I need to rush off to pick up my better half, but I think there's a few clues here? Back soon I hope!

Just tried it with the top row of curtain vertices inside the rod (which I expected to cause the simulation to fail). The simulation runs, and all except two of the constrained vertices fall straight out of the rod, but two of them get caught. I'm just doing a screen-cap of a few frames to make it easier to see what I'm on about... here's frame 1 (the curtain is sort-of concertina'd, and the rod is a simple stretched cube - it's very basic!)

I've just checked again to be 100% sure. Yes, the curtain's parented to the rod and set to collide against the rod.

Just noticed that there's a fair gap between the curtain and rod - reducing that changes the simulation, but it still drops straight of the rod!

Yep, that seem the most logical thing to me too.

Tried that, but I still got the same problem!

(...other than Poser's .PMD 'binary morph targets' I mean, obviously. That's where this thread started, trying to avoid those things!)

What I'm really asking is, I guess, is there a way to use external .OBJ files as morph targets for Poser and DAZ|Studio? I'm fairly certain there isn't, but I'd like a second opinion...

Great idea! And I've already got it somewhere - but where did I put it... ?

dorkmcgork - indeed, for some morphs spreadsheets are definitely still the easiest way! I'm intrigued by your morph-mirroring indices...

Anyway, another question, sufficiently related to the thread title to add it here.

I know that the custom geometry for a prop can be externalized in the prop declaration, e.g.

prop Bishop
    {
    storageOffset 0 0 0
    objFileGeom 0 0 :Runtime:Geometries:3DCheapskate:Chess2a:Bishop.obj
    }

But what about the morph targets? Is there any to externalize these? E.g. the 'RoofExtend' in the following. My guess is that it's not possible...

prop PBB-base
    {
    ...
    channels
        {
        groups
            {
            groupNode Morph
                {
                parmNode RoofExtend
                parmNode CanopyShorten
                }
            }
        targetGeom RoofExtend
            {
            ...
            numbDeltas 53
            deltas
                {
                 ...
                }
            }
            ...etc... 

Quote - So, after some of the beta-test modifications get made, we can look forward to the return of the chedi?

Yes indeed - this beta version is just a warning to those on the dark side that their days are numbered. Soon there'll be a chedi in every render... :biggrin:

(and they fly too! They don't just look like rocketships by chance.... )

I hadn't thought of that! Just had a shuftie at the PZ3s and there's lots of unnecessary (for me) stuff. So once I've externalized the geometries I'll take at look and do a bit of spring cleaning,

This project is very much a WIP. I'm going to post most of my 'progress reports' to this thread on the DAZ Freepozitory forum (main reason - you can casually look at that thread, whereas you need to log in to see this one!)

I'll be checking this thread for feedback regularly too though!

Please remember that this is a BETA version.

If you run into any problems, or have any suggestions to improve it, please let me know. Feel free to post problems/suggestions to this thread

If you manage to create a nice-looking chedi from these CBB, feel free to post an image here too.

Issues I'm already aware of...

1. There's no underside to the building blocks. That was a deliberate design decision, but may need rethinking...
2. The material name in each CBB is 'Null'. I should rename this in each CBB.
3. The 'AdjustCornerSize' morph for the Cross Quadrate CBB stretches the faces unevenly. I need to correct this morph target.
4. There are no plan-view morphs included. This is an oversight - I forgot to include them.
5. The PP2/PZ3 files are quite large because the object/morph target geometry is embedded in them. I should try using external geometries.

I'm also planning to add a selection of 'top-pieces' in Thai, Khmer, Burmese, and Tibetan styles, because these are tedious or impossible to create from the four blocks.

Load one of the four CBB as your base, scale it as required (do not move it at this stage), apply the morphs to get the shape you want, and apply textures/bump as required.

Load another CBB, scale it as required, move it vertically upwards so it appears to sit on the previous one, apply the morphs to get the shape you want, apply textures/bump as required, and when you're happy, parent it the previous CBB.

Repeat the above step as many times as required.

There are also seperate Poser prop files for each individual element. Of course, if you use these you'll have to parent things yourself, and set the colour of each black piece individually.