Since Poser 5 doesn't convert .jpgs to .bmp as Poser 4 did, I would like to know if its is safe to crack open the .pz3 files in TextEdit and change the link from .bum to .jpg. Is this safe to do in TextEdit and does it work? I'm tired of having to load every single bumb file because P5 won't convert them. FYI- Mac OS 10.2.8 Poser 5

Sure, I've done it lots of times. Just make sure you save your original file somewhere in case you screw up the one you are working on. Do a search in your text editor using .bmp as your search criteria and replace every .bmp with .jpg - just make sure the .jpg file actually exists in your textures folder first.

I can't think of any reason why this would be unsafe, or why it would not work, but I must admit I have never tried this particular edit. Just to be on the safe side you may like to backup the original PZ3s untill you have tested the editid versions.

You don't have to convert them. P5/P6 will use BUM files just fine if they're plugged into the Gradient Bump channel. There's no real reason why you can't do what you want to, though. Just make sure you save the edited file with a different name in case everything goes blooie. Word of warning, PZ3s can be HUGE.

I haven't tried to edit pz3-files, but I often edit cr2, pp2 and pz2 files. With BBEdit Lite you can do a search and replace on a whole folder too, so you don't have to open every file and do it by hand.

"You don't have to convert them. P5/P6 will use BUM files just fine if they're plugged into the Gradient Bump channel." I know. The problem is that for downloading purposes, merchants give you .jpg instead of .bmp files, and while P5 can read them, when you load an object it will look for the bump file. And all of the bump files are mislabeled as .jpg, because the merchant wanted to save space. They assume that you can convert them, but P5 doesn't automatically convert the jpg files the way that P4 does. Thanks for all the help everyone. I will definitely back up my files before I begin to rewrite them.