Hmmm... Yep, it looks like just going to another app will unfreeze it.

Vaskania, what internal and external libraries are you talking about? Do you mean the Poser default library?

I recently upgraded from Windows Vista to 8.1, which required me to install some Poser 9 upgrades, but everything should be current.

Try Nirvy's "After 8... You Can Leave Your Hat On" poses:

Frankly, I don't know how anyone can get anything done in Poser using the default library setup, and I have often wondered how many new users abandon Poser due to the frustration of dealing with the illogical arrangement of the content.

I know that I was extremely frustrated early on by Poser's content management, but fortunately I came upon a thread that dealt with how people had taken the library structure into their own hands, so from the beginning I was working with my own content organization.

I started out with multiple Runtimes, but over time I have merged most of them into just one main one. All my people figures go into the "Figures" library. Clothing, whether dynamic or not, goes into the "Materials" library. Since I keep materials with the clothing that they were made for, there was no real need for a "Materials" folder per se, so I repurposed it for clothing.

There are a couple of caveats with reorganizing your content. First of all, if you're working in Poser and you want to save a pose, figure, material, etc. that you created, you HAVE to save it to the library that Poser intended for it. So if you have created a light set that you want to keep for other scenes, you HAVE to save it to the "Lights" library. If that's not where you want it to end up, you have to move the files around with your operating system file manager.

Second, much of the content that comes with the installation of Poser has .pmd or .obj files that are hard linked to a parent file. By that I mean that the parent file - a .cr2, for example - will have a link to a .pmd file that includes the entire path starting with "runtime:...". So if you move the cr2 to another directory, that will break the link. For this reason, I don't mess with reorganizing the runtime that gets installed with Poser.

Finally, some vendors will do something similar to what Poser does by having a hard link to an ego folder inside the "libraries" folder. Usually this is for some morphs that the product comes with. In these cases I just move the offending folder to the Geometries directory where it belongs, and make changes to the parent file with a text editor.

One thing that happens with me is that I will position the hand with IK on and then turn IK off, and the figure goes into contortion mode.

Quote - Does the "Lock Actor" work for M4 as well? Cheers

As long as the actor names are the same, then yes. For example the code for the All_Locked pose goes like this:

actor BODY
    {
    locked 1
    }
actor hip
    {
    locked 1
    }
actor abdomen
    {
    locked 1
    }...

Quote - Just a thought....  Dial sens seems like one of the factors that would belong in a 'Grade A Fancy' quality control level.  Products with a QC seal would be made and checked with a fine-tooth comb.  Each morph or dial would have reasonable limits, readable label and proper sensitivity.  The item would be checked for its appearance in Preview mode and suitability for animation.  (It wouldn't have to BE good in those modes; the point here is that the 'Grade A' QC would tell you in advance WHETHER the item is good.) 

I'd pay extra to know in advance, with certainty, that the item would suit my purposes.

Yes, yes, yes!!! We had a similar discussion a few years back. You might search for "Certification", but it was the same idea.

How about using Les Bentley's Lock Actor script? With that you can lock everything then unlock the abdomen. 

ThunderStone, how can you "turn off" parts in the Hierarchy Editor?

Hi, everybody. I'm the OP. This thread ran off and left me behind a long time ago, but it looks like it's been helpful to others, so that's good.  I understand a tiny bit more about IBL than I did before, so that's good also, but mainly I think I've reached the point where I need to remind myself that this is just a hobby for me.

Carry on.

Very nice, Anthanasius. So what did you do differently between the right and left images?

Quote - Lesson one is installing content.  I begin to wonder whether the person I'm assisting is mentally deficient, or whether I am simply the worst instructor ever. 

Poser had a very steep learning curve for me, and a major obstacle was its content  management, aka library system. It is a terrible, awful, bad, very bad, very-very bad, horrible, terrible (did  I say that already), big stinkin' mess. It makes a certain amount of sense if you go back to the early days of Poser, but for someone just now getting into it, it makes no sense at all. Why is there no hair in the Hair directory? Why are the textures for an outfit completely separated from the outfit? What are all those things doing in the Pose directory that have nothing to do with poses?

I come from a hi-tech background and I've taught applications in the past. IMO, one mistake that a lot of trainers and user guides make is trying to justify every part of a system. Sometimes it's best to just say that while a certain app is, in general, a very fine app, some parts of it just suck. That helps to limit the self doubt that comes with learning complex systems like Poser. I wouldn't spend much time trying to explain Poser's content management to your student. It's just not worth it.

The good news is that, for the most part, you can organize your content any way you like, and that seems to be what most of us end up doing. There are lots of threads on this because it's such a frequently asked question. Maybe it should be a sticky.

        <Widget name="dialNudgeL"  pictRes="26011"  command="9001"  pinID="1"  pinTop="3"  pinLeft="1"  pinBottom="3"  pinRight="1"  left="0"  top="0"  bottom="10"  right="10"  rect.left="0"  rect.top="0"  rect.right="5"  rect.bottom="10"  color="-1"  fadeMax="0"  tile="1"  useRectClick="1" />
        <Widget name="dialNudgeR"  pictRes="26012"  command="9001"  pinID="1"  pinTop="3"  pinLeft="1"  pinBottom="3"  pinRight="1"  left="0"  top="0"  bottom="10"  right="10"  rect.left="0"  rect.top="0"  rect.right="5"  rect.bottom="10"  color="-1"  fadeMax="0"  tile="1"  useRectClick="1" />

Notice how that gives you double right and left arrows, which was not really intended, and twice the clickable area horizontally. You can do the same thing vertically, but then you have to resize the vertical spacing of the entire dial. I think this is all I need for now.

Oh, yeah. Backup before messing with the xmls.

I think that only works if you have file search preference set to shallow or deep.

Good point about Geometries and Textures, but I was assuming that those folders would be referenced as they are now starting with "Runtime".

The reason I brought this up now is because I just downloaded Dawn and I noticed that they use the cursed pmd files. Pmd files are always referenced by the parent file with an essentially absolute path starting at "Runtime", e.g., the cr2 file for Dawn's String Bikini as ":Runtime:libraries:Character:HiveWire 3D:Dawn:Clothing:String Bikini:String Bikini.pmd". I'll call these things "runtime absolute paths" for the moment.

So why is that a problem? Well, many of us - maybe most of us - have abandoned the default directory structure and have implemented a structure that makes at least some kind of sense to the user. For the most part you can put characters, clothes, props.etc. anywhere that works for you. The main limitation is that you have to keep everything under the directories that come with the Library window (Character, Hair, Materials, Pose, etc.) For example, I put all my outfits in the Material directory tree. For materials, I put them in a subfolder under the item it was made for.

That works beautifully except when there is a pmd file because they are always referenced by a "runtime absolute path" which means that you can't move the item out of the exact directory tree that the vendor set up.

If Poser could recognize HTML style relative paths you could have the cr2 reference the pmd like this: morphBinaryFile "String Bikini.pmd". There's no leading path structure, so you assume it's in the same directory as the cr2. Now you can relocate everything to your heart's desire.

Nope, she still comes back with leg IK on.