hi, i am currently working on a Poser scene which contains a variety of plants i have modelled in Maya. I have saved the plants to the props folder and noticed that even when i have moved the OBJ from the geometries folder the prop still loads, i checked the Cr2 and there is no link to the geometries folder and there is lots of lines of what looks like co-ordinates.

Does this mean poser rebuilds the prop using this info and doesnt need the prop to be in the geometries??

Thanks guys

John

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Yes, Poser saves the geometries info of a prop to the prop file.  The OBJ can be imported from anywhere, and need never be in Poser's  runtime.

John

if the newly saved pp2 file has no external reference to an obj file,
then the saved pp2 file is entirely composed of embedded geometry,
as ya noted.  daz and some purists recommend stripping out the
geom lines and replacing 'em with a ref line to the obj file, and said
file can be located almost anywhere.

xposted with BVR

thanks for the help, is there any negative points to using the geom lines then? or is that just something DAZ do just because?

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Attached Link: External Geometry

It is easier to make changes to the OBJ file, etc., if the geometries file is externally located.  Such is usually a requirement of item that is to be sold.  I have a tutorial on how to convert the file.  It is old, and there may be a Python script to do this now.

John

Vanishing Point has a geometry stripper application for free, that creates a reference in the PP2 file to the external OBJ, but in the same folder as the PP2; you could then easily move the OBJ and change the reference in the PP2 with a text editor. (Scroll down the page to see the download info)

The advantage to external geometry is that you can use the same geometry from multiple prop or figures .

Thanks for your help guys, that program is really easy to use :D and does the job very well

It has brought me a new problem though, when i saved the props i changed the material names in the Txt file so now i have to change them in the OBJs.. Darn!!

Thanks for your help, i think ill pop over too the Maya forum for the answer to my new problem :D

John

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If you import an obj file into Poser and then save it to a Props pallet, Poser will internalize the geometry as a 'geomCustom' code block within the pp2 (prop file). Some operations in the Grouping Tool can also result in a 'geomCustom' block. Props that use 'geomCustom' do not need an external obj file.

On the other hand if you were to load a pp2 file that already used external geometry (objFileGeom), then saved the prop back to a pallet with a new name, Poser would continue to use the external geometry.

The advantage to using an external obj file is as markschum said. With a figure, you may have several cr2 (character) files all using the same obj file, so you save disk space by only needing one copy of the geometry, instead of having a copy in each cr2 file. There are also some differences in the way Poser handles 'geomCustom' in props and figures. In prop files there is usually no advantage in storing the geometry externally, and personally I prefer internal geometry in props.

Here's a bit of trivia for ya:
Wings3D (the free modelling application) can read a pp2, hr2 or cr2 file with embedded geometry code in it as long as you tell Wings it's an obj file in disguise. You point it at the prop file and the geometry shows up in your modeling window. Pretty cool, and I haven't come across any other modeler that'll do it, they usually puke on all the lines of Poser-specific stuff.

hehe, thanks for the extra info. i have now converted all of the prop files to have links to the OBJ. It looks like different people have different preferences on this too.. its not a simple task hehe..

I may as well ask here as its on a similar subject. If i want to save one pp2 which contains a whole scene of props how would i do that. Am i right in thinking Parenting everything to a ground Prop and then saving the ground would do that or is there another method..Ive not tried this as i have not created a ground prop yet :D

Thanks for all your help

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when you save there should be a "save subset" button. Select that and tick the boxes for what you want saved .    I MAY be thinking the wrong thing here , so give it a try :)   

When you go to save a prop, you can click on Select Subset.  There you can choose as many props from the scene as you like.  I believe only the first gets saved with its parent.  Parents can be hacked in to the file, or assigned after loading.

John

Thank you very much, ive never noticed that subset button.. :D thanks

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Quote - I believe only the first gets saved with its parent.

Any parenting in a group of props that you save using "Select Subset" will persist, and still be there the next time you load the props. The one thing that does not work when you use "Select Subset" is smart parenting, you can't save a prop as a "smart prop" when you use "Select Subset". I learnt this the hard way. When I started using Poser I always used "Select Subset", even when only saving one prop, it took me months to work out why I couldn't save a smart prop.