I have P5 and I'm using the free version of Truspace. I'm having a hell of a time with 2 issues. 1. "closed" objects. I create a cone, and want to use it as a lampshade in poser, but the ends of the cone are 'capped'. How can I remove all those cap polygons? 2. single groups. I create a bed, which has a frame, mattress and box springs. I export/import to Poser and I can't texture the frame with a different texture than the mattresses. The Poser grouping tool does not work like I'd expect.

1. The method may vary, depending upon your version of trueSpace. I'd recommend a visit to the trueSpace forum for more experienced help with that application. In Poser, you can use the grouping tool to highlight the parts you wish to keep, then click the "Create Prop" button to generate a new prop from the original. 2. Each element will need its own material group. These can be assigned with Poser's grouping tool (highlight the parts then click "Assign Material"), or with a third-party utility like UVMapper. >> The Poser grouping tool does not work like I'd expect. No, it doesn't. It really takes some practice before you'll become comfortable with it, and then it turns into one of your best friends in Poser. What's giving you the most trouble?

If you're unfamiliar with the Group tool, I suggest practicing with a low poly model to get the hang of it. A standard six poly cube would be too simple, but perhaps you could construct one with more polys per side. You'd be able to toy with it without having too many polys and vectors to deal with. Using the appropriate document display is also crucial. For example, the wireframe will allow you to select polys through the mesh, whereas the flat shade only allows direct selection of the poly you're clicking on. As Little Dragon pointed out, you could select the entire surface of the cone, barring the extreme ends, select "Create Prop" from the Group tool options, and then delete the original cone, leaving you with a truncated cone (like a megaphone). Select the surface of this new cone and "Assign Material" to give it a material zone. By selecting various areas, you can create various material zones. If you want to keep this new cone/lampshade prop for later use, don't forget to save it to the library.

Does TS2 come with a delete face tool? I know later versions did. Right click the cone to bring up the vertex edit tool and see if there is one. Failing that use the paint face tool to give the caps a different material colour. Then when you bring the model into Poser you can set that material to have 100% transparency. A further option would be to use the grouping tool to select the base colour and spawn a prop. This would give you the cone without the caps.

Considering the bed. In TS use the paint object tool to give a different material colour to each element. Then in Poser you will be able to apply a different texture to each one.

We have not covered UV Mapping here so its probably worth you taking a visit to www.uvmapper.com to pick up the free light version of the program and look through the excellent tutorials there.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for all these replies.

What export options do I use to export from TS? Using obj files, I always get just one object, no sub-groups and no textures.

Message edited on: 05/20/2005 16:14

Attached Link: http://www.pinacoderm.com/tsx/luuv/

I think this OBJ export/import plug in will help.

Attached Link: http://www.tir.com/~johnwind/Compose11.zip

Or save in COB format and use John Wind's Compose utility.

Awesome! That luuv plugin has saved my life. I went from almost giving up to actually productive. I had a lamp created in about 15 minutes. (5 of that was figuring out WHAT the heck I was supposed to "ALT-Click" on (It's the plugin's icon, not the object to export).