Ugh. I can't open the PZ3 file for a new character I just started working on. Yeah, should've made backups, but didn't...yet. Eep. This is on a Mac laptop (OS 10.2.8) and using Poser 5 (I believe all the service releases were included in my installation. Anyway, I had opened and closed the PZZ fine a few times. But one time Poser crashed in the middle of something I was doing (I forget what, unfortunately), and now every time I try to open this particular PZZ, Poser starts to load it, gets as far as Main Camera, maybe a bit further, and then just crashes and quits. I uncompressed it to PZ3 format and opened it up fine in TextEdit. I've already browsed many postings in this forum, so first of all, it seems that the entire file was saved because it has the following at the end: [a whole buncha stuff preceded by "faceroom"] then ends with: setGeomHandlerOffset 0 0.3487 0 } I'm guessing that's OK then? Going by what I've read about how some PZZs/PZ3s get corrupted because they're re-written in an incomplete form. Checked the P5 manual. It explains the different file types but doesn't give a breakdown of the sections within a PZ3. Tried the trick of importing the file into an empty Poser scene. Didn't work. Tried renaming the PZ3 to a CR2, sticking it in Runtime:libraries:Characters. That makes it appear as a choice in the Figures pallet but it won't load. The character was formed using Judy as the base. Her body got morphed a little, and I ran her face through the Face Room. I don't care about the hair or the clothes thus far, but I'd really like to save the body, the face, and if possible, the materials. Which parts of the PZ3 do I copy out to fresh files to accomplish that? I'm guessing something in her morphs or her coloring is bad, given how Poser just quits and crashes in the same way, whether I open, import, or do the PZ3 -> CR2 trick. I'll work through it line by line if I have to, but I'd love to save some time by knowing what to go after and which files to paste the info to. If there are any posts on 'rosity that discuss this in detail, or tutorials elsewhere, please let me know where they are. My forum and Google searches haven't turned up anything really detailed yet.

I certainly hope you get an answer to this, cuz I have a few Pz3 that are problematic myself.

One thing I did try was Runtime Repair.  It checks for and repairs things like invalid braces, invalid file references, invalid file quotations. The one time I used it I had mixed results, while I was able to open a file I'd been unable to open before the amount of time that had passed since I created the file (and the version of Poser I used when I had created the file) meant that I had a completely different runtime and some things were no longer available on my system.

Good luck and I hope any solution to your dilemna gets posted here.

You should be able to strip out the Judy character fairly easily.  (Yeah, yeah,

I know, stripping Vicky would be much more pleasant!)

Locate the first figureResFile line that points to the Judy OBJ file. 

From there, scan down until you see the last of Judy's materials.

Copy this whole section to a new file, and put

{

version
        {
        number 5
        }

on top,

and

        setGeomHandlerOffset 0 0.3487 0
}

on the bottom.  Save this as a CR2.

what I might attempt is: 1. Change the version number, at the top of the file, to 4.0. yes, I know you mentioned using P5. 2. Delete the movieInfo block, watch you braces. 3. Delete all lights. Save under new name and see if it will open. Sometimes the lights can give fits. If it still won't open then I would try deleting all texture references...textureMap Save and try. If you have clothing, hair those would be the next on my list to delete.