I have Poser 4.0.3 on a PC, without PPP. I well know how to make and use .PHI files. I read recently that in a .PHI file, a line that declares a jointed part can be followed by a Poser filename on the same line. So, in my dumper truck model I did this (but I have not uplaoded the result):- Its geometry file is :aa:dumper:dumper2_.obj I copied it onto :aa:dumper:dumper2_2.obj I made an altered version of its .PHI file thus:- **objFile :aa:dumper:dumper2_.obj 1 mainpart yxz 2 skip yxz :aa:dumper:dumper2_2.obj 2 skipcatch yxz 2 lhWheel xyz 2 rhWheel xyz 2 clutchpedal yxz 2 brakepedal yxz 2 accelerator yxz** I created the model as usual. A complete dumper truck appeared on the screen, but:- (1) In its CR2 file , in the initial (short) actor paragraphs, the actor for **skip** contained a lot of embedded geometry, and in all the other actors the two inside lines (e.g. **storageOffset 0 0 0 geomHandlerGeom 13 steeringwheel** ) were missing. (2) All of the dumper truck was in the part **skip**, and all the other parts were listed but showed no geometry. All the second (long) actors seemed to contain the usual complement of channels etc.

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Off-topic PS: Is the sort of dumper shown in the picture, known of in America, or are they only used in Britain? What are they called in America? (Someone once called them "guinea Cadillacs". :-) )

A guinea here is an old British word for the sum of 1.05 and does not refer to anywhere in Africa.

I haven't seen anything like that in the U.S., so I don't know what we would call it. We use a machine of the same size called a "Bobcat", which looks like a tiny front-end loader. I think the "skip-loader" is strictly British. The model looks good to me. If the phi file is causing the subsidiary geometry to be embedded in the cr2 file, it should be easy enough to strip it out and replace it with referring lines. Although I admit it would be better if it creates the referring lines instead of embedding the geometry. It may be too late to amend P5 to allow that, but it might be in a later update.

One bug is, that the storageOffset and geomHandlerGeom lines disappeared in all the other actors, as I state above.

In the Poser 4 User Guide (page 311), it says, "If each body part were stored in a separate file, rather than all body parts being groups in a single file, you would specify the full path name for the file at the end of each line. The path is relative to the Poser 4 folder." It does not say you can specify the main file, then pick and choose which body parts to point to different files. I know something like this works in CR2 and PZ3 files, but PHI files are different enough that it may not be safe to extrapolate from CR2s and PZ3s. My guess is that when Poser sees the file reference for "skip", if assumes you are specifying a file for each body part. When it doesn't see one for the other parts, it doesn't put in any geometry reference for them. Whether this is a bug, is hard to say. Curious Labs could argue that you are not using Poser as documented, so the results are unpredictable. On the other hand, most of what we as merchants do, bashing CR2 and PP2 files and such, is undocmented. It would be an interesting test to change your PHI file to specify a file on every line and see if that works better.

Regarding the OT PS: I believe I have seen these things in the States. I know I have seen a smaller version, called a Scoot Crete (http://www.millerspreader.com/scootcrete.html). It is like a powered wheelbarrow, and they use them for shuttling small batch of concrete from the concrete truck to where it is needed at a construction site. BTW...I was looking up the term "skip loader" on the web, and it appears to have two different meanings. In the States, it seems to be a synonym for a front-end loader, a tractor with a scoop on the front. Everywhere else, it seems to be a truck with a hoist in back for loading trash bins onto the truck. (I'm not sure what the generic term for the latter is the States, but our most popular brand is the Dempster Dumpmaster, and the trash bins are called Dempster Dumpsters.)

In Britain they are called dumpers and they are very common on many sorts of work site. The originals had a simple hand-cranked Lister diesel engine and no electrics to go wrong, and they went phut phut phut rather than brrrrrrm. Nowadays they are much more expensive and complicated and have an A-frame like some sorts of RIB boats.

you know you may have tripped over an undocumented keyword. change skip to something else see what happens. OTPS:no i've never seen 'em.