I've been working with Poser for years now, but still there are areas where I never venture into except by accident. The Face Room and Setup Room are two of those places, but so is the Joint Editor. I'll bring it up every now and then just for the "Zero Rotations" button to reset my model, but that's it.

So the question is, do you use this feature, and if so, what do you use it for? Please understand, I'm not interested in HOW it works, but rather what it's purpose is. What problem does it solve for you?

This brings up a secondary question. As I mentioned. I will occasionally open the Joint Editor window just to get to the "Zero Rotations" button. This is especially important when working in the Cloth Room. So why is this fairly significant function tucked away in this relatively obscure window? Shouldn't there be a Zero Rotations feature as part of the Cloth Room itself, or as an item in the menu bar? (I'm aware of the "Zero Figure" and "Restore Figure" menu items, but each of them have slightly different behaviors.)

You can Zero an entire figure or body part without ever going to the Joint Editor.  That said, the Joint Editor is for editing joints. You use it to edit placement of joint origins, joint rotations, editing weight maps of joints, editing bulge maps of joints, and other joint related operations. If you are not creating your own character, it's rare that you would ever need this feature.

As for doing the Zero thing without using the Joint Editor, you may want to have a look at the Figure>Zero Figure menu option or Edit>Restore>Object or Edit>Restore>Figure options. 

We don't hide everything. The Zero Figure menu option does essentially what the Zero Rotations option does. It does also turn off morphs but that's a tiny thing to turn back on I would hope (I mean, I would hope whoever created your figure made morphs easy to turn back on). 

Zero figure will zero the joint rotations, restore returns the fig to a predetermined state (not necessarily zero) as set by the command 'memorize'. The joint editor is used to adjust the influence of bones on body part groups and make adjustments to centers/rotations in both props and figures.

Sorry, Teyon. Crosspost.

However, if you feel having a Zero Rotations feature in the Cloth Room is something you really, really need, I can pass it along. I would imagine adding the button there to be relatively trivial but I don't do the coding, I'm just the figures.

Edit: No worries, DeathMetalDesk, it's nice to have another voice. :D

The way I see it, a "zero figure" button in the Cloth Room is both unnecessary and redundant. I do any figure posing in the pose room before I even enter the Cloth Room, in the rare instance that I would need it in the Cloth Room, there's always the Figure drop down menu which lists the function.

OK, so the short answer to my main question (What is the PURPOSE of the Joint Editor?) seems to be "If you are not creating your own character, it's rare that you would ever need this feature." Got it. That's what I thought. Since I don't make my own characters, I will probably never use it... EXCEPT... except for the "Zero Rotations" button.

My guess is that only a tiny percent of Poser users will ever create their own characters, so 99% of the time the Joint Editor window is opened is only to get to the "Zero Rotations" button. So why isn't there a "Zero Rotations" option on the menu? (My suggestion that there should be a "Zero Rotations" button in the Cloth Room was just and offhand remark not to be taken seriously.) The "Zero Rotations" button, the Figure>Zero Figure menu option, and the Edit>Restore>Figure menu option do NOT do the same thing. Neither do the "Zero Pose" poses that many vendors include with their pose packages.

At one point I ended up writing my own zero poses and in the process realized that it wasn't a trivial exercise. Should a zero pose just address the rotations? What about translations and scales? What about expressions? What about morphs? What about Morphforms?

Well, I'll pass on the idea of including a Zero Rotations (one that only affects rotations) in the menu option. Again, should be easy enough to get in there I would imagine.

As for your other question, I think that really depends on the user and their needs at any given moment. Welcome to creating content for a mass audience. It's difficult to gauge what will and won't be useful and how far to go with something. Ideally you would provide what you think is the most needed operations and then hopefully get some feedback from beta testers on other options to include but you will inevitably fall short somehow. I can see arguments for having separate zero operations for all the features you were just asking about.I could also see how limited the use of those things may be on any given day.

Enhancement request submitted. It's not a guarantee it will be included in future versions but at least the request has been officially made.

I use it (Joint Editor) to fix falloff zones on figures & clothing.

Well, I'm surprised and delighted that my suggestion was even submitted. Thanks. You may have opened a can of worms since I have lots of other suggestions.

Well, I'm surprised and delighted that my suggestion was even submitted. Thanks. You may have opened a can of worms since I have lots of other suggestions.

Do tell.

Keep in mind that using "restore" not only zeros the figure rotations, but any morphs you've created will be lost as it will restore to the original figures dials as well.

Also make sure the figure you "memorized" is the same as the figure you apply the "restore" command to... otherwise it may produce some weird results trying to "restore" Poser's "Rex" to a memorized "V4", or the like...

"Should a zero pose just address the rotations? What about translations and scales? What about expressions? What about morphs? What about Morphforms?"

One solution to selectively address all of those questions and others (free)=

http://d3d.sesseler.de/index.php?software=poserpython&product=reset_values

Isn't there a 'superzero' function/script included with Wardrobe Wizard? Away from my computer right now, can't check. Anyway...

 So why is this fairly significant function tucked away in this relatively obscure window? Shouldn't there be a Zero Rotations feature as part of the Cloth Room itself, or as an item in the menu bar? (I'm aware of the "Zero Figure" and "Restore Figure" menu items, but each of them have slightly different behaviors.)

There should be a simple "Zero Joint Rotations" button on any Object panel for a Figure in the Pose pane. There should... but there isn't. It's such a basic  function, and so necessary, that I can't understand why it has been overlooked through all of Poser's iterations. A Zero Rotations for All Figures in a scene might be handy, too.
I'd also like the tool to work based on the parent/child relationship of the rig. So, if I selected the left arm and chose to "Zero rotations", any children would also get zero'd. If I selected the left hand, the hand and all the fingers would get their rotations set to zero, but the rest of the figure would remain posed as it is. If I selected the "Body" of the figure, everything would get reset.

They'll probably include something like that for Poser '39...

As far as what I use the Joint Editor tool for, aside for creating/tweaking custom content and third-party content, I use it to reset the object center's for props that must be rotated around a different center. For instance, for doors and windows, you can't just load up the prop and expect them to rotate around their far lef/right/whatever edges to simulate a door or window opening. So, open the joint editor and you can do this easily using the UI and dragging the object center to the desired location. Using a fixed camera position (left/right/top) will help you get it aligned properly without having to do any messy figurin' out how to enter the values in the axis boxes.

PS - Yes, I use it to zero figure rotations, too.

I use it like most do, to  zero the figure without losing the morphs and expressions.  I also use it, as I use Wings3d for making props, to set the rotation points of a door on the edge of the door instead of the center where it is when exported from wings.  The zero figure from the menu, I never use,  Setting the translation of an object or figure to zero, alt-left click will do, but usually doing the Y axis that way proves unsatisfactory.  Hands can be tedious, but returning any body part to zero becomes easy.

Doric

I have a Python script which does just that - zeroing any and all rotations in any figure while leaving all other parameters alone. - - - You can even include or exclude specified rotations by editing the script. - - - However, I see no way to attach this script here, and posting it in plain text won't help either because this forum doesn't heed any formatting fron my side. - - - So IF you want to try this script, just yell and I'll upload it someplace and share the link. - - - pp

We used to be able to make attachments to posts here, alas, no longer.

"I'd also like the tool to work based on the parent/child relationship of the rig. So, if I selected the left arm and chose to "Zero rotations", any children would also get zero'd. If I selected the left hand, the hand and all the fingers would get their rotations set to zero, but the rest of the figure would remain posed as it is. If I selected the "Body" of the figure, everything would get reset."

Now there's a good feature request.

Still think that the script I linked above fulfills all of these though.

Sometimes think I'm on global ignore on this forum. Lol.

Can't tell you how many times I've answered a question correctly on here and yet 10 other people come along and regurgitate the same thing 10 posts later. Lol. Just sayin'.

Ooops, the linked d3d script was the "other" me. ;)