When you hit Edit/Copy or Ctl-C, Poser copies all the currently displayed dial settings to the clipboard. These can then be pasted directly into a spreadsheet app like Excel.

Once in a spreadsheet, its quick & easy to change the dial values, reset all to zero, whatever.

The really handy part is that this also allows you to then selectively copy only some of the dials and re-paste them back into Poser. For instance if you want to copy only the mouth settings without changing the rest of the dials on the head.

Also is an easy way to save multiple dial settings (each in a different column of the spreadsheet) and swap them around.

All this can, of course, be done by creating MT or pz2 pose files, but often times this method proves to be much faster.

WoW. Wish I'd thought of that! Are you using a straight copy/paste function? Can you give more information? A tutorial, perhaps?

Pretty straight forward: -Select a part in Poser -Hit Edit/Copy or CTL-C -Open Excel -Select the first cell -Hit Edit/Paste or CTL-V Assuming your spreadsheet is set to the default "Separate cells at tabs" rather than "at paragraphs" or "at spaces" (or however its actually phrased), each cell & row will be split out as shown above. From there you just do normal spreadsheet functions on the column with the values -- such as pasting 0.0000 into all the cells at once, rather than changing them one at a time. -If you want to do the partial pasting thing, such as just copying the dials that affect the facial expression, without changing the dials that affect the general head shape & position, then simply delete the rows with the dials you don't want to copy & change. -Select what's left, (now just the rows with the dials you DO want to copy) and hit Copy -Go to Poser, make sure the dials for the correct part are still currently displayed, and hit just hit Paste. The selected dials you copied from the spreadsheet will paste in and the all the rest will remain unaffected. Just give it a try. My often-pedantic writing style may make it sound more complex than it really is. Basically just: copy & paste, edit, recopy & re-paste.

That has to be one of the most useful things I never knew. How did you learn that? Where do you find out things like this? I am amazed. THANKS!!!!!!!!

I suppose a wild "what-if" originally -- Just about anything that can be copied by the Edit/Copy function in Windows can be pasted into another app. Poser's Dial data just happens to be normal text (rather than some kinda cryptic binary code) so it is easy to see what's going on and make changes. This data also works when pasted into word processors, but the spreadsheet functions make it easier to manipulate several dial values at once.

When I was creating those Kyoko hair morphs with the dials I could definitely have used this to keep the settings used to create them... ...to say nothing of the face morphs I've done. Thanks.

Hmmm....Seems it's perhaps not guite as self-evident as I suspected. I think you'll all be surprised at the different number of ways you'll think of to use this little shortcut. As duane suggested, I've saved all the dial parameters used when creating morph targets in this fashion. Much smaller files to archive than .obj or .cr2.

That is way cool!

In showing Windows tricks to my wife I have always told her that if she can think of a way something should work, the programmers have most likely thought of it too. I just never thought of that. Thanks again.

This seems cool... though I have no idea what it means.

You can also copy and paste settingd between body parts, e.g. set up right-collar and then copy/paste to left-collar.

People have been asking for a morph randomizer. It seems to me that there's a possibility here - Where the user would poser-copy a fully loaded target bodypart, go to excel and paste the dial info. Then run a randomizer macro, copy the data and past it back into poser. So? any programmer types? Lyrra

Ingenious. Nance, thanks so much.

Thanks Nance, incredibly useful information. If it copy and pastes rotate dials too, it may have uses for Poser animation, using lmckenzie`s idea of left to right transfer of data. Thanks again B) Mark

Ooooh! This is why I come here! Has anyone ever tried to compile a list of "neat poser tricks"? Thanks for the enlightenment.

Very slick trick. Thanks forr sharing. I wonder if you coud take advantage of excel's formula creating abilities.

You make my day!, I mean my decade, many thanks.

I tried Excel's RAND function, which conveniently returns a value between 0 and 1 (100% in Poser). Trying this on the head, my first mistake was including the scale/taper settings which resulted in a pin-head. Using just the expression dials gave some "interesting" results. I think you'd have to be selective with the settings to use and also perhaps include some limits and the ability to get negative numbers. Would take some developing of formulas or VBScript coding.

Hmmm...An "IF THEN ELSE" statement based on a RAND in a second column to introduce the negative numbers?

RAND() is a seed. How about subtracting .5 from its value then multiplying the result by 2? No logic statements needed here...

Much simpler! (Still trying to get your new MT's. Pacing outside Geo's doors ... re-open ...reopen...)

Just checked, Excel's rand() function actually returns a number between 0 and less than 1 (so you'll never get 1). 2*RAND()-1 seems to return a number between -1 and 1 (not inclusive. There may be a simple formula to get the full (-1 to 1) range but math is not my forte. Also, pasting doesn't get the maximum or minimum values if you need those. I don't know what the 0 in the second column is.

Tried changing the "0" in the second column to a 1. Re-pasted and saw no changes. Recopied the values and my "1" had been reset to "0" again. ...so dunno.

Heya Nance, neat tip. I found this very useful for saving (to text file so I can copy and paste)body dial settings for stuff (like PhilC multi morph skirt) that I can not seem to get to work when I save to the pose library. Using your tip, but wordpad instead of a spreadsheet, I can save the dial setting, along with a pic of the pose. Thanks for passing the tip along.

I just discovered it can be pasted into a text editor and someone sent me to your link. Was wondering what limits or experiments you might have discovered? Anton

Haven't heard anything new. I still C&P between body parts. I also use it on props. If I have a prop positioned and decide to exchange it with another prop, I C&P the xyz to position the new one in the same place. I don't have P5, so I don't know to to what extent these tricks may have been rendered redundant there. Perhaps someone else has played with this more.

Wowzers, a blast from the past! btw - The number in the second column turned out to be the frame number. Now using this for storing entire scenes & animation sequences.

thanks Nance.

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