So, I've got a hat. Well, turns out the best approach - speaking with those-that-know - to manage hat-in-hand and hat-on-head is smart prop. So, rigging will wait a bit until after I've modelled a simple dress, and we'll rig that, with Paul's careful guidance. Actually, it'll be all about his approach to things, since he really knows what he's talking about, and all I know is a short-cut. Which works, but I want to know how the clock works, not just what time it is.

But anyway, this hat. Here's what I want to do: I'd like the hat to jump onto the head of the selected figure (M4-based) like prop hair does, so that even if the figure isn't in zero pose, the hair will still home in on the head.

Read this thread (with adp001 and Trekkiegrrl), and this thread (with Les Bentley) and this thread (with Ockham)... lots of different approaches to a named solution.

Recommendations?

Meanwhile, I'll get going on that dress.

Probably that's a lot more hype than I really need...  In any case here's a dress modeling tutorial I did a long while back, something like that would be a good subject for a first rigging project.  Good luck with the hat thing, you want the first of your links (the other two topics aren't really about what you're trying to accomplish).

Thanks, those were the articles I followed, Paul, and here's the result: a hat that moves fine with the character. It was just a matter of opening the Hierarchy Editor and dragging the hat under the head.

However, will those settings be saved? Back tomorrow to test this.

ETA: oops, better add the nudity thing...

Reading that rigging tute of yours in bed... thanks Paul.

If you save the hat to the Props library while it is a child of the head, Poser should ask you if you want to save it as a smart prop; say yes.

:woot: Thanks, Paul!!!

Another common step: 

Taking the geometry out of the PP2 file and putting it into a separate OBJ file.