Is there any way to copy ERC and aliases between models?

Matt_Castle

To start with, the background of this problem:
I've been having problems with the "Medusa Snakes" as part of Sixus1's Medusa V4 product over at Renderosity. Whenever I close a script window that's scanned it, DS immediately crashes - most notably with Scene Optimiser, although I can replicate the error in Fit Control if I fit (rather than parent) it to the model such that it's detected and scanned by the script as a fitted item (however, I don't normally do this, as it distorts it - it has no rigidity groups).
Unfortunately, as the script windows take control of DS, if I forget to save the pose and remove the prop before launching the script, I'm then committed to a crash and have no way to save the scene.

As it's affecting more than one script, I think this is probably some underlying error in DazScript or at least some script library, and I'm not expecting Daz to rush to fix a bug that's happening with an old Poser product from another store, so I'm now trying to find solutions myself.

Although it is originally a Poser product, I've tried converting it to both Triax and General Weighting, and saving it out as a Daz format file. These versions still cause the crash.

A reimported OBJ version does not cause the crash, nor does one where I've copied across the armature and weight maps from the original, so it's maybe possible to create a fixed version. However, it's a very complex model that's hard to manipulate without its ERC links and aliases, of which there are over eight thousand.

I don't want to spend days setting these up by hand, particularly as there's a possibility that they're what are causing the crashes.

The actual question:
So, I have two models with identical bones and (in this case), even an identical geometry and vertex order, but one has about 8000 ERC links and aliases, and the other does none. I want those links transferred to the second model.

My initial assumption was be that simply copying across the DSF files for these links/aliases might have worked, but it seems not - any files copied in this way do not appear in DS at all.

Is there any way in which I can copy the very large number of links I need to set up without requiring a huge expenditure of effort?

Matt_Castle

EDIT: There was another comment here to which this was supposed to be a response, but that's now gone missing...?

I haven't tried loading with V4 in the scene recently, because I want to use the snakes on G3 and G8 figures (I would argue it's still one of best sets of gorgon snakes, given its's dense and hugely posable. In any case, while I have now got RawArt's G8F Medusa Maker, those snakes are not similar enough in appearance that I can use it as a replacement for existing characters).

And until it became clear that it was this specific model crashing DS if it was scanned by a script, I was using the CR2 version - parented to the head of G3 or G8. Everything regarding converting it to weightmaps and saving it in DS format have been purely about trying to rule out whether it's something about the poser format causing the crash. (However, as it is, the conversion to weightmapping does not show any signs of having introduced problems of its own. Although there are a lot of bones on the model, they do not have particularly complex vertex assignments. Even if it did have problems, I've got enough experience weight-painting for other programs that I can fix most such things - I can even manage pretty respectable weight painting for the Source engine, which has a notoriously tight limit of three weights per vertex).

But, for the sake of completeness, I've just tested: if I load V4's CR2, then the snakes' CR2, parent them to V4's head, and then run Scene Optimiser, then DS does still crash when the Optimiser window is closed.
It crashes even if the snakes' CR2 is the only thing in the scene, it crashes if it's in DUF format, it crashes with Poser Materials, it crashes with Iray materials... the only version I have yet found that does not crash Daz when a script scans it in this way is if I export and reimport it as OBJ (at least ruling out that it's some inherent flaw in the geometry... or at least not one that survives export to OBJ); if I then rig the OBJ version, either manually or by using the transfer utility, it remains stable.

Which probably means there's a good chance that it is something to do with the hair's huge number of posing links, but actually being able to prove that by transferring them would be useful. (And, for the record, this is not the only reason I'm asking about transferring links; there are many times that being able to do so would be a considerable time saver, it just happens that with this hair having over 8000 of these links, this is a time where it's really not feasible to just grit my teeth and set up the links by hand).

Matt_Castle

At this point, I'm guessing I have to assume that the answer is that "control links can't be copied", but I would actually appreciate someone saying that outright (given that the ability to do seems like the kind of thing that really shouldn't be that much of an ask).

Matt_Castle

Okay, I now have to take it that the answer is that there is no default way or easy manual way to do this.

However, is this something that could be achieved via scripting? "Copy all rigging limits/parameters/links etc from model A to model B". I'm guessing it's probably the case, but as JavaScript (which I believe is broadly the basis for DazScript) was never one of the languages I learned when I was younger, actually learning enough of the syntax to work from scratch is going to take me quite some time, so I'd appreciate someone telling me if I'm wasting my time before I start.

(I will add that gorgon snakes are not the only thing I have in mind here - I've also been trying for a while to create an updated version of the Lorenzo and Loretta Lorez figures that will work with G3 and G8 poses, and while the base rigging and weight maps have transferred reasonably well, the figures would be more ideal if they had things like the aliases for the twistbones and the right axes of rotation locked out.)