Perhaps someone could look at the screen caps I've attached & tell me if I have some setting wrong; Portions of the house seem to be transparent unless viewed from a certain angle ( see the back steps in 0014b.jpg ). Weird prism-looking shadows & shapes keep flickering in & out of view on surfaces at different angles (see 0015.jpg). Any hints &/or guidance on these points would be VERY appreciated.

here's the 2nd image

It has to do with the way poser sees the object and whether the object has a materialed inside. Or something like that. It is for this reason I do the contruction kits. Having had a difficult time setting up cameras and lights with many of the fully built sets. About the best I could say to you would be to set the biulding where you want it in relation to where the ppl will be and set the lights to spots and put them all at 0/0/0 x/y/z and them point them wher youlike them do some test shots to see if you have the set in the right spot. Then add it to your prop library (My folder is called working) then remove the model add and pose and light the ppl. then bring the saved prop back in. At least that is how i do it with fully built props.

I can't tell with the second picture, but the first one seems to demonstrate inconsistant normals. You might want to try selecting the stairs and then reversing their normals (with the grouping tool). eng

Are the stairs made cubes or blocks, or some sort of flat grid mesh? In my recent experiments with hair props, I've found that a flat "grid" mesh appears to result in the kind of a kind of one-sided object, where, for instance, you can't see the back of the hair (the inside, really) from the front, but turn the object around and there it is. To me, this looks like the backside of just such a mesh. I'm guessing that the invisible side is just showing the reversed normals of the front. Certainly, reversing the normals should work here. But, if you ARE using flat mesh grids, just start using cubes or whatever 3D primatives, and you should be able to avoid this problem.

By the way, try rendering your scene. In my experience, the reversed normals do render, you just can't see them in the preview.

It does look like a normals problem. There is a program out there called Objaction TwoFace that will basically give ever thing two sides. This program should solve your problem. Its in the free stuff section under utilities

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"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination".

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This happens often and is irritating. Most of the problems disappear when rendered.

Gordon

I can see I should have composed my original post a little more completely. Yes, the materials do render ok, but i was trying to convey that the affected areas flicker in & out of visibility from second to second, depending on the angle, as I move the cameras viewpoint. I find this to be confusing behavior, as some materials do it, & others in the same model don't. If there's nothing to be done, I'm sure I can live with it, but would still wish to understand it better. :) I've had experience adjusting the normals when importing 3D files, where I've seen really weird behavior by imported surfaces. I'm grateful to ENGELKEN for the tip about using the grouping tool to try and adjust existing poser files; I'll try that tonight! Ditto Cybermonk's suggestion on Objaction Twoface. lalverson,X2000,Huolong,I want to thank you all for your insights into the question. I confess a frustrating problem seems lighter when others are willing to give their time and attention to it! Many thanks!