P3dO Explorer Pro - Features for Carrara
Steve K
Posts: 3,241
I'm in the process of installing all my software on a new machine (ranks just below a root canal in enjoyment). In the process, I'm remembering/discovering some features that I'd forgotten/never knew. . One example is Senosot's "P3DO Explorer", " ... for viewing and managing 3D Objects, & Digital Pictures with a simple Explorer-ish look and feel. P3dO is also a major Poser 3D library manager. P3dO stands for Photo 3D Exploration software." The basic version is freeware, the Pro version is $25. I mainly use it to preview mocap files, way better than a thumbnail and brief text description. It does have Carrara specific features:
Comments
A biggie is being able to replace the thumbnail icon of .CAR files in the browser. Carrara is unlike DS and Poser, where they just need a .png of the same name as the main file and the .png image will be used. This is not the case in Carrara.
When I made Starry Sky for Carrara I didn't know about P3dO Pro, so I added an otherwise unnecessary camera to the scenes that would give a decent render of stars, and made null-like scene files using Carrara text to indicate Medium or Large magnitude scenes, with an arrow pointing at the proper file. In other words: PITA
EnvironKits had the privellege of me having P3dO Pro!
I couldn't quite figure out how to do it at first, so I contacted the author of the software, who immediately replied and got me hooked up with GKDantas, who has a nice tutorial on the subject! So cool!
I still haven't Explored (pardon the pun) the rest of the software. It's so useful. The free version was very popular for being able to allocate new locations of Poser runtime assets and such, I think. I didn't even know about the MoCap preview... I do need to look deeper at this amazing (and incredibly lightweight) software!
Always make a backup before replacing the thumbnail with it though, as occasionally it does make the file unopenable ("unexpected end of file" error).
Good tip! I back stuff up so often that I forget to suggest doing it! LOL
And... although it's been around a while, there was an update within the last year, and I recall indications of upcoming support for DS (duf/dsf?) files, so even if backburnered for a while, I think it's still alive and growing.
I also prefer the BVH previewer, as well as the ability to preview/browse zips in its browser window. I don't think I could manage my piles of freebies, rendo, and old rdna zips without it.
cheers,
--ms
Just to clarify, P3DO also can preview Poser format mocaps, like from PoserMocap. I have a lot of these, which seem to be more glitch free with my favorite characters, M4, V4, K4.
I like them too. They make fantastic motion files!
Yes! And when I said I contacted the author, he also said that suggestions and requests are more than welcome. He's really cool. So if any of you have any ideas for how he could add more functions or features to the software, drop him a line