In a recent search for a prop, someone directed me to 3dcafe.com where I found the perfect model, only to realize that it was a .max file. They have an enormous array of awesome models, but they are all in different file formats and being new to the 3d graphics world, I simply have no idea what to use where. The file formats I saw listed included 3DS, PRJ, MAX, LW, LWO, DXF, COB, and WRL. What programs are these files for? Also, could some kind soul please tell me which, if any, of these can be used with Poser and those that can't be imported directly into Poser, can they be converted somehow so that they will work in Poser? How would I accomplish this? Thanks so much! Have a great weekend! :) AQROSE

3DS & dxf can be imported directly into poser. LW & LWO can be imported with the Pro Pack plugin the rest have to be converted into a Poser friendly format. 3DS= 3ds Max prj= 3DS Max project file MAX= 3DS Max scene file LW= lightwave LWO= lightwave DXF= Autocad COB= Truespace WRL= VRML (virtual reality modelling language)

3DS, PRJ, and MAX are 3D Studio Max formats, the former an interchange format, the latter two proprietary formats. LW and LWO are object formats for Lightwave 3D. DXF is a very simplistic interchange format for AutoCAD. COB is a TrueSpace object format. WRL is a "WoLrD" format for VRML. The best format for Poser is OBJ (Wavefront Object format) which is the format it uses natively. Most 3D applications will export to this format. 3DS is another format supported by Poser. Many 3D applications will export this format also. Although Poser supports DXF and LWO, there are some caveats. For DXF, you might as well forget about it. It only contains vertex geometry, no materials, no textures, no groupings, just basic vertex geometry. For LWO, Poser only supports up to Lightwave v5, so newer version objects will probably choke on import.

.COB files can be converted to obj with john Wind's compose utility (freestuff), if I'm not mistaken...

so...I can safely & easily use .obj and .3ds files but none of the others? I looked for that utility in freestuff, but didn't find it. Are there other programs or ways to make the other formats useable in Poser? Thanks for your time! AQROSE

There are some general converters out there like Right Hemisphere's "Deep Exploration", but it costs $299 (and it won't convert into some formats unless you own the originating program - such as MAX requires 3DStudioMax).

Attached Link: http://www.europa.com/~keithr/crossroads/

Crossroads is supposed to convert .cob but it's pretty old so I don't know which versions it supports. 3DWin (http://www.tb-software.com/index.html) handles most of the formats. You can try the demo which is limited to one material. 3DLinks (http://www.3dlinks.com/software_converters.cfm) lists a whole slew of conversion programs. MAX is probably going to be the hardest to deal with. You pretty much have to own the program. I know the old version of Exploration would open MAX files but it could only deal with the basic primitives, not the special MAX features so it is of limited utility. I imagine that may still be the case. Sometimes you find a MAX file that contains only primitives that you can use but not often.

True Space had a free download of their earliest program also recently so a person could download that save the Tob file there, and export it in obj format maybe?

Foxseelady: Unfortunately, TrueSpace does not export to obj format. There is a free third party plug-in that can do it, but it does not work with TrueSpace versions that old. You can export to 3ds files using TrueSpace though, and Poser will read those.