I'm using Poser 4 on a Mac . I created a figure in Meshwork, imported it, readjusted the groups, spawned props, used the hierachy editor to parent them appropriately and then hit the "create new figure" button. Whenever I pull out the resulting figure and try and edit the joints, poser crashes. Is it because I didn't hand-build a heirarchy file?

No, it seems to be a Poser bug. I create figures with PHI files and the "Convert Hier File" menu. When I load the new figure and open Joint Editor, my Poser usually crashes (Poser 4 on a Mac). My work around: Load the new figure, and save the library again (you can replace the existing one). "Convert Hier File" and "Create New Figure" (in Hierarchy Editor) create a .cr2 version 3.0. Poser crashes, when you edit joints. "Add to Library" in the library palette creates a .cr2 version 4.01, which works with the Joint Editor.

Cute. Thanks, for the tip. I would have been seriously bummed if I hand built the hierarchy file and it crashed too. (I wrote two episodes in a kids' sci-fi serial, and there's a robot with buncha arms. I want to illustrate it, so I'm trying to build a robot with a buncha arms --16!. All I can say, is thank goodness they don't all have jointed fingers on the end.)