Genesis/Genesis 2 characters in Carrara - inconsistent behavior

WsCG

Hi all,

So, I just went through some trial and error to make sure I wasn't going crazy, and it appears I'm not.

I'm going through Phil W's Carrara basics videos, and have been following through the bit about using DAZ Characters.

As I'm trying to follow, I've had to close and start a new scene several times because something would go wonky with the character in some way. Sometimes things wouldn't work correctly, sometimes they wouldn't work at all, sometimes they'd work just fine - and always with me using exactly the same approach. Sometimes clothing is applied properly, sometimes it isn't. I'm doing it as Phil does in the video, selecting the character and dragging the item over to the character model name in the scene list. 

In one case, the clothing loaded fine, but refused to morph to the character shape.
In another attempting to morph it (via the 'General' tab when the clothing item is selected) caused Carrara to crash.
Another time, it said it couldn't do it, or that some kind of error had occurred.
Another time it worked just fine.

One time, I was unable to use any face morphs because everything but Neck and Head disappeared from the list.
Started a new scene, used the same character and clothing.. and it was fine.
Tried it a third time, and Carrara crashed.

I've been able to apply hair, but not hair color.
I've been able to change eye colors, but not make-up.

And so on... It just seems to be behaving very erratically, despite me using the same processes and items/clothes/etc. 

I'm using items that appear in 'Smart Content', which I *assume* means they're compatible with the figure I have loaded, yet there's very erratic, hit-or-miss behavior when applying them. 

Can anyone shed some light on why this might be happening?

Appreciate it.

Stezza

I very rarely use Smart Content, when I do I use the tree in the left pane and not the display window which is misleading with a lot of products..

99% of the time I use the content tab to avoid most of the problems.

 

Mistara

some of the older genesis materials arent in duf format. it's like .dsa or dsb.  haz to be duf for carrara.

with ds content, i've gotten into the habit of dragging clothes and hair to the 'scene' in the instants tab,
then conform to figure in 2nd step.  
dragging it directlty to the figure, is hard to tell what it's conforming to exactly, like a clothing item conforming to hair or nother clothing item instead of figure..  
ouchies boo boos

sometimes when i dont see a material apply, is cause i forgot to click the show textures ball, >.<, 

 

WsCG

Mistara said:

some of the older genesis materials arent in duf format. it's like .dsa or dsb.  haz to be duf for carrara.

with ds content, i've gotten into the habit of dragging clothes and hair to the 'scene' in the instants tab,
then conform to figure in 2nd step.  
dragging it directlty to the figure, is hard to tell what it's conforming to exactly, like a clothing item conforming to hair or nother clothing item instead of figure..  
ouchies boo boos

sometimes when i dont see a material apply, is cause i forgot to click the show textures ball, >.<, 

 

I've not had issues with things showing up untextured... that's one thing that hadn't happened anyway lol.

But I think I might be "moving too fast" with dragging stuff. I've started pacing myself a bit, allowing a beat or two between items to "let Carrara catch up", I guess. It seems to be working consistently that way.