Attached Link: http://www.robinwood.com

Hi! I'm new here, although I've been using Poser since the very beginning. But I've been trying to download some of the free stuff; and even the ones that say they are for both Mac and IBM seem to all come as IBM files. Since I have a Mac, that's pretty useless for me. Is there some way to get the Mac files? And if not, is there some way to open the IBM files on a Mac? Thanks!

You need to convert the PC files with a utility. Look in the Poser free stuff utilities section for MartinC's MacConverter. -JH.

Although there is a conversion program for this in the Utilities section of the FS I believe. .obj and .CR2 files are cross platform compatable. Just put the .obj in the proper sub folder. And put the .CR2 file in any libraries folder. Then launch poser and find the thumnail of a shrugging guy. Clicking on that will create a new .rsr file so all you need to finish the process is save it to the library again with the same name. And you're done. I frankly don't see the need for using a conversion program myself. But there is one available. ScottA iamsba@aol.com

Scott, Macs do need the conversion program. They don't use RSRs either -JH.

They do? Now I'm confused. If .CR2's and .OBJ's are cross platform compatable. Why the need for a utility? ScottA

Mac files have info in them that tells the OS what type of file they are. The conversion utility takes are of that and a few other things.

The information contained in the RSR file is integrated into the main file on the MAC (like the thumbnail image and the info on what program created the file). MAConverter will combine the PC files into one and set the file type (creator) so you don't have to do it manually in ResEdit (among other things). The biggest advantage is that you can convert your MAC file to a PC file to share with others. It is a simple matter to re-convert back to MAC. I havn't found any poser file that wouldn't work after using MAConverter.

It trully is a fantastic program. I'm a MAC-ite too. And this program is indispenable! Poser on the MAC will not read files unless the do contain information on what program created it. MacConversion is an apple script that handles all this for you. And better yet, it DOES convert MAc files to PC format too. Get it, you won't be dissapointed. It opens up the whole world of downloads. I can for instance use any file here PC or MAC. It also Converts PCF files (ObjectionMover) What a work horse! James

jschoen, it is not an AppleScript... :-) ScottA, besides many other things, Maconverter directly creates the preview thumbnails from the .rsr files, so there is no need to re-save them. This is not only convenient (especially with custom made thumbnails), it also preserves some library files with manually edited .obj links that will get merged on re-saving. If your Poser accepts library files without the converter, then you probably either use the good olde AppleScripts, or you adjusted your InternetConfig to deal with Poser's file zoo. It might be worth giving the converter a try, because it turns the whole business into a "one drag, one click" job. Don't get me wrong (I really don't want to promote myself), but I recently read an advice somewhere on the net that people should not try any converter, because they might as well open each single file individually with ResEdit and set the codes manually... well, if anyone prefers that sort of fundamentalism it's perfectly fine, but it should not be published as a general advice... :-) Cheers, MartinC

Martin, It is the single most valuable tool a Mac/Poser user can have in his arsenal. I used to change file types by hand until I discovered Maconverter. (I still convert manually for Bryce.) Thanks for the great gift

I would not use Poser without Martin's convert application. Download a dozen Poser files, drag them all on the converter, move them into Poser, ba-da-bing. Done. Never crashes, never makes a mistake, it's the way all software is supposed to work. Thanks, again, Martin. --ratta

does this wonder program work for other files besides Poser? I shared some MC Painter paterns (made on a pc), and at least one Mac user could not use them. Would this program have helped?

Pam, The "type & creator code" would be different for Painter files (PATL and FSXS). MAConverter wouldn't work for Painter. I thought I ran across an AppleScript that did the conversion but can't seem to locate it at the moment.

Hmmm. ResEdit? Set codes manually? I guess you Mac people have to do a lot more fussing around to open PC files. Than us PC people have to do to open Mac files. All I ever do is put the .CR2 and .obj files made by a Mac into the proper folders and it works just fine on my PC. Sounds like PC to Mac is harder to do. ScottA

I don't have a Mac but i do send all clients to get Martins convertor and so far we've had 100% success....great app......Martin...Steve

There are several file converters in the downloads section of the Ziff Davis MacWorld site. I don't know how many different creator codes it recognizes, but it should cover the most popular programs to convert files from PC to Mac.

Robin Wood: I'm surprised nobody mentioned MartinC's Poser Macinstaller 1.0.1. It is the only thing nearly as cool as Maconverter. Drag and drop the output from Maconverter onto it and it sorted everything into place for you, you never go searching for textures files, it leaves an unmolested Runtime folder -- I could go on and on. This is more than parity with the Wintel platform. ScottA: "Sounds like PC to Mac is harder to do" Myabe, but look where you are at the end! =)

I down loaded some freebies to play around with on my just bought Poser 4. I unzip the files, and drag the icon (which has 'PC' on it) to Maconverter and hit convert. It tells me that it's now converted...but were to, I don't know. Am I missing something? Do I need to use the 'PCF' encoding in Maconverter to make it work? Do old hands ever get tired of Newbee questions? Thanks in advance

The files are exchanged with the converted versions, so you find the results exactly at the same place where you started the drag. The PCF encoding is a feature for Poser creators to publish modified .obj files without running into a copyright violation - so as long as you don't start to release stuff of your own, you will probably never need it.

Thankss for the quick responce. How do I get the props to show up in P4? Say I had a dog, would I then pull the icon into the the P4 folder on my HD and place it in the runtime> libraries>props folder? I tried, but with no luck...do I need to rename the file from dfx. (or jpg.) to obj.? I spend hours and hours in PhotoShop, Freehand and Qxpress, so I'm trying to learn (unlearn?) some things. Thanks again warbird

Two things that probably went wrong... If you have a .dxf file, you must import it to a Poser scene with Poser's import command (you can then save it as a prop, if you like). A "real" prop (.pp2) must go to a subfolder of runtime > libraries > props, where the name of the subfolder will be the library name in Poser. If you have trouble with installing (and even if you don't... :-) you might want to use the Macinstaller tool - it will not only save you from all this trouble, it can also perform some tricks which are unavailable with manual installing at all. Take some time to read my docs before, it explains the options that you will get. The tools are available from: http://www.main-rheiner.de/homepage/soft.rabbit