I figured it out; if you click on "align node" and "memorize" it saves the information.

I'm not sure that you can legitimately claim that Daz made "Genesis and V5 DS4 figures only," in that they export nicely in both Collada and FBX. (I verified using Maya where both are fully posable.) Unfortunately S-M has not allowed for importing a rigged character in other than "their" format (their advertized Collada import only brings in the mesh; not what you would expect from their "Professional" version).

I do agree that S-M really missed the boat by neither including a weight mapped figure nor supporting industry standard formats for inporting weight-mapped figures.

The Daz Studio Collada exporter works great; the result is a rigged posable character in Maya. Sadly, it appears that the advertized PP2012 Colada import is false advertizing as all you get is the mesh. Hopefully S-M will either fix their Colada import or stop claiming that they support it...

When Poser loads a figure, it separates all of the body parts into disconnected meshes. When you export the figure from Poser, it exports all of the individual mesh body parts if you don't choose the weld option. If you do choose the weld option, it does weld the parts back together, but leaves the extra vertices as extra vertices. Either way, you end up with the wrong number of vertices in the wrong order.

I don't know what Dazstudio wants, but this could be you problem. While there is a straightforward way to reorder the vertices to match the original obj file, I don't know of any commercial program that does so.

Also keep in mind that the intel CPUs are still basically a 32 bit (IA32) architecture with extra address lines added. While the Intel Itanium (IA64) CPU is a true 64 bit architecture, it does not come in any of the windows systems. Thus any claims that the Intel chips based on the IA32 architecture are 64 bit are inaccurate. They are designed to run 64 bit operating systems, but that is not the same as a true 64 bit architecture.

I am not sure if the AMD chips qualify as true 64 bit architectures, but I believe they may well do so.

Thanks!

The ZBrush layer trick to transform corrections is very close to what I was looking for!

Regarding Blacksmith 3D, I'm having enough of a challenge learning Maya and ZBrush. I can't help but cringe at the thought of dealing with another learning curve LOL. It looks like a fairly capable program for doing morphs though (and thanks for the suggestion!)

Moral of story: Find a workflow that works and stick with it LOL!

I first bought UVMapper Pro in the hopes that it would solve this problem. Apparently it is only geared to fix the order for a single group. I am working on a utility to handle multiple groups but it will be a while before it is done, so I would much rather find an off the shelf solution.

Cheers, Parthius

"Check to make sure all your vertex are actually welded and it has the same number of vertex in the mesh. I have been using it for years, you are too quick to give up. Also is this thread for morph fixes in Poser as stated or for maya and lightwave?
"
When I export V4 from P6, the vertex count is 69759 whether the mesh is exported as "welded" or not. The differences are that the welded version replaces all duplicate vertices at group boundaries with a welded vertex plus a free vertex. Thus, the welded version has 2140 more vertices than the original V4 obj file.

The only options I can think of are:
blMilWom.obj as Original, welded export as Morphed
blMilWom.obj as Original, welded export with unattached vertices deleted as Morphed
blMilWom.obj as Original, welded export with unattached vertices merged as Morphed

None of these works. Morpher seems to really want the split/unwelded mesh as the reference.

The issue of export came up because my ideal workflow is to add morphs and/or poses in Poser, export the obj, massage the obj in another application (LW,ZB, and/or Maya), and then generate a FBM based on the original mesh as reference and the massaged mesh as the target. This requires that the original and massaged have the same vertex order/number. N.B. I'm not saying this is the only workflow, just my ideal one.

I really do appreciate all the suggestions. I'll try the layers in ZB later today!

"If all you want is the correct vertex order on a welded obj from Poser just use kewekis morpher (SP?) to reorder it. its  a freebie here. "

Morpher is a great utility. Unfortunately, it requires the use of the unwelded exported mesh as the reference and does not work using the original obj as the reference. That is fine for getting morphs back into poser, but not for getting them onto the original mesh (outside of poser).

I haven't tried layers in ZB yet, it sounds like I need to!

"However noxiart is correct if you export the obj from Poser unwelded it does indeed have the correct vertex order"

At least in P6, all the groups are in separate (disconnected) pieces when exported without welding. V4 picks up 2040 additional vertices in the process. This is not the same vertex count/order as the original mesh and the result cannot be used as a morph target in another app (like Lightwave). Welding the duplicate vertices in LW or UVMapper results in the right number of vertices, but they are in the wrong order.

The vertex order for the individual groups may well be the same as it was in the original mesh, but a split mesh with extra vertices isn't very useful outside of poser. I don't know about Max, but in both Maya and LW it is useless as a morph target if it doesn't have the same vertex number and order.

BloodRoseDesign,
I know how to access the original obj files (they are what I am used to working on).

Noxiart stated that it is possible to export (morphed) object files from Poser in a way that does not alter the vertex count/order from the original (obj in the geometries folder).

Your answer does not answer the question of how he does this.

"If you export from Poser the correct way, the object file will be the exact same as the one you can find in the geometry folder."

Then please tell me the correct way!

When I export V4 from P6 I get an obj with 69759 vertices whereas blMilWom_v4.obj has 67619, which is 2140 less. Choosing weld before export doesn't change the vertex count. It welds the mesh and leaves 2040 free vertices.

"Only if you chose "weld" from the export dialog the vertex order will be changed.
Of course an unwelded object will split when you try to smooth it in ZBrush or similar, but that's not Poser's fault."

Given that the original mesh is not split into body parts and has no issues in ZBrush, you seem to have just contradicted your statement I quoted first.

"So, hmm, I honestly don't see where the problem is ?"

Some of us like to develop morphs outside of Poser and life is much easier working on a mesh that hasn't been carved up into pieces. The problem isn't with Poser rigging, the problem is Posers inability to export an obj with the same vertex count/order as the inported object if the obj has groups like V4.

Like I said, Poser and DS are the only two 3D apps I know of that won't let you save off a geometry with the same vertex order/count as it had on import. This does make it more challenging to develop full body morphs in other applications. If you do everything from within either application, then I agree that it is not an issue.

Poser and Studio are the only 3D applications that I know of that don't let you export a 3D object the same way you import it (I mean vertex count and order as well as file format)!

I have to wonder if that is by design rather than oversight. Afterall, if you could export in the same format as the original character it would be that much easier to create a new character based on the same mesh (like SP3 and V3). Maybe they really don't want to see that....

Just to clarify, MorphLoaderPro will export a version of the mesh that exactly matches the vertex order and count of the original obj file?