Okay, so in review...
The folders are correct and the files are in the correct folders.
The hide file extension box is unchecked in folder options (a traxx problem but a good precaution to work around anyway).
The files themselves are okay because I could get them to pod - and I double checked the RAW names in the bin, and they're okay.
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Now, when I use cpod to make the truck.pod, I usually right click the TRK file and "send to" cpod. Of course, you can always open it from the file menu and select TRK as the file type to open:
But either way should work. Either "send to" or open from the file menu.
I assume there is nothing in cpod when you attempt to open.
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Do you get the error when opening the TRK or when making the POD ?
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Next question. Where is the cpod program saved? I mean, the actual "C-POD.exe" file. The reason I'm asking is that cpod will create a "temp" folder in the same place the "C-POD.exe" file is located, and it uses the temp location for various file tasks. I'm thinking that if you cannot read and write to the temp folder, or you don't have user permission to work in that spot, then maybe that could be causing the problem. If that's not it, or something very like it, then I'll have to give this more thought.
Oh, a long shot. When you first unzipped cpod. Did you ever run it and then move it to somewhere else afterward? This would probably only matter if you use the "send to" option... because the shortcut created would not be valid after you move "C-POD.exe" file. To fix that you'd have to uncheck and recheck the menu options to reset the shortcuts.