scale the equipment to suit the character scale. When I scaled the props, I found that the parameter dials leave a lot to be desired in terms of accuracy. I can spin them just a bit, the props change size, but the numeric readout doesn't change. I am used to having more control over my models due to my experience with other design software. To make a long story short (if that's possible now), I was wondering if there are some hidden settings for accuracy, coordinate readout, or modeling units. Or am I basically screwed.....any insight would be appreciated...

A Couple of things... You don't have to spin the dials, you can actually input numbers manually. In the "Poser Free Stuff Area" (see top of page) try a search for rule, caliper, or meter. You will find tools that will help you size things Good luck

You are better off to do the scaling in AutoCAD--Poser doesn't handle large scenes very well. One Poser unit is about 10 feet. If you are working in inches, try a scale factor of 120. A scale factor 90 will make the male figure about 50 percentile size, that is, 5'9". Cal

Poser's scale is 1/8"=1'-0". If you're creating models in AutoCAD full scale you'll have to scale them down to 1/96. Make sure to place origin somewhere on the model, I place it at bottom center of the model, that way your model will come in to Poser at the center of the ground plane.

Thanks to all for the rapid response. In most other forums I have submitted to, it takes forever to get any response. Guess there's a lot of 3D artists out there, huh. BAM, thanks for the tip on the "type in". Althought this wasn't the solution, it is a feature I didn't know about. Cal, while I wasn't attempting to use Poser for the final rendering, I have become painfully aware in only two days that Poser doesn't handle large scenes well. While I think it's a cool program, I have notice that it is a bit unstable at times. It has locked up on me a few times already. This is really nothing new to me since it seems Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD) hasn't been able to produce a stable drafting package for at least the past ten years either. If memory serves me, 3D Studio has been known to dump on me a few times as well. Of course, where would we be without these programs, flaws and all. And the winner is: Grey_cat! I guess I had a "learning new software and I'm in a deadline crunch" anxiety attack and forgot that I could scale in AutoCAD. And to think I managed a drafting department for four years. Big Brain Fart! Success at last. Thanks again guys...

Another thing on accuracy. If you double-click the dial, a window will pop up allowing you to also change the limits and sensitivity.

Cool. I'm not big on user manuals, but I don't believe the dial double-click is covered. Thanks for the tip Pablo.

I consider one Poser unit to be 100 inches. That makes it just a bit over 8 feet. Check the height of the default men and women to see if you agree with me.

Through experimentation, I have come to the same conclusion as well. When I imported the 3ds file (exported from Poser) into AutoCAD, the ideal female model was approx 0.70 inches in height. I referenced my architectural graphic standards book for anthropometric data and it states this: for standing height (female) 70.4 inches - large - 97.5 percentile 65.6 inches - average - 50 percentile 60.6 inches - small - 2.5 percentile Knowing this I calculated a scale factor of 100 (0.70 x 100 = 70). In a previous posting by Grey_cat, he stated a scale of 1/8"=1'-0", which equates to a scale factor of 96. The difference between using 96 and 100 is minimal, and for most projects would probably not be noticeable. For scenes with multiple people models, a bit of variation in height/size is desirable, not to mention a bit more realistic. Wouldn't the world be boring if we were all the same size? Although I would imagine finding and buying clothes that fit would be a bit easier (I'm 6'5" and finding clothes is a bit of a pain).