NEW FINDINGS!
First off, I want to make an amendment to my workaround step 2: convert the rigging of the model to general weight maps and NOT triax. I discovered that with triax, certain poses are causing the claws to explode all over the place. With general weight maps this thing does not happen. BUT, since the leopard CR2 file does not contain the cub, cougar, lion or lioness morphs, the usability of this workaround is limited.
I compared all cat models between Daz versions and Poser versions trying to discover what may cause the problem I mentioned yesterday. And I discovered other
issues and inconsistencies between the two versions. And I want to mention I re-downloaded and re-installed all pertaining files of all the cat family available on the site and thus, is fair to say, all files are the latest versions. Also, I ran the comparison in Daz Studio, as I do not use Poser and I do not have it installed so the following description is how they appear in Daz Studio. Differences may apply in Poser.
My findings:
1. The housecat Poser version does not contain the kitten morph. I do not know if in Poser is located someplace else. The Daz version does and is in the Actor/Body subsection.
Similar to all Daz versions cat meshes, the housecat universal manipulator tool is located at the center of the world when meshes are loaded. NOT SO for the other cats, where the manipulator is located somewhere around the hip, above the grid, and for the lion and lioness, even above the mesh itself.
2. All the Daz version big cats contain morphs for all the cat variants: cub, cougar, lion, lioness . NOT SO for the Poser models. The cougar does not appear as a morph in any of the big cats meshes nor as a separate breed in the breed animals subfolder.
Also,the leopard .CR2 does not contain ANY morph for the big cat varieties.
3. The lion and the lioness which come as .PZ3 files and not as .CR2 like the leopard, do contain morphs in the Actor/Body subset but only for lion and lioness. No cougar, no cub morphs. ALSO, in spite of the fact that they load with their respective morphs ON, there is no size change. They remain the same size as the leopard. What changes though with the morph on are the hair meshes only, which move out of position and break in a big way, especially the lion's mane.
So, given the multitude of hurdles and odd behavior, at least in Daz Studio, I gave up on my muscle and veins morph project I had, at least until these issues are resolved and I have a usable editable mesh that contains all functional actual morphs.
I do hope that my findings are going to help in resolving the issues soon and make all models consistent in behavior , appearance and functionality.
Here are 2 screenshots showing what I explained above:
Differeces in size example: on the left, the Daz versions with appropriate sizes, on the right, Poser version with all meshes the same size as the leopard.
Example with the Poser version meshes with morphs applied and exploding hair: