There are so many things I would love to ask.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem like this forum is terribly active.  I may as well though in the off chance somebody feels like replying to part of it...

So I just recently got more seriously into using DAZstudio again and upgraded my 4.6+ to pro beta...

and I was wondering the following:

1. For prop making and clothes/scenery that goes beyond parenting series' of primitives together... do we have to use Carrera or Hexagon?  Would other stuff work? 

I know it's possible to import stuff from other programs if it is in .obj format because I remember having done so before in version three point something back then...

2. How do you make textures apply to a model's surface?  Do I have to have them be UV & bumpmapped first to work properly... or can I just rip them from image files I've got floating around in any of my desktop folders (at least for patterns on surface materials)?

3.  Is it possible when saving stuff as a DSON .duf to have it not be a piece of scenery? Like say I wanted it to be labeled as a prop instead... would using the recategorization labeling feature in DAZstudio work for this?