Can’t parent children to one another in poser model. (Solved)

lukon100

Situation:

I downloaded one model wherein one parent has lots of children, but all the children are only one level deep. I want to parent some of the children to other children, to make two levels deep, or even more levels deep.

When I select and right-click the child I want to parent to another child, the menu pops us showing the name for the parent, not the child. And indeed, the parent is what actually got selected. See the attached screen shot. I selected “rMDoor1”, wanting to parent it to “rMDoor1Riser” just above it on the list. But right clicking "rMDoor1" produces the menu options for the parent, “SeaStrike”. It’s not just a mislabeling in the menu, as proceeding as if it was a mislabeling does not produce the desired parenting.

Did some property of the model get set to prevent parenting the children to other children? And if so, can I overturn this setting?

SixDs

There is something wrong with that model. The heirarchy that I see in your screenshot is not how the model is supposed to load - see my screenshot below. Where did you download the model, ShareCG or Renderosity? How did you load the model into your scene? The model is actually quite nicely rigged, if loaded correctly.

DrNewcenstein

That's not a parent/child relationshsip, that's a boned/rigged structure like foot to ankle to shin to knee. You can't rearrange those that way, you have to go to the heirarchy editor, and even then it might not work.

lukon100

Thanks for helping me, SixDs.

I got mine from Renderosity.

One source of the problem might be that I may have installed the model improperly, particularly in regard to where I put the Daz version of the model. The readme file was not specific about what folder to put the Daz version of the file in. So I put it somewhere that I found convenient, in terms of where I like to put modles like that. But the place I put it may have created problems.

But, here's the thing:

When I loaded the Daz version, I got error messages saying Daz could not find various files. After dismissing these error messages, the model appeared in the scene tab, but not in the viewport. The parenting heirarchy was present in the scene tab, but there was apparently no actual corresponding geometry, as I could select any item and then hit the Surfaces tab only to find nothing in the Surfaces tab for that item. Of course, I was looking in the Surfaces tab to see whether the geometry was actually present but maybe with the opactity set to zero. Well, there were no surface properties to have been set at zero - no geometry.

So, after failure with the Daz version, I just went for the Poser version directly. I clicked to load the Poser version and the geometry did load this time, fully visible in the viewport. But there were also different error messages this time as well, also about missing files. Anyway, while the geometry was all there, the parenting heiriachy was reduced to just one child level as I poseted above. Also, the object pivot points of all the movable parts were set to the same center point of the model as a whole. And that's why you see from the screenshot I posted that I am in the Joint Editor mode, moving the pivot points to where they make parts move correctly.

Anyway, perhaps you can enlighten me on an effective way to install and load this model, since you have it installed on your setup.

 

lukon100

Thanks for the tip, DrNewcenstein.

But what is a Daz Studio Hierarchy Editor? I Google searched for it and nothing came up.

Richard Haseltine

You can edit the hierarchy with the Joint Editor tool, but the legacy rigging system is quite particular about grouping and hierarchy so I would not recommend it. What are you wanting to do by adjusting it?

SixDs

You don't need to mess with the heirarchy, lukon. Hopefully you haven't done that. Here is what you need to do:

1. Just get rid of that DAZ .daz file - it doesn't load correctly and would be better replaced by a .dsa file once you get the model loading and working correctly. But neither of these actions is a priority.

2. Using the Poser format file that you'll find in Poser Formats under Figures (SeaStrike.cr2), load the model. When you get that popup message saying that it can't locate a file, do not dismiss it. Instead. use the Locate button and it will open a file browser window that will allow you to locate the necessary file (which is one of the object files which are the meshes). The object files are found on your hard drive in the Runtime > Geometries > scoopey > Seastrike folder of your content library. click on the correct file it is looking for and hit Open and the model should load correctly (you will receive a prompt to ignore limits and just choose to do so). That should solve your problem. However ....

That brings us back to number one. Once you have the model loaded and verify that it is working correctly, you should Export it as a new .cr2 file and call it SeaStrikeNew.cr2 or something and put it in your content library in the already existing Runtime > Libraries > Character > SeaStrike folder. That will eliminate the need to point DAZ Studio to the location of the object files every time you load the model.

lukon100

Thanks again, SixDs.

Your suggestion works for fixing the heirarchy.

Unfortunately, there are several parts of the model that do not move correctly.

The right aileron has no dial to pivot it.

None of the outer hatch doors or cargo bay doors have dials to open them or move them in any way, just so scale them.

Does your copy of this model have these problems?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Edit-----------------------------------------------------------------

Nevermind. I found the proper control dials that work all the stuff correctly.

 

SixDs

Glad that you got it sorted, lukon. Now, you can have some fun going into the surfaces tab and converting all the materials to either 3Delight or Iray (or both). A whole lot of material zones there.

lukon100

Ha ha! Ya. I was thinking that since the sub looks like a guitarfish anyway, that it might be fun to give it a guitarfish paint job.