There are 3 horizonal, uh, virtual 2x4s. The bottom one looks correct but the 2 above it won't take color. They appear to absorb all light, like a black hole. When I first noticed this I deleted the middle one, copied the bottom 2x4, in Shade, and drug it up to the middle. So the middle 2x4 is exactly the same as the bottom one except for vertical position.

What the heck is going on?

thanks for any enlightenment you can provide.

If that is a render in poser, looks like you don't have it uv mapped or it's not mapped right. Use the grouping tool in poser to create new groups and/or material zones. That will fix it. UVMapper also works. I have not worked much with the UV's in Shade itself because I always map in UV Mapper. If you need to know how to use the grouping tool. Look up Geep. He has the best tutorial on it.

Attached Link: http://www.stewreo.de/poser/firefaq.html#8

Use the grouping tool in poser to create new groups and/or material zonesno, even re-grouped with materials applied it still appears black.

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Try setting the Diffuse_Value to 0.0 and plug a diffuse node in the alternate_diffuse channel, see if this fixes it.

nope, that didn't help either

i appreciate the suggestions though

If you have UV Mapper, you will find the problem. I do most of my modeling in Shade now and run across that quite often. Box map it to find the problem.

***Box map it to find the problem.***what should i be looking for? nothing really jumps out at me

How big is your file? If you send it to me I'll check it for you. IM me and I will see what can be done.

so i load up the object to take one last look before i send it to you, and i can see that the normals are obviously reversed. i load it back up in shade and flip faces and it fixes the problem. i swear this was the first thing i looked for and could not see it before. and besides, how could it get reversed normals just by moving the object vertically? i must be going insane thanks for the help

I get it with curved surfaces quite often. Mapper finds them fast and makes it easier to fix. That's just my way I guess. Good you figured it out. At least you will know what to look for next time.