I'm having a problem with a prop I'm building in Carrara for Poser 4 Pro Pack. I'm making a boot, with the leather upper, sole, heel, and lacing hooks each as separate vertex objects. When I made the hooks, I just made one and duplicated it to make all the other hooks. I placed the duplicated hooks where I wanted them on the boot upper. Then I grouped all the objects in the boot. Since I'm using this as a prop in Poser, I exported the grouped boot as an obj file. The problem is, when I import the obj file into Poser (or any other program for that matter, including back into Carrara), all the hooks are piled on top of each other in the same place, which is nowhere near where I put them originally. It ends up looking like I've only got one lacing hook on the boot embedded somewhere in the center of the shin, but there are actually 24 hooks in that spot. What the heck is going on and how do I fix it? I'm using Carrara 1.5.

Okay, I've done some more experimenting. I tried exporting just the hooks as obj and re-importing them back into Carrara. They still show up all piled on top of each other, so I moved them back into place. Then I tried re-exporting the whole boot with the new hooks. Still get the hooks all piled up on each other. Then I tried exporting the whole boot as a dxf and a 3ds. The hooks show up in both formats in the right places. But the dxf version of the model is just way too blocky, and the 3ds isn't quite as smooth as the obj format. Anybody have any ideas why the hooks show up in the right places in these formats work, but not in the obj format?

General weirdness is always a pleasant change of pace. First things first, I'd upgrade to Carrara V2.1 Version 1 of Carrara had many of it's unique bugs squashed with the update. However, if that's not an option, try this: After placing all of the hooks in their correct location, select each one and and then go into the modeling room. It will ask if you want to "Edit Master" or "Create New". Choose New and then close the window and repeat for the remaining hooks. No promises but it's worth a try. I'd also suggest reporting it on Eovia's site in their Bug Report area. You may be requested to forward the file to them for examination. Hope it works, Mark

Thanks Mark. I tried your suggestion. However, the exported boot still ends up with the hooks all piled up on top of each other, lost somewhere in the boot. Right now I'm trying to add the vertex mesh for the boot upper. That seems to be working, but I'll have to open up the obj file in Word to assign a separate texture to the hooks.

Just a guess, but I think what is happening is that the obj file is taking its hook coordinates from the VM master object, not the Assembly room placement of the hook duplicates. One way around this is to re-import a 3DS export, then convert it to a vertex model. The result should be a polymesh with selectable mesh names. This can be textured using a layer list. You can smooth any creases in the 3DS export/import by using the smoothing function in the VM. SMcQ

I should add, exporting the result as an obj file should retain correct hook positions if they are all correctly placed in the VM polymesh version. SMcQ

You can do this without export/import workaround if, after positioning each hook in the Assembly room and making each a separate mesh, you then go to the VM room and copy/paste each hook into the master boot mesh, making sure to name each hook in the VM. Apparently, 3DS and DXF take their coordinates from the assembly room and OBJ takes coordinates from the VM. An alternative would be to convert each completed mesh into a primitive. I'm guessing that an OBJ export would take coordinates from the assembly room if you exported a group of primitives. (Though I have no direct experience with this approach.) SMcQ

SMcQ, that helps! I haven't tried it yet, but it would certainly explain why the hooks all end up in the same spot. I went ahead and added the hooks to the original boot upper. Now I'm working on the laces, another vertex object. I'll let you know how the whole thing exports.

Okay, I finally got the boots into Poser the way I wanted them, and finally discovered the problem in the process. I spend so much time using Carrara for morph targets for Poser that I automatically select the "export in local coordinates" option for obj export. That's why the hooks all kept showing up in the same spot. Local coordinates apparently means the coordinates the object is at in its native modelers. It wasn't causing problems with the sole, heel, or upper of the boot because I actually created those so they lined up in the right spot in the vertex modeller. Basically, once I made the upper, I duplicated it to made the sole, so the sole showed up below the upper, etc. The problem went away when I exported without selecting the local coordinates option. Here's a look at the final Carrara model imported into Poser. Thanks to everyone for their help!

Cool. Another tidbit for nooks and crannies of my head! Mark

I know! I think my head is starting to get full though. I'm going to have to take a break to "digest."

Very nice. I'd be interested in learning how you "templated" or otherwise fit the boot to a foot shape within Carrara. I haven't found a method I like yet; I'm still building blind and resizing after export (which is why my models are still very simple). Good to know what the .obj problem was. I had a similar issue on two models that cleared up only when I exported as DXF and re-imported. Now I understand why that worked.

I imported the right shin, foot, and toes for the P4 woman into Carrara. Then I created a new vertex object. In the vertex modeling room, I created a cylinder. I jumped back out to the main working room for Carrara and centered the vertex object around the shin. I made certain to color the P4 woman shin, foot, and toes one color, and the cylinder another color. Then I just jumped in and out of the vertex modeler. I'd made adjustments to the vertex object, jump back out to check it for fit around the leg, jump back in and do a little more work, etc. It takes a little time, but with the vertex object a different color from the leg, I was able to see anytime I didn't get the fit right. The actual boot doesn't fit perfectly around the foot and toes, BTW. Since I knew I could turn those invisible in Poser, I concentrated more on fitting the shin, and then made the foot of the boot model match the style of shoe I was working from. The Poser foot sits flat, and these boots have a heel and bend upwards around the ball of the foot. You probably could bend the foot and toes to fit, but I haven't tried that yet. I did have to resize the final model when I imported it into Poser, but that was just a matter of scaling it to the correct size.

Great looking boots, Helen. Wouldn't mind a pair like that myself. And thanks for sharing the solution with us. These little hints are why I love this forum so much!

The boots should be available for free download by Nov 1. I made them for a contest I'm participating in over at the Poser Pros forum. As soon as the deadline is past (30 Oct), I'll probably take all the props and morph targets I made for it and post them on my website, and then list them in the freebies section here at Renderosity.