Seems like I've done this a zillion times, what with Poser 2,4,PP,5,6 plus many reinstalls new computers and what not. Here is what I do, step by steo. Install Poser, start it. Once it opens, delete the man in the window. Rearrange the various controls and windows to a less space-wasting arrangement. In earilier versions you could Alt-click on some of the tools to change them to avertical allignment, that doesn't seem to work in Poser 6, anybody know a fix? Lately I like a "square" document window, I can use 825 x 825 in Poser 4 (newer version can't go as big, due to more clutter) (Am I starting to say that we loose something with newer versions? ;-) Anyway, make sure you have room to get the library to pop open from the left, without overlapping, as you will use that a lot. Click on Full Tracking (second arrow at the bottom of the document window in Poser 6) Click Off Display Shadows (4th "thingee" at bottom of document window) Turn Off the ground plane (Top Menu, Display, Guides, Ground Plane) Set main Camera focal length to 105 mm (unless you like the fish-eyed look). Second Triangle at top of Document Window. Fix the lights to a less-awful state. I suggest: Desaturate all of them (Alt click on the light sphere in the Light Control Window, pull DOWN in the rainbow window for less saturation, move sideways to change the hue) Make the current "almost white light" much stronger (about 80% of max, and a shade of yellow orange. Just make the red light less saturated Make the "green" light a less saturated shade of blue - NOTHING looks good in green light! Make this light a little weaker, too. Tht is it, all you have to do now is set this to be the default, which will be the next step.

Pull down from the top menu Edit, General Prefferences, and set as shown. Click the "Set Preffered Sate" button too, while you are at it. Works for me!

that's essentially the same thing I do. I have the same problem with vertical alignment. I did manage to "see" it go vertical but as soon as I release the button, it goes horizontal.

I don't think you could set to vertical in Poser 5 either, ProPack was the last one for it. I wish there was a way. I should have mentioned that a nice thing about a "square" document window is your thumbnails will be exactly what you see in the window when you save a CR2 or Pose or whatever, instead of cropped.

Message edited on: 04/21/2005 21:02

the alt click does work.. you just keep trying ;)

With Poser 6, for me anyway, you alt click the Tools, and it disappears. Then you go to Window and re-check it. And then Tools is vertical. Same with DocStyle.

hmmmm i would like to scale things up this large but on my monitor i wouldn't be able to read the Dials.... perhaps i should get a bigger monitor...hmmm, I guess you have a 21Inch monitor Jim Burton...

Getting old and still making "art" without soiling myself, now that's success.

Jim, Thats pretty much how I do it, right down to the square window. I do have a few more things I do for setup: After I have installed poser and any updates/patches but BEFORE I open it for the first time, I copy the program files to a separate folder on my HD. Thats only the files outside of the runtime (Poser .exe, Dlls, etc.). Just a quick copy/paste from that folder to the main Poser is like a refreshing re-install. I delete the avi file in the scripts folder to get rid of the walking-orange render guy. I edit the Poser configuration file (prefs folder) and turn off hilit body part by changing the 1 to a 0. Before setting "Set Preferred State" I open the different windows I use most often (like python scripts and joint editor) and place them where I want them to open. I do a few renders to open the render status window and pull that way over to the right so it can be seen when rendering to a new window (and not covered by it). Set my default test render options. Set Preferred State holds all their positions. After Ive installed all the goodies to the runtime, I run Poser and open every library folder to insure a .png has been generated (if one did not already exist). Then I use Windows Search for file function on the geometry and library folder to find and delete the hundreds of unneeded rsrs. Run "Correct Reference". Go have a few beers. SWAMP

Is there a way to make the preview window in the Face Room bigger without changing my screen resolution... I need a "big" screen so I will have room for the main preview and the tools and pallets (its still cramped on my 15" of realestate with 1280x1024) but then the Face Room preview is teeny tiny :(

Under P4 & PP on the tool's HEADER BAR to re-orient. On P5 & P6 on the TOOL itself anywhere EXCEPT the Tool's Header Bar. Another case of developers who don't use/know the product they are "fixing"?

Jim;

Thanks for this. Generally, I set up the same way as you do, but you've added a few hints which will be useful.

There's an old thread (more than a year, I think) where people posted screenshots of setups they used which they found useful. I think I have it bookmarked; if I find it, I'll post the link here.

And layingback - thank you - I've been after that hint for a while. Did you find it by accident, or is it buried in the documentation somewhere?

So I learned something about the alt click. Kewl. That helps a lot, and yeah, it works in P6, just kinda funky to get there.

Hey guys, thanks for the tips, I got 'em vertical, too! I can get a 725 x 725 document window now in Poser 6. I do have a 21" monitor, I run 1280 x 960 resolution (I can't read Poser's labels in 1600 x 1200).

Jim, If you want > 725x725 you might try this layout... 800x800. Plus I have room for the UI Dots window to be opened.

The P5 dial remove trick still works as you can see in my screen capture, but as it doesn't affect the width of the parameter dial window, it should still all fit without it. I don't use the expand out triangles on the parameter dial window very often, but I can still just access them if I do need them.

Don't you like how the "UI Dots" header stays when you hide the dots? Also the click-anywhere-to-close-the-library-palette "feature", added by Larry W in P5B2.1b when I complained that Library palette handle goes BEHIND other windows, has been dropped in P6 - even that handle is still separate from the library palette. EDIT: Ahh, I see you run 1280x960 - square pixels - I only read the 1280! I run 1280x1024 as 1280x960 is not supported on my video edit package, and I hate resizing my desktop between apps.

Message edited on: 04/22/2005 11:27

I augta mention what you mean by "square" pixels, too, for the others - a resolution that matches the normal 4:3 aspect ratio of most monitors is thought of as being "square". and should be used if available.

If you use a non-square ratio no big deal, except the aspect of graphics will change as you rotate them. Graphics done in other computers will look slightly skinny or fat too, as yours might to them.

I used 1600 x 1200 for awhile in Max, as it has more readable labels (somthingh they really, really aught to fix in Poser), but like you said, it is a pain resizing between apps.

Message edited on: 04/22/2005 12:03

How do you get Poser 5 to stop displaying the Figure Ring? I never noticed it in Pro Pack, but I find it exceedingly annoying in P5, especially with Easypose figures like the Aiko Cat Girl tail - the figure ring basically just jitters around at random when you turn the ERC dials to pose the tail. I've tried turning it off and then using the "Set Preferred State" button, but it keeps coming back. Urg.

'I've tried turning it off and then using the "Set Preferred State" button, but it keeps coming back' Me too, katoran. I couldn't get rid of it in P5 and now P6 is the same. And the freaking 'Show camera names'! I do pretty much everything jim does, AND what swamp does too, especially copying the files and editing the 'hilite body part' in the .ini. One thing no one has mentioned that I always do. I select the Aux camera, then alt-click on the very top 'head' in the camera controls (the one that looks like a WW2 pilot), to replace that cam with my Aux cam. Except (of course), I can't get it to stay that way in P5/P6, only P4. Surprise, surprise. mac

Jim, You can actually change the font size in Poser labels - eg. paramDialPrefs.xml - by changing textSize= for name and groupName. (And you can flip font betwen serif/san-serif.) Note however that a larger font will result in even more text overlap between param labels and the value - unless you adjust all the offsets.

What I'd really like to do is change the colors, and get some more contrast between the text and the background, that would go a long way tward making it more readable. I guess I get spoiled by Max's interface. Imagine having labels abd buttons you can actually read, instead of guessing at! ;-)