Creating models for Poser - An adventure in hair pulling!

Why is this here? Because I tore my hair out on this and I don't want you to have to do the same thing.

On a cold Saturday morning in March I decided to create my first Poser prop - a cube.
I had visions of creating all sorts of things. After all I can model things, and I'm pretty good at it.
All I have to do is get it into Poser's itsy bitsy tiny units.

Yeah, big deal - a cube. Why a cube? Certainly I could just use a prop, right?
I wanted a stable measured object that I could count on. Well I thought I could.
Sometimes things don't seem that large until you get to them.

I set Max's units to 1 unit = 1.0 Inches.
Set the Unit Scale to Decimal Inches.
I created a cube 1 Foot square.
Moved it to 0x0x0 center.
So far so good.

Exported Selected as file:1ftsq01.obj (WaveFrontObject).
I set the export options like this:

It exported great.

Now for my new addition to my software family called Objaction Scaler.
I was told this is a must for this kind of thing.

Using Objaction Scaler I reduced it by 100 and saved it as 1ftsq01_s.obj

Poser 6
I opened Poser 6 and preceded to import the cube.

I set the Poser 6 units to Inches and imported the cube with the options set like this:

The result was a tiny cube as expected.
I clicked on the cube and with a Ctrl-D put it at grid level.
So far so good.

I imported a second cube the exact same way.
My theory was if I created 2 cubes and moved the second cube exactly 1 Poser unit away, then if the 2 cubes were 1 inch, then they would sit side by side.

I moved the second cube 1 Poser units away in the X direction. Now the 2 cubes should be lined up.
They were not. One was inside the other as shown:

What's wrong? Is it Max export? Not likely
Is it Objaction Scaler?
Is it Poser Importer?

I needed to find out!
I saw there was also an import setting for 3ds files. Hey! I have Max.

Max Import test.
Went back into Max and exported Selected as 1ftsq01.3ds as 3D Studio Object.

I set the Poser 6 units to Inches and imported the cube with the options set the same as before.
The cube was huge.
I imported a second cube the exact same way.

I needed to move the second cube 103 units away to make them side by side.

Could there be something wrong between Poser 5 and Poser 6?
I started up Poser 5 and repeated the test.

Poser 5
I set the Poser 5 units to Inches and imported the cube with the options set the same as before.
The result was a tiny cube as expected.
I clicked on the cube and with a Ctrl-D put it at grid level.
So far so good.

I imported a second cube the exact same way.
My theory was if I created 2 cubes and moved the second cube exactly 1 Poser unit away, then if the 2 cubes were 1 inch, then they would sit side by side.

I moved the second cube 1 Poser units away in the X direction. Now the 2 cubes should be lined up.
They were not. One was inside the other as shown:

This time the 2 cubes were sitting apart. How could this be?
Is Poser 5 and Poser 6 that far off on their measurements?

It seems they are. Poser 6 came out with new measurements I'm told. Now what?

DAZ Studio to the rescue.

I tried this in DAZ Studio, using the Obj import using the custom settings and scaling it up 100.

I got a cube.
But is is the same size?

I created a Primitive object and placed it next to the cube.

Came in smaller. No good.

Here is something I found out. When I use the DAZ Studio Poser import and not the custom, then it makes it a bit smaller.

So I tried importing it into Poser 6 first, then saving it as a pz3 file, then importing the pz3 file (WHICH SHOULD BE CORRECT), into D/S.

It was a bit smaller as you can see. Same as the first.


What's up with this. The big box is a Primitive 3 feet square. The colored box is a 3 feet square one imported from Max. (Actually from Max to Poser 6 to DAZ Studio)

Then after pulling what was left of my hair out, I got more information from maclean at the DAZ Forums, saying that
" Although I habitually think in metric units, I did try using inches in max. It annoyed me so much seeing all those long entries that I gave up. You'd need to find someone who usually works in inches to tell you how best to do it. I'd suggest you use centimeters, but I know it's not easy if you're not used to it. "

Phooey. I think in Inches and Feet.
About that time I got another post from westonmi at the DAZ Forums, saying how she also thinks in metric because "It's much easier to work with than Poser scale and because Meters are the default measurement in DAZ Studio ."

AHHHHHHHH! The answer was in the graphics engine!
If DAZ Studio thinks in Metric then how could I possibly feed it Inches?

Back in Max I went:
I set Max's units to 1 unit = 1.0 Meters.
Set the Unit Scale to Meters.
I created a cube 1 Meter square.
Moved it to 0x0x0 center.
So far so good.

Exported Selected as file:1msq01.obj (WaveFrontObject), with the same settings as before.

This time I imported my file into DAZ STudio using these settings:

(Screenshot courtesy of westonmi)

Swap Y and Z was checked I think?

Got a cube. I created a Primitive and set it beside my imported cube:

The white cube is the Primitive and the green one is my cube I created in Max.
I now have a 1 Meter cube according to DAZ Studio,

Success!!

But will it hold up to Poser 5's standards?
To find out I used DAZ Studio's export and saved the file to 1msq01_p.obj
with these settings:

(Screenshot courtesy of westonmi)

Poser 5:
I set the Poser 5 units to Meters and imported the cube with the options set as before.

It came in looking ok, but is it the correct size?
Clicked on the cube and a Ctrl-D put it at grid level.

I imported a second cube the exact same way.

I moved the second cube 1 Poser units, which should be 1 Meter away in the X direction. Now the 2 cubes should be lined up.
They were lined up perfectly!

See the xTran that is set to exactly 1 unit (or 1 Meter)?

Thank you westonmi and maclean.

But.. Ya know? I never like to leave well enough alone...
It's my nature to go that little bit more.

I tried this in Poser 6 and know what I found?

Take a look:

Rats!

Ok, so why is this so?
About this time I got 2 posts back on the DAZ Forum. These people are the best.

noelr:
"The notional conversion factor for PNU to inches did change between Poser 5 (1 PNU = 96") and Poser 6 (1 PNU = 103.2") IIRC."

What this means is the Poser development gang decided that it would be in someone's best interest (maybe theirs?) to change the units for Poser 6 after all these years.

Richard:
"Poser's new scale packs more inches into each unit than was long assumed, and as a result each inch will be undersized compared to an inch made using the old assumptions - hence the interlocking cubes."

Yeah right. Thanks Poser developers. Now what?

I'd like to thank all my friends over in the DAZ Forum for their help on this and other projects.

The saga continues..