Hello everyone,

Could someone please tell me why some props can't be saved as parented props. I found some free car keys a while back and I have parented them to V4's hand. However when I save them I don't get the "save as Parented prop" question and when I add them to a scene later they just appear in the scen on the ground. If anyone could tell me what is going on I would appreciate it. I am using currently Poser Pro 2012 however I have had this happen with a few props over the years in different versions of Poser.

Thanks for any replies.

nabob21

i'm not sure what you are doing, but one thing you must NOT do to save a parented prop is to select subset when the requester comes up.

Bill

Check to make sure that you actually have it parented properly. If you are not getting the popup asking if you want to save it as a smart prop, then it's not parented.

Thanks for the replies.

The set of keys has one master key with a keyring and 2 other keys parented to it. If I parent the master key to a hand and then save it as a smart prop, when I add the keys again only the master key is added. If I try to select a subset, it doesn't work as indicated by willyb53's comment. I guess I could parent everything as needed and save them all separately but that is a pain. I know that I have been successful saving grouped props as a smart prop before, but I can't get it to work for these items.

nabob21

Quote - I know that I have been successful saving grouped props as a smart prop before

No you haven't.

willyb53 is correct. When you use Select Subset, you don't get the option to save as a smart prop. Here is a way to work round it.

METHOD #1.
First make sure 'Use file compression' is turned off in the 'Misc' tab of your 'General Preferences'. With the props parented as desired, 'Memorize' all the props (keys), then save all the props to a single pp2 file by using 'SelectSubset'.

Open the resulting pp2 file in a plain text editor (NotePad should do at a pinch). Use the editors 'Search & Replace'  function ('Find & Replace', or just 'Replace' in some editors). Set the search string to be "parent UNIVERSE". Set the replace string to be "smartparent rHand", and do 'Replace All'. Save the file.

I used "smartparent rHand" in this example, but of course you can use any body part that you like as the parent, eg "smartparent lHand", or "smartparent head". You must use the internal name of the body part, not its display name. In recent versions of Poser, you can find the internal name of any actor by selecting that actor and looking in its 'Properties'.

METHOD #2.

I highly recommend that you use the method from my last post, but if you have a phobia about text editors, you can use this method instead. Note that if you use wave deformers in your scene, this method might mess up the numbering (but not the function) of your Wave Zones (but how often do you use Wave Deformers?).

Select the part of the figure that is to be the parent actor. From the Object menu do 'Create Wave'. Set Visibility off for the wave Zone in its Properties. Save the Wave Zone only, to a Props palette. Delete the Wave, then load the Wave zone that you just saved. Parent the props to the Wave Zone. Save the Wave Zone back to the Palette (with a new name) using 'Select Subset' to include the props. A Wave Zone always saves as a smart-prop, even when you use 'Select subset'.

Thanks lesbently for the replies.

Well, I 'thought' that I had saved grouped props as smart props before but it has been a while and I concede that you and willyb53 are most likely correct when you state that I haven't, especially since I can't get it to work now LOL!  I will give method #1 a try.

Thanks everyone for your help, it is much appreciated.

nabob21

I have not tried it, but I would think that you could save each of the keys as a smart prompt to the key ring, and the key ring to the hand, and load keyring,key,key.

bill

willyb53, you could do it that way, but to me it sounds like a lot of messing around each time you want to load the props. In my oppinion, it's better to spend your time editing the pp2, which you only need to do once, then its right for ever.