markschim - setting a variable doesn't work, still not changing the frame.  as to why, I'm not so good at math, so i set multiple jumps and just pick one depending on the action that's happening in the animation. it makes things go much faster and smoother.

millighost - not ideal, but probably the best option yet.. I can't believe there is no way to change the frame from python in pro 2010, if it wasn't for the render times I'd prob go back to P7..

there's no way i can keep the edit keyframes window open, I've tried docking it everywhere i can think of, if i could re-design the window i could but as is there is just not enough space for the document window and the edit keyframes at the same time while animating..

anyone think of any other workarounds to make scene.SetFrame(scene.Frame() + 30) work?

hmm, seems to work ok if i have 'edit keyframes' window open. 

on an unrelated note, can somone tell me the python code to add key frames to everything as is in current frame? 

its in C:Program FilesSmith MicroPoser Pro 2010 its the 64 bit version i'm using if that makes a difference (i'm on xp 64 bit)..

tried it, scene.DrawAll () doesnt change the frame at number... any other ideas?

ockham - once again thanks, I'll check out Dimension3D, set range script is not exactly what I was looking for but still going to save a lot of time, reading over it, trying to understand the code :). frame jump works great, got it set up +5 +10 +20 etc in a sub to the main menu, exactly what i was after.

markschum - 'keyframe ALL' catches things I don't want to catch, when I animate I tend to do it in several passes so would like to be able to set 5 or 6 objects to keyframe on a click...

'parented item should follow its parent' .. they do, but imagine you have a staff (with morphs) parented to a cube, which is parented to a hand, the hip that's attached to the hand will not keyframe the morph on the staff which can't really follow the cube or hand.. which is why I would key the staff / cube / hip separately. in the other hand I have a sling which I don't want to key as I'm going to rotate it through the animation smoothly (just an example, but you can see why 'ALL' doesn't work for me or parenting)..

'Break Spline' .. will have to use this more, think there was a bug with this in an older version of poser, can't remember exactly what was wrong with it but it stopped me from using it..

' drop down selectors' .. I like to reach out grab something and move it, just easier than working with dials and such, so I do this when I can, using the drop down selectors only highlights something, now if I hold shift I can grab it but shift sometimes moves the parent instead of the object I was trying for..

anyway, ockham, markschum, thanks for your help, much appreciated :)

while this thread is up top I think I'll ask another question, off topic for rigging but don't want to start a new thread while this one is on the first page;

I've been using the material node : 3D textures / marble and hooking it to Diffuse_color, Specular_color and Bump.  looks really cool on metalwork kind of things, anyway, when animating the pattern jumps around as if its animated too, but I can't find any references to animation in the node -or in fact in the material room, anyone know what's going on?  I don't have a lot of experience with the material room yet so the answer is probably staring me in the face...lol

just re-done it as one figure, took 11 hours (maybe I underestimated the complexity of the arms before) :(  its 4 in the morning and I can't help thinking that all the work I did today just puts me back to where I thought I was yesterday morning...lol

anyway, big thanks to everyone who helped, still can't get the trans dials to show in my other mech model (the python script doesn't show trans hidden so I assume they are just not there..)

**markschum, andolaurina, thanks, the trans dials don't appear to be hidden though.. will look into erc, looks complicated lol.

kerwin, waiting for a few patches / updates before I buy, not so lucky with new software myself :)

I've run into another problem, which is confusing me, I have this Mech that I wanted to put an extra set of arms onto, I built the arms in 3DsMax and imported obj to poser, I set up bones and IK, parented it to the abs, works great, but now the pose dots won't hold the pose,  its because the second arms are classed at a separate figure, I've tried to re-parent them and am having no luck so;

how do you merge figures?  just parenting one to another doesn't seem to work for the pose dots (though it does work for saving to the library).****
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thanks.

sixus1 - The legs only have three joints and they are acting in the same weird way as the arms, i have poser 7, not sure if it has animation layers, but I will look into it.

**drapak12 - **  If you mean to animation without IK, then its 5 times the work, if you mean to position the arms with IK then remove IK then the positions are messed up for some reason.

**Miss Nancy - **   I've animated before and find 20 - 40 frames between key frames adequate to create the animation, usually needs correcting and examination of the graphs to the joints but I've always felt it was a good start to set out an animation.  The problem here is that even on the key frames the position of the hands / feet are not saved as I have positioned them.  onslaught is not a free character, bought it from Daz.

Took IK off to examine the joints more closely and have discovered a few bits I did not notice before.  Say I grab the right shin and 'bend' it, there are 3 little objects called the 'kneeTrans', 'KneeCrank' and 'KneeCCrank' that rotate when I move the shin, to give the impression of gears turning.  Similar objects in the arms.  Since I have not put these in the IK and there does not seem to be any controls for them could they be messing up the movement of the arms / legs?  I mean they must be a part of the thigh and hooked into the movement of the shin...

thanks pakled and svdl, was hoping for a widget that would just let me point a finger at the library object and create the zip automatically... never that easy.  collect scene inventory helps, but its a slow process.  I wish poser had spent a little more time on the library its a bit of a pain sometimes.**

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Tyger_purr, no rotation or X & Z hot keys in that file :( only toggle from camera to camera which I've never found really useful.. but I guess I could set up cameras at different angles, just be a lot to reset if I move from center.. I know about the right click select too, but even selected (red outline) when I go to click and drag it.. what object is re-selected is anyone's guess lol.

**Miss Nancy, ** that's a shame, wouldn't take much to put everything in the camera controls into hot keys surly.. their point and click interface is really good for beginners but when people start to make complicated animations it just slows the process down.  hope they decide to add to the hot keys, they wouldn't even need to change the interface any, just add to it.

anyway, thank.

outstanding :) replacing the usemtl with g worked great!  that's exactly what I was looking for.  thanks EnglishBob, life saver :)

**DarkEdge, I am very interested in that first idea with UVMapper, have downloaded the classic version, have grouped the polys in one of my reins into 20 sub materials in max and exported to obj, imported into mapper and select all 20 materials...

from there I tried saving model, assigning it to group, export UVs.  but nothing I try changes the materials to groups... do I need the pro version to do this or am I missing a command here?****

thanks

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