Author: ChipChop

Tools Needed

• Carrara 4
• Or Carrara 5
• Poser 5
• Poser 6
• Transposer 2

I've seen a number of posts and questions about using Poser 6 with Carrara 4 and 5's Transposer2 import utility. This allows you to use the faster render capability and Materials found in Carrara with your Poser 6 Scene files, however there are a number of quirks to work around.

I will show you the method that I use to successfully import Poser 6 scenes into Carrara 4 and Carrara 5 Beta. This method will work in both versions using Transposer 2.

First, you must disable Poser 6's external binary morph targets. This is the option that creates those mysterious .pmd files.

Open Poser 6, and Select Edit- > General Preferences. Click on the Misc. Tab. Now uncheck “Use external binary morph targets”.

Now when you save a scene file, the morphs will be incorporated into the scene file instead of being placed into .pmd files.

Poser 6 assets are initially installed as compressed files. Although Transposer 2 will read the compressed files, I have had better luck after uncompressing the OBJ files. Other third party utilities also work with Poser 6 after uncompressing the files.

From the Poser 6 menu, select File- > Run Python Script…, and select Poser6\Runtime\Python\poserScripts\Utility\uncompressPoserFiles.py.

Select your Poser6 directory, and check the 'Uncompress geometry files (OBJ)' option. Click on OK.

This will uncompress the Poser 6 assets. You can optionally delete the original files.

Create your Poser 6 scene, and save it. Here I've loaded the Winter Queen, and I'll save the file for importing into Carrara.

Run Carrara. You can use either version 4, or version 5 beta. I used Carrara 5 Pro Beta for these screen shots.

Select File- > Open, and find your Poser scene to import. Carrara 5 will display the Poser Scene Import dialog. Select Transposer as the import method for this tutorial.

Carrara 4 users will get a similar dialog box, but will not have a Native Importer option.

Deselect the “Keep link to Poser file” for the best import result, and to be able to load the Carrara file later. With Poser 6 materials you must break the link so the materials are fully converted. If you do not, you will not be able to successfully load the file back into Carrara at a later point in time.

Note:

If you are using only simple P4 or P5 materials, you may be able to leave this option checked. I've had good luck keeping the link with P6 files that are not using P6 Materials, but as soon as you use any P6 materials you will have material issues when you'reload the Carrara file.

Now for the Poser Application Path, select the Poser.exe located in your Poser6 directory.

You will have to do this every time you import. Carrara will only remember the path to the Poser5 executable.

Press 'OK', and Carrara will pop up a dialog box titled “Please locate Poser executable”.

Select the Poser.exe file located in your Poser 5 directory. Press Open.

Carrara will now import your scene. Please be patient - the import process is slow.

Adjust the camera, lights, materials, Save, and Render!