I agree with you Fyrespirit, the Daz PTB will likely have thought of things that won't even occur to us and are intelligent enough to know what they can and can't do. My main reason for responding like I did was because of the "poser 4 compatible" requests. It can't be, it's not allowed to be, it must be different." Now whether someone writes a conversion utility is another matter. 3DExploration converts between most of the 3dmesh formats, but it costs lots of money - probably because of licensing to use those formats. For Daz to use the Curious files, cr2, pp2, etc etc etc, they need to purchase the rights to do so from Curious Labs - that's done either as a license or in the cost of the SDK (software developers kit) which comes with a license. I don't see Curious being too happy about Daz having that facility. Sorry I just don't see it happening under the current circumstances. As for the file formats, they belonged to curious labs right back from when they first started using them. Poser 1 or 2 or 3... I'm only familiar with them from version 3. Each application uses it's own format - no matter how similar it may be to others the structure and naming must be different. Daz could use a text format, provided the structure was significantly different to a cr2 format and they can call it anything they want. There's a good reason all the other applications around use their own formats. And why there are standards across the board such as 3ds, obj, dxf that pretty much all applications can read. A conversion utility within the month? Quite probably. But, Curious do have the option of killing that, same as they've since been enforcing ownership of the word "Poser" and preventing secondary apps from using it. It's currently a strange situation where one of the players in this field is getting a little more heavy handed than they've been before. Nothing wrong with that, it's just protecting business assets, but it makes things a little sticky for developers. To be honest, if Daz convert their own stock over to the new format for their own system it would be quite a bonus for anyone interested in that option. Though I'm not sure how they'd recoup the costs of doing that. Most people I think would be very unhappy indeed if they had to purchase those files all over again, and it would hurt Daz's venture into applications to ignore that. Could figure developers carry their figures over to the new format and re-release them? Yes, but again, would they charge for the conversion. I see NO poser figures carrying IK chaining and compatibility with any other application out there - except a few from PhilC for Avatar Lab. Who's converted for Cinema, Lightwave, Max etc. Those who wanted that nagged for it and Curious gave them ProPack. If there is sufficient similarity between the structures, Curious might have a case to fight - and I'm positive they'd do it if only for the chance of "kompensayshun" There are pitfalls and problems laced throughout this and I'm pretty damn glad I don't have to navigate through them, but I wanted to at least start explaining from my point of view the problems associated with "Poser" compatibility. For Daz to be protected from legal action their app can't be poser compatible not without a world of hurt for someone. Even secondary developers must be careful. Because while Curious may well be struggling, and there might not be much life left in the company, they'll fight all that more bitterly to stay alive. Can they stop people writing applications to convert their files? Yes, and within the law. If they haven't licensed it, they can kill it at any time. It's all speculation on my part, but I'm nervous of people asking for things that can't be provided and then shouting because they didn't get it. I felt the same way about the demands on the wish lists for Poser 5 - people asked for the earth and look what they got... This is similar - people are asking for something they can't have - Poser compatibility. Without at least a small conversation on this, some people won't understand why they didn't get what they wanted. At least starting the conversation gets it discussed by people who may or may not know what they're talking about (I've been hoping someone who knows will chip in - because I'm playing guessing games here) LOL Honestly. I don't know precisely what can and can't be done, only what I've read around the forums, and what I've gleaned myself from other sources. The two companies involved will know better what they can and can't do. But I can't help being concerned by people asking for something like the ability to swap between the programs using the same file types when they just can't have that. Tools, features, functions fine. What the heck, we've had some fantastical requests in Poser 5 wishlists - some of which were answered, however badly. But compatibility with another program is a whole different ballgame to feature wishes. On that note. I really would like the Daz app to do something Poser has never done. Let me use the much smaller and more compact 3ds format for characters and other models - retaining the 3ds mapping co-ordinates. Simply because there are SO MANY 3ds models that could be animated it'd be real nice not to have to convert to the bloated object format all the time. Imagine porting in a robot, car or spacecraft or whatever in 3ds and being able to set up a boning/skeleton structure and animation with that instead of all the work needed currently to convert it over to something Poser understands. Now THAT would be something I think - certainly more in line with other applications and offering much better compatibility across the board.