Compress Carrara Files
EddyMI3D
Posts: 365
Hi out there in the wide world!
I understand that Carrara compresses the CAR Files with zip algorithms.
Is there a way to compress a bunch of files with a standalone zipper.
I saved a lot of files that are somehow very huge ( 1 GB and more).
Thanks in advance,
Eddy
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Put them in a single folder and use a zip compressor?
Compress them individually using a zip compressor?
Normally yes, but a standard zipper produces a file inside the ZIP-File.
Even deleting the file extension before compressing does not work.
Maybe Carrara works with some certain parameters during zipping.
I guess I don't get what you want. If you want just the compressed Carrara file and that is it, use the compression option. If not, use a zipper.
For smaller file sizes, save locally, unless you need to transport them, in which case there is the option to save internally, which produces huge files, or to put the scene and its dependent files in one folder and move that.
The reason saving internally produces huge files, and a potential reason why your scenes are large even when compressed, is because Carrara saves image maps and such internally in a lossless format (.tiff?) that is either 16 or 32 bit. I don't recall for sure. Even a low res jpg used for an image map is up-converted to this lossless format, negating the reason to use a low res texture.
You can compress once as much than you want a file, but I do not see the advantage except making several packages for the transmission on the Internet.
To remove the extension is useless…
Why not record your projects in not compressed files and make a total file of all your projects compressed?
I do not see where is the problem to have several compressed files inside one only…
Fact is, that a scene file that I have, saved by Carrara uncompressed is 2,6 GB large. When I re-save it with compression, it is 960 MB in size.
For I have some of those, they take a lot of space on the HDD.
So I wanted to compress them externally in a bunch because it takes some time to do this manually with Carrara.
Best bet then is to stick the files in a folder and compress them. I do this with some of my videos that I archive. I'll stick a few of them together and zip the folder.
P3DO Explorer Pro Version, which costs just a little more than the free version, contains Carrara functionality - including the ability to compress/decompress car files. I've never actually used it for this, but that's what it can do, I guess. Ask the author about your dilemma and he'll answer your e-mail within minutes.
So, after some fumbling around I found out that Carrara uses gzip for compressing.
So I removed the file extension, made a gzip compressed file and renamed from gz to car. That works fine!
I'll have a look on P3DO. If it has a batch ability, it could be useful to me.
Thanks for that hint, DB
Eddy
P3dO is so cool and helpful, and then the author is so cool and helpful, it becomes one of those little purchases that makes you happy! I only use it to make custom thumbnails for Carrara files - and that alone makes it so worth it. But the app is capable of moving the whole world, I think.... ;)
I'll give that tool a look-see. But gosh, it has been so long since I fired up Carrara!
(yes, I just uttered blasphemy -- good thing that is a victimless crime!)
You end up becoming the victim, my friend! :shut:
You end up becoming the victim, my friend! :shut:
Huh?
{ sensing major thread hijacking }
As for compressing Carrara files - I see that as the source of some of the major headaches with the product. I simply don't do it. Need disk space? Get a bigger / additional disk.
I compress always. It does take a bit longer to save, but it saves big time on storage space.
Previously, I was meaning that 'you' become the victim when you ignore Carrara. :lol:
I'm not very good at trying to be funny these days - but I don't realize it till it's all over. :shut:
Yeah, there are advantages to not compressing and not rendering off a thumbnail. Here are my thoughts on the matter:
Whenever I drag something in from a runtime, I try to get it to a good, optimized state within Carrara for good rendering. I like to save this stuff. And since I do this a lot, this means a LOT of saves. I have a 1.5TB drive that is quickly filling, even using compression - but by the time I need to up-size, I will have an enormous amount of saved optimizations. I also save using local coordinates for the texture files. This saves them from being stored over again, losslessly.
I prefer thumbnails because, well... I like how they look in the browser.
Just as a small example of this, I know that I keep mentioning my article on the custom browser thing, here is a slightly expanded view of my Object tab, with only a few categories opened up a little. You can see that many folders are yet unopened, and everything you see here is within my custom setup. This isn't as complete as my workstation's list, and it doesn't have my Scene collection, or I would have shown you that as well, because that has all manner of saves possibilities within.
While I'll always value and protect my runtime libraries, I try very hard to make it feasible to work directly from my Carrara browser - as everything I save there, for the most part, is all ready to go - fully optimized to my liking!
Addendum:
My drive will go back down to a manageable amount of free space after I move my temporary installers off to their homes on other storage drives. Carrara does a decent job with compression. I still have this habit of saving everything in duplicate, triplicate, if possible, so I accumulate abundant files until the day comes when I copy them all of to several storage drives that I keep stuff on.
When I decide to upgrade this drive it, too, will become a storage facility for stuff I want to protect. I not only save my installers, but also images of my entire runtime structure and DAZ 3D Library as well - just in case I really mess something up one day - or lightning strikes or something awful. My storage drives do not remain plugged in to anything after I store stuff to them -- just for this reason.
I'm sorry Eddy,
I may have misinterpreted what P3DO does for file compression on Carrara files. It may just enable compression/decompression for the purposes of working with the thumbnails? I'm not sure. The super-cool author of the software is always looking for new ideas to add... so if it cannot currently Batch compress/decompress CAR files, perhaps he can/will add it? He's really awesome to speak with. Let him know what you need to do - I have a feeling he can help.
Yes..."Carrara" was what you meant...no doubt... :zip: ;)
I still prefer high-speed saves and opening (relatively speaking) and avoiding the various issues that I have read about on the forums.
Yes..."Carrara" was what you meant...no doubt... :zip: ;)
I still prefer high-speed saves and opening (relatively speaking) and avoiding the various issues that I have read about on the forums.
I'm a non-compressor as well.
Garstor has a good point. Why not buy another HD and just copy your stuff to it without compression. Its cheap and fast.
But I would in addition suggest compressing it and putting it on some type of optical disk as well because:
1. hard disk interfaces change every few years
2. External HDs with a USB interface should be be backward compatible for a longer time BUT the power supplies are another matter. For example, can you easily get an internal power supply for an HD in an external case that is 15 years old?
I use usb drives on my laptops, but never on my Carrara box. Except for the storage monsters where I back everything up every so often. Some of those are even the old IDE HDD 7,200 rpm. I have a wonderful device that I can plug them into and hook them up via USB 2, which is fast enough just for storing away my stuff for safe keeping.
I like to keep all of my content and ready files on internal SATA drives. When the time comes to upgrade to the next notch up in technology, I transfer my data to the new architecture, keep it on the old, unplug the old and put it away until I want to backup again.
But still, the Gars Man is totally correct, and I'm being a little stubborn. I probably wouldn't notice a huge difference in file size without compressing, so long as I keep using local settings instead of internal. Still. I never have to wait long for this machine to render the thumbnail and compress during a save. Even my large files just zip into place without much of a wait. That's part of why I don't change, and also because I just like to store a lot of stuff that I might use tomorrow, but might not until two years from now. It's not like using a compressed image format where stuff gets degraded.
So here are some information about my HDD situation.
relevant for 3D stuff:
3D Content (N): Download Drive for Poser Stuff (Rendo, RDNA Freebies etc)
Content Store (P): Main Content Drive (Studio libraries, Poser runtimes)
DAZ (R): Drive for DIM download, 3D Programs: Carrara, Studio, Bryce, etc
Carrara User Scenes (T): as it says plus some video Tutorial.
This week I added another sata adapter card to my system with 4 internal sata ports.
Already added one SSD (SSD 2 (V)), another one is standing by.
Maybe I add a large (2TB) drive for my user scenes.
I need the space because sometimes i render real huge images (5000 x 6500 pixels) and save them as png for high quality large printouts.
btw: I have my system drive (C) on SSD. This is really fast with starting the PC.