Carrara Love/Hate

starboard

After a week of work on a project Carrara gave the dreaded  "end of file error occured while executing  open..." I thought I was ok as I had saved multiple versions under "Save As" but even the ones that opened yesterday will no longer open. I have to go back to "save as" versions a couple of days ago before I can get one that opens. I did a search and I find that Fenric gives some advice..

"The most common cause (by a very long way) is extra bytes at the end of the file preventing it from uncompressing. Rename the file "whatever.car.gz" and unzip it: Either WinZip or 7Zip can do the job (on a mac, you can just double-click it).

I caution everyone to never save by quitting Carrara. If you go to close, and you get the dialog box "Do you want to save?" and you DO want to save, then hit CANCEL, go back and save, then quit. BUT Carrara 8.5 will sometimes cause this error regardless of when you save, particularly with Genesis in the scene.

I know it's a huge file, but you are still best off saving uncompressed and using the OS's built-in file compression if you need to save space (both Windows and MacOS have built-in compression these days. Mac's is just less convenient to use)

I tried renaming the file but this does not work .

What is really  disturbing is  Fenric's statment , that Carrara 8.5 will sometimes cause this error regardless of when you save.."...I might add or how.

This is really Russian Roulette.... you never know when it will explode in your face. Apparently, not even Fenric can save with any feeling of security.... What is someone like myself going to do ?

At present I am trying to find a work around..such as breaking the project which is an interior of a ship, into multiple object scenes, then try to assemble them  together later...into one scene...then add the figures.  If there is a problem here then I might have to render out a still and use this as a background.... 

If anyone has any advice..I am definitly open to it.

Starboardtack ..trying to retain sanity

 

Mistara

huh.  i wasnt aware this could happen.  thanks for safety tip.

Headwax

advice? as already given ;)

never save as a compressed car,

always watch your disc space as you might have 4 gigs left but if car runs out of space while saving it won't tell you, but when  you try to reopen the car file it will have an error,

I've had more sucess with 7zip for Fenric's method,

if all else fails try importing your car file into another car file

starboard

Head Wax,

There is lots of space on disc. I  tried importing  car. file into anothere car. file - not working.  How do you save without compressing?  I don't see any options in the save panel.

Starboardtack

evilproducer

When you first save your scene, there should be a little, Options checkbox. Make sure it is checked, then when you save the scene, a little dialogue box will open with the save options. The compression option is checked automatically. I always un-check it. Once the scene is saved, the only way to change the options you enabled or disabled is to use the Save As command, and make sure that the Options checkbox is enabled. Then you will be given the dialogue again.

DUDU

When you “save as”, the option of compression is checked by default, uncheck it.
I never had problems of corrupted files since I do not compress them anymore. Sometimes some opened files are frozen Carrara at the time of the render, but that works when one places them in the batch queue of render.
I once saved a file by replacing the extension .car by the extension .rar before decompressing and opening in Carrara.

DUDU

oops, x2 EP, sorry!

starboard

Thanks All,

I have used "save as" and have unchecked the compression. Thanks Evil for the images - it helped. I tried DUDU's suggestion of replacing the extension..but it did not work. 

A bitter lesson learned..do not compress.   All that work lost...AAAH...Hopfully never to repeat....Thanks all..Back to modeling and a wiser Carrara-ite.

Starboardftack

Stezza

watch out when files are around 4gig or bigger... it can happen then as well checked or unchecked !!

Fenric

Hi.  Yes, I do still exist ;)

 

I have to echo Stezza's statement about extra-large files: the bigger it gets, the more likely something is to go wrong even without compression. If you really have to use Genesis, consider rendering to a transparent background and compositing rather than having it and your scenery in the same file.

 

Also, try to not do character work in a final scene: while Genesis with it's enormous file bloat is the worst culprit, any import runs the risk of corrupting the scene. Always get things ready in a separate scene (or get the full character + clothing ready in Poser or Studio separately), save that to the browser, then load it in from the native Carrara file. The less you touch it in the final scene, the more likely it is that it will not corrupt things. I lost a big scene I was working on this way just recently - loaded what should have been an innocous prop, didn't realize the damage that was done, and that was the end.

 

BUT bewere "generational rot": avoid saving DSON or Poser items to the browser, then loading that and saving changes back out to the browser again - it doesn't take long for that to become a "scene bomb" that will kill anything you load it into. Load fresh DSON/Poser each time you need to change things, and treat anything loaded from the browser as "Final". Think of CAR files like JPEG's - it gets ugly if you re-save it too many times.

 

And always, always, always "remove unused objects", "remove unused shaders", "consolidate duplicate shaders" after every time you load something and every time you delete something. It's not just a size consideration: that unused cruft makes save errors more likely.

 

If Carrara does crash, go clean out your DazTemp folder, too - that has long been a source of random behavior.

starboard

Fenric,

Thanks for the detailed advice. Let me repeat to see if I understand what you are saying.

1. Large files are unstable as Stezza says -so  beware, be  paranoid..

2. Create characters  G2/ M4 etc. in a separate scene and do all the changes, clothing etc. there. Then save it to the browser (drag and drop the figure into "My Objects"). Open the main scene and add the figure from the browser (My Objects). Use the figure  as it comes from the browser as the Final Model - no changes. This I take it refers to changes in the figure mesh/clothing etc. and not the manipulation of the figure for the timeline or movement morphs ?

3. If working with G2 better render to transparent (alpha) then composite in post.

At present I have removed unused objects, shaders, and condensed..My file so far is 268 MB without figures - though I have a lot of work yet to do. I have been saving  every half hour or so, and in addition I have been saving to "Save As"  every hour or so.    Does saving so many times corrupt the file ?  Should saves be limited ?

I have also began to break my scene down into major objects and saving each of those into the browser.  Thus if I get the dreaded " end of file error.." I shoud be able to re-open a fresh Carrara and restock from the browser.  It is a whole new way of thinking.  

Thanks for you advice...It will be heeded.

Starboardtack

 

Stezza

Fenric said:

 

And always, always, always "remove unused objects", "remove unused shaders", "consolidate duplicate shaders" after every time you load something and every time you delete something. It's not just a size consideration: that unused cruft makes save errors more likely.

 

If Carrara does crash, go clean out your DazTemp folder, too - that has long been a source of random behavior.

I would buy a menu button that would do all that in one hit ... would be great... hint hint ;-)

Fenric

msteaka said:

Use the figure  as it comes from the browser as the Final Model - no changes. This I take it refers to changes in the figure mesh/clothing etc. and not the manipulation of the figure for the timeline or movement morphs ?

Yes, exactly.

 

Basically, don't load new DSON or Poser assets - including morphs: try to get everything you might need injected the first time.

 

Posing and adjusting existing morhps should generally be safe