I've just made my first attempts to import Poser scenes into Carrara 5 Pro...

Is there a trick to Importing a Scene with V3 in it?  My Poser 5 P4F scene imported without any problems, but using the Transposer the V3 scene ended up as just a head, and using the Native importer she ended up as some bines and a head.

How do you numerically control the camera in the Model Room?  When I double click the figure I am asked to Convert to Vertex Modeler, but then when I go to that room not only is my camera shifted, but the camera controls are moved also?

How do you switch from the Move tool to a Selection Tool?  When I click onto one of the selection tools, and the begin drawing a selection over the figure, I alter geometry.  If I start the selection outside the figure then the selection takes place, but that's not always going to be where I want to start.

How do I save my progress, in Poser format?  I opened the File > Save As.. menu, but did not see any Poser formats in the Save as type drop down?  I then browsed the File > Export menu, but came up short there too!

=  )

Why wo'nt the Camera icons work in the Model Room/Front View?  Boy, all Carraras icons look really friendly, but none of them work!?  I'd just happened to test movment by using Alt./Mouse to move around, the first time through. I'd thought just clicking any of the tools, on the right hand side of the screen would release the previous tool, but then the new tool is just a dud?

What is the proper way to switch between Views in the Model Room?  To get to the Front view I need to go into 4 Panel View, click on the Front View, and then click on the Single Panel view again.

What Frame Rate does it keep asking me for?  Has anybody else been get this window, I always need to click it twice?

Are there any tutorials on Importing/Exporting just V3 Head MTs?  I can export a V3 Head MT "As a Morph Target" from Poser 6; Import into Carrara 5 Pro(With Defaults), give her a long nose(Just as a Test), and then export the selected object as an .OBJ(With Defaults,) but then Poser reads it as having an incompatanle number of vertices?

Who turned out the Lights?  So, I decide to take things back yet another notch, and just open my Empty Scene.PZ3.  This scene has a nice lighting setup that I'd like to see in Carrara.  I noticed the Transposer option has listing for lights; so I used it, and made sure the check was toggled On, but I only got one light in my Carrara scene.  I then tried the Native import with similar results.  I also tried a P5 version of the scene without any success?

Still poking around...

How do you subtract from a selection?  I would dhave thought it was Alt/ or Ctrl/ Click, but I guess not.

Why does the selection get dropped in moving between views?

Any way to get the Transform Tools a little Thicker?  They're pretty hard to see.

You know, much of this echoes what I have been saying; the selection and camera tools are inconsistent across the application, with the former inadequately documented or self-documenting (as in, to be able to tell at a glance what it is supposed to be doing). But to your questions, Angel. I admit to some confusion about the workflow you are describing. You seem to be attempting to edit a Poser character then save it back to Poser. Unfortunately, neither Transposer nor the Native importer are set up for that. Their purpose (which they do well!) is to bring pre-made Poser content into Carrara to be rendered. Internal editing is possible (depending on which path you took) but it then ceases to be a duplicate of the original Poser file. For a Poser-to-Carrara render the workflow is to Pose the figure, save the pz3....open Carrara and Import the pz3...set up backgrounds, lighting, render settings....tweak materials as needed. Your only interaction with the figure beyond tweaking materials is to drag it as a group around the Assembly Room. If you DO click on the modeling tab, the option is should offer is to "refresh" the figure to take on any changes that have been made to the original Poser scene since you began working in Carrara. I have not worked overly with the "hybrid" workflow -- which is to say, Native importer, pose within Carrara, et al. In this mode you do get access to the figure as an editable mesh, and there is no connection remaining to Poser once import is done. The Native rig is an approximation of the Poser rig but also may be edited to make a better joint setup -- or to make use of functions that exist in Carrara but not in Poser. In any case, from your mention of "file-export" it sounds as if you might be using Carrara as an editor for Poser content. This workflow is entirely different. You export a zeroed .obj from Poser, edit in Carrara, export a new .obj, (Poser joints and materials can not really be edited in Carrara), and using Poser's SetUp Room, text editor, or one of the other methods put your new geometry back into the original figure. The precise workflow of course depends on whether you are building morphs, making a custom figure, making props, or making conforming clothing.

Up to the top again and I will attempt to go line-by-line: [b]Is there a trick to Importing a Scene with V3 in it? [/b] There shouldn't be. Make sure you've saved a pz3, and that Carrara can find the Poser executable (it must be on the same machine....or at least, I've had little luck showing it on a networked machine). Make sure you have the latest service pack/patch. Do a clean install, even. [b]How do you numerically control the camera in the Model Room?[/b] I do not know...but as to the body of the question, each "room" has an independent camera setup. Not only that, but the orthogonal cameras do not use the same hotkeys as the perspective cameras. Whereas control-option and option-command control zoom and dolly in the perspective cameras, the orthos give you only spacebar-drag and magnifying glass click. Oh, and the preview windows in materials editor and UV editor do not operate quite the same either. Neither of the latter has "memory," by the way. Fortunately, the modeling window does; if you go to assembly then return to modeling room it will have the same camera position and same selection of vertices made on the object as when you left. These are not, however, across-application; with the exception of the preview window in the modeling room (and of course the fact that a selection in Assembly will put the appropriate texture or model in the front when you switch rooms to Modeling or Materials), selections and camera positions have nothing to do with each other. Each room has its own tasks, and each appropriately makes its own choices as per selections and cameras. [b]How do you switch from the Move tool to a Selection Tool?[/b] In the body of your question, you speak of the problem of making a selection without invoking a drag of the geometry. This has ALWAYS been a problem with Carrara (since Ray Dream). Sometimes the trick is to go to wireframe view and start drawing around the selection from within an "empty" space. However, with Version 5 there are changes to the tools. There is a brush selection tool that will not drag geometry. Unfortunately it is terribly laggy, indicates when it is on by glowing ever-so-slightly, and indicates it is off by continuing to glow ever-so-slightly (many of the controls in the Modeling room share this inability to update their status). Read up on the manual on the selection tools and you may be able to puzzle out what the designers intended. The brush does work, but it is a total PIA to get in and out of, and when all is said and done does nothing you couldn't do before. You experience, however, may differ.

Why wo'nt the Camera icons work in the Model Room/Front View? They should. They are laggy. Five ways to move the Camera in assembly (three interactive); click on the trackball and move it, click on the trackball to get the camera icon, then click on an open space in the window (as if!) and drag, or -- my preferred -- to use option-click (tilt and pan), control-option (zoom) and option-command (dolly). Since MOST of the Assembly Room tools do not include these keys (one big exception...the magnifying glass), it doesn't take long at all to get comfortable with whipping around the scene with these three buttons. Oh, I should add a sixth. Arrow keys will "pop" the camera some set number of degrees. Basically useless (I say so because I'd prefer a "nudge" function for object positioning). Boy, all Carraras icons look really friendly, but none of them work!? Welcome to the GUI lag. And look forward to the time the tool will "quit" but the indicator won't. Or vice-versa. I've torn shreds in a number of models thinking I was back in another mode. All the icons work fine if you give them a beat to engage. Most of them are quite handy -- esp the ones in the Modeling Room. What is the proper way to switch between Views in the Model Room? For any of the rooms, look in the upper left of the window where the name of the camera is displayed. Clicking on that will bring up a drop-down of all cameras available. What Frame Rate does it keep asking me for? Has anybody else been get this window, I always need to click it twice? I have no idea what you are doing here.

Are there any tutorials on Importing/Exporting just V3 Head MTs? OOPS. I missed this the first time through. You certainly get some mileage out of your posts! Okay, the procedure was good (I tend to avoid "As Morph Target" but then I know about how to zero the figure properly). Um...one thing; Poser is very specific about the number of vertices and can't "see" a head morph in a full-body file. So the better bet is to export just the head from Poser -- using the checkboxes in the hierachy dialog presented during export -- and morph that. Then you've got Carrara scaling and positioning. Two clicks to make in the import dialog to keep Carrara from moving or scaling the object. Then, when you do the morph, you must do it in the Modeling Room and there are a number of tools you must avoid. The safest tools here are soft selection and drag/scale/rotate. Obviously you can not add or delete any vertices; what is less obvious is that some of the tools also change number of vertices or winding order (which is just as bad). Lastly, most of the time I go through this Carrara moves the .obj about a quarter of a Poser Unit up. I do not know why. I have gotten used to going into Poser, importing the morph, and lining it up by hand on to the original geometry. Who turned out the Lights? This does sound like you have a bad install. I have not tried the lights option myself but I had not heard it was broken.

How do you subtract from a selection? I would dhave thought it was Alt/ or Ctrl/ Click, but I guess not. It does. I can't remember which, off-hand, but that option/click marquee removes just fine. (Unfortunately, the marquee itself now TOGGLES instead of adds. Although there is a way to change that behavior, it doesn't seem to stick). Why does the selection get dropped in moving between views? It shouldn't. Depends on how you are moving between views. Actually, I think I have it. Since you can't change active pane without clicking in it, when you click, you drop selection. Try clicking in a camera mode instead. Any way to get the Transform Tools a little Thicker? What do you mean by this? Thicker effects, or thicker visual indicators of the tool? The latter is in the preferences...or, at least, you can change some of the display there (size of vertices for instance). As for effects, most of them are dual-mode; you can drag out to desired position, or you can enter a numeric. Look on the right-hand bar and you will see a box and boxed values come up when you select the tool. Set up their behavior there.

Wow, I started patting you on the back on the first reply.....This is a wondeful and informative contribution, nomuse, my regards, and thank you very much!

"You seem to be attempting to edit a Poser character then save it back to Poser. Unfortunately, neither Transposer nor the Native importer are set up for that."

I am definitely trying to edit Poser morph geometry with Carrara!

'You export a zeroed .obj from Poser, edit in Carrara, export a new .obj..."

I've managed to get a morphed V3HeadMT.obj; exported from Poser "As Morph Target",  imported, transformed, and exported from Maya 6.5, reordered in UV Mapper Pro, and then loaded back into V3's Head, fine, but I'd rather not spend $1,000+ to do it, when all I want to learn is a simple Modeler.

"and using Poser's Setup Room, text editor, or one of the other methods put your new geometry back into the original figure."

I'd love to know how to edit an .OBJ into a .PZ3 with notepad, I think that would be the easiest way to resolve most issues?  Any other suggestions are welcome as well.  I've been relying on selecting V3's Head and clicking Object > Load Morph Target.

"Two clicks to make in the import dialog to keep Carrara from moving or scaling the object. "

Have you ever then noticed the imported geometry is as then very small? 

Although, strangely enough, I think I've narrowed the problem down a enlarged size issue?

I finally thought to import, the exported Carrara.obj, into poser, as a prop, and have a look.  The .obj looked fine, and resembled the alterations I made in Carrara, but was as large as my whole V3 Figure.  It also was'nt centered around her head, but that could have had to do with which direction it was enlarged from?

"Okay, the procedure was good..."

Are Carrara's Default .OBJ Export options O.K.?

Should I worry about any other Objects i.e. the Camera or Light;, do I need to have the .OBJ selected when I export also, how can this be insuredI'm onlu exporting the one object?

"I have gotten used to going into Poser, importing the morph, and lining it up by hand on to the original geometry"

Why do you do that, once you do what is your next step, how do you then get that geometry into the figure's head?

" I do not know...but as to the body of the question, each "room" has an independent camera setup."

You do'nt know of a way to Zero the cameras Z, X, and Y movement, rotation, amd/or scale, from in the Model Room, or did you not understand what I was asking?

"This has ALWAYS been a problem with Carrara (since Ray Dream)," and "There is a brush selection tool that will not drag geometry."

I experienced trouble even with the Brush Tool.  The lag must be tremendous, my machine is only a 700Mhz Celeron with 750MBs of RAM, but without any other applications running the lag renders mant functions null.  The only way I know to get around in the Model Room is to Right-Click, and select Pan or Zoom, but this has something to do with the Selection Tool not working, as I then need to Right-Click a second time, and choose Scale, Rotate, or Move to then get a Selection Tool light up?

"I have no idea what you are doing here..."

While importing a Poser scene(that happened to have more than one frame,) Carrara is asking me what frame rate I used, I think, but the truth is I only put data on the first frame, the other 29 are from Poser's default scene value of 30 frames.

"It does. I can't remember which, off-hand, "

Once I've selected an area with the Square Selection Tool, it does'nt matter which key I hold down CTRL. or ALT.. neither will allow for a subtraction of the current selection.  Rather it cancels the current selection and start a new one?

" What do you mean by this? Thicker effects, or thicker visual indicators of the tool? The latter is in the preferences..."

I meant the thickness of the Visual Indicators.  I went through all of the File > Preferences, but the only setting I saw was already on large.

"or, at least, you can change some of the display there (size of vertices for instance). "

I was also very excited to read about changing the size of each vertice, mine are huge, that's why I wanted to make the Visual Indicators larger, but I did'nt see this option at all? 

Couple things on making Poser morphs; Poser's worldspace is extremely small. Without any adjustment, Poser figures are essentially invisible in Carrara. Fortunately, they can be scaled up, worked on, then scaled down with no ill-effect -- but I have noticed a frequent Y-axis displacement, to an amount of about a quarter of a Poser unit, on many of the times I have done so. For the simplest morph workflow, start by zeroing the figure in the Poser window. That is, turn off IK, open Joint Editor, hit "zero figure," then go to hip and BODY channels and make sure there is no displacement. Now you can export the figure's geometry, one body part at a time. I list this method because it is also the best method to build clothing for a morphed figure. However, I presume it is possible to open Carrara, navigate to Runtime:Geometries, and take the base figure geometry from there. That skips the zeroing step. I believe that with the right import settings in Carrara you could split up the body parts during the import (and save having to do it during the Poser export stage). As a rule I disable "automatic position" and "scale to workspace" (I forget what the exact names of these options are, and my copy of Carrara is tied up in a render at the moment). I use "vertex" as the mode, "One polymesh" (not "polymesh for each material") and "One group." As of Carrara 5 pro, this imports a correct Poser figure with named groups and materials groups intact. Also as of Carrara 5 pro, it will export the same way. Not important for morph targets but essential for other projects! Oh...the Poser settings are "Use existing groups" and "Use bodpart names" -- I think everything else is unchecked. IF during the morph work in Carrara the object file didn't get disturbed in position, it is as easy as exporting -- from the Modeling Room, NOT from the Assembly Room. Open Poser, open the figure to add the morph to, double-click the body part and navigate to that exported object file. IF, however, you are getting a fly-away morph, what I do is Import to Poser...with everything unchecked....switch to ortho camera and wireframe view, zoom in close and align the thing by hand. When done, I export obj again from Poser, with the same defaults as before. NOW I open the figure, double-click on body part et al to navigate to my "repaired" morph file. Which is why a lot of my project files tend to have names like "shirtLo_polyDrapedSubbedPoser_scaledUV_fixed.obj"

Oh, on the cameras.... All the perspective cameras (Carrara calls them "Conical") will exhibit "orbit" behavior if an object is selected. This can be very handy, especially in the model room. The Assembly Room cameras also can be set to Dolly camera. I personally find this more intuitive to set up a particular shot, and is probably more idiomatic for camera animations as well. However, it is notable that the control-key camera controls ALWAYS work in "normal" mode; although the trackball may control dolly-camera motions, you can't, alas, do the same with control keys. (Another thing I hope they change in the next version). Using magnification on any perspective camera is a Bad Thing. Within a few clicks your workspace view will start to look like a 1930's German silent film. The only option is, quite possibly, that "zero" you were asking about earlier; go to the camera drop-down in the upper left of the window, and navigate to "reset to default position." (Or whatever it is called...like I said, I'm trapped in a long render.)