Carrara on Multiple Monitors
SLoTH_XVX
Posts: 199
How would I get Carrara 8.5 onto multiple monitors?
Finally have a two monitor set-up and can figure out how to get Carrara onto both of them.
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Go to PREFERENCES and pull down to GENERAL. The multiple monitor settings are there.
In the preferences, look under General. The option should be there unless it was moved.
Yep, found that before posting but it is not allowing me to split out the docked panes onto the secondary screen...in fact I can't move anything to the secondary screen.
Can I pull the main bottom pane off the bottom and place it on the second screen? I know the un-dock the right pane,but it is not allowing me to pull it to the secondary screen.
It's been awhile since I used dual monitors, but I recall there was a key combination that unlocked some of the palettes. There's a spot in the preferences where you can assign keyboard shortcuts, maybe you can find it there?
on a mac its command and drag. i have read tho there is a problem with dual monitors on 8.5
You cannot drag anything outside the Carrara borders. You have to pull C out to both screens. Then drag your working area (only that) back to your main screen. I always keep the properties tab on my main screen.
You cannot drag anything outside the Carrara borders. You have to pull C out to both screens. Then drag your working area (only that) back to your main screen. I always keep the properties tab on my main screen.
If you can not drag anything outside of the borders then what is the point of having the multiple monitor option in the first place?
I am only a hobbyist but how does DAZ expect to market a product to a market outside of the hobbyist without the ability to pull to multiple screens? Seems to me to be something that a professional would want in a flexible program like Carrara.
I get what you are suggesting Pjotter but it is merely an ineffective (for me) work around to something software of this level should be able to do by default.
Don't get me wrong I LOVE Carrara and will not stop using this great program because of this short-coming but come on DAZ really?...in this day and age to not have the ability to effectively use multiple monitors is just silly.
You need to maximize Carrara by clicking on the little square icon next to the "X" used to close the app in the upper right corner of the window (not the one that Windows/Mac provides, but the one Carrara provides right below it. If you've set it up for multiple monitors in the preferences, one monitor should show the app as it is on a single screen, while the other will have the blue-gray background. At that point you can move things like the library and properties windows onto the second monitor - though it can still be a bit tricky to grab the right part of the window you want to move.
I'd do a screenshot, but there is a bug in Carrara 8.5 that won't let you use multiple monitors when you have more than two monitors connected (I have 3 and refuse to disconnect one just for Carrara).
What is wrong with what I suggested. My main screen is my working area, which is almost full screen. My second screen has the sequencer / browser tab. Also almost full screen. I have two 28 inch monitors and very happy with this setup.
Maybe someone can make a screen shot made with a camera.
SLoTH_XVX,
DAMN it....Why wont this thread allow me to upload pic in the right order ??? GRRrrrr
Carrara will work fine on dual monitors and once you've done it once you'll never go back.
There is no problem with the application but more a little tip or two to get you up & running.
In Pic 1 - you'll notice the 2 arrows, the lower one shows two boxes side by side with the left
one blue'ish/ grey and the right one the same colour as the dialog box. This is how it should
look for single screen mode. In my pic you'll see that both are blue'ish grey, this is because i
have clicked the right one to become the same colour as the left. This effectivly enables dual
monitor config. Ref the upper arrow, make sure this is ticked to enable full screen mode.
At this point hit 'OK' on preferences box and close down carrara completely.
Now restart and you will be officially in dual screen mode (pop into preferences to make sure
both the boxes are still blue'ish grey & close prefs again). If all this has worked then you will have
Carrara's full interface in what is known as your primary monitor (which should be your left one)
and the whole of your other monitor should be the blank background which Carrara produces.
If so far so good - See Pic 2 - See the left facing arrow at the top of the properties tray ? Click
this with your mouse and you'll notice the properties tray un-docks to a stand alone window
(clicking the same arrow will redock it for single screen mode again).
Pic 3 shows the tray undocked (floating)
Grab the floating properties tray by it's title bar at the top and slide it to the right onto your other
screen as seen in Pic 4
Pic 4
NOTE: If you cant go any further to the right than the right edge of the screen then try sliding the
properties tray off the left hand side of the screen - If this allows you to move on to your other monitor
then Windows (if you are using windows of course) will probibly have your monitors layed out in
reverse at the operating system level (ie screen 2 to the left and screen 1 to the right instead of
screen 1 to the left and screen 2 to the right) This happened to me and it needs to be corrected
through your display settings before continuing in Carrara.
To Be Continued......
Part 2.....
Hopefully at this point you have your properties tray in your second monitor space ??
Now this is where Carrara has it's 'Shortcoming' in the dual monitor arena but grab your
tray at the top and move the top left corner into the top left corner of your second monitor,
then, on the bottom right of the tray you'll notice a round bubble sticking out - Grab this
with your mouse and drag the 'Size' of the box until the bottom of the properties tray is
lined up with the bottom of the monitor.
Shortcoming 1 - Any window on the second monitor has to be painstakingly positioned
By hand :-(
Shortcoming 2 - When on the second monitor, the properties tray will always defaulf to
a set width, if you set it to something different and close & reopen Carrara
it will again resize itself to this set width. :-(
With 'Shortcoming 2' in mind, once you have the properties tray filling up the left side of
screen 2 from top to bottom & also touching the left hand edge of the monitor.......
See Pic 5
Close Carrara down & reopen again - At this point you should see that Carrara has set the
default width for the Properties tray so now you'll be ready to deal with the sequencer tray.
Part 3
The Sequencer tray has'nt got the little arrow like the properties tray (for some strange
reason) so un-Docking it is a little different.
See Pic 6
In Windows, hold down the CTRL key while clicking & dragging only in the areas shown
in the pic, so long as your not trying to click on a tab or button for example then dragging
should cause the sequencer to Un-Dock.
Once undocked you may find it's hugely wide so shorten it's width by using the little lower
right bubble - Then move it to your second monitor, move it up to the top and left against
the properties tray like you did before and then use it's lower right bubble to stretch it out
across the remainder of your second monitor.
When happy, close Carrara & reopen, if all looks good then start a new scene or open a
previous .Car file and you'll see why you'll never want to go back to single screen mode
ever again - Huge 3D view & the size of space you have got to work in in the sequencer
is like a dream come true esspecially for animation.
Added a screen capture of how mine looks when running dual, the rather 'unstraight' red
line is the divide between the 2 screens :-D
Good Luck, i hope this helps you get up & running - Please let us know if it works as it
will be handy for others if they want to go this route.
Many Regards
Paul
:O wow! that's impressive.
The sequencer list and the instances list are right next to each other... Do you find them redundant? Can you minimize the instances tab? Or do you find there are advantages to having both available?
Got through the first step and shut down Carrara and restarted but it does not boot beyond the splash screen.
If I click on Carrara on my task bar both screens go black, not gray, black and I am unable to do anything other than close Carrara by right clicking and selecting close from the task bar.
Do the monitors HAVE to be the same size? Could this be why I am having such an issue?
Hi Holly, I used to run a two screen set-up similar to pscammp. The reason you'd want the sequencer and the instances next to each other would be the Browser actually. I prefer to drag and drop items from the Browser onto the instances tab instead of dropping them into the scene window. Also, if applying a multi-domain shader, you'd need to have the shading tab available to drag and drop from the Shader Browser.
I dropped the two monitor set-up when my parents moved in with my wife and I, to make room in my computer room for their equipment. Although with my mom's clutter creep, my patience is running out and I'm about to say to hell with it, rent a dumpster, throw a bunch of crap out and go back to my original configuration. Not really, but I can fantasize! ;-)
what graphics card are you using? you may not have enough vram to support 2 monitors
LOL! You'd hate me... :P
LOL! You'd hate me... :P
Well, mostly her clutter is interfering with my clutter!
SLoTH_XVX,
You can probibly get away with different monitors but they'll both need to be running
the same resolution & colour depth & aspect ratio etc or it wont work correctly.
All is not lost yet so hang in there, took me a month to get fully sorted out:
1. Your not on a MAC are you ???? I think MAC has some particular issues in dual mode.
2. Go into your display settings and find something called 'Identify displays' - Activating this
will put a great big '1' and '2' on each of your monitors which will prove that your OP system
is running 2 displays correctly, if it does'nt come up like this then more work needs to be done
here before Carrara will respond correctly.
3. As 'dot_bat' said, what graphics card are you running and while your at it, have you the latest
drivers running it ?
Usually things like this is a line of deductions which hopefully end in success
;-)
Wheres a lot of people here and a lot of experience, we just got to whittle it down to the floor.
Paul
Holly,
No probs at all, it can even give you certain advantages too, one of which has been mentioned,
another one is that you can have an object opened up in the sequencer/motion graph listing to expose
their inner workings like rotation, scale etc
You can then click other objects & their stuff in the instances tab and still have open what you were playing
with previously, so yes, it's like having 2 versions but you can have different things available at the same time
by going back & forth.
:-)
Paul
You should report this in the bug tracker. I've already reported it, but Daz still thinks it's a "user issue," so the more people report it, the sooner it will be fixed. Beta 172 did not have this problem, but Beta 204 and the release version do.
But I do know a workaround. I strongly suspect that you have your primary monitor on the right. If you change (in Windows settings) the left monitor to be primary, then it should work.
See My post for more info.
I hope this thread doesn't devolve into mudslinging at DAZ (though they do deserve it for several reasons). Somehow, dating back to Carrara's earliest origins, we have ended up with this interface and DAZ refuses to modernize it. They probably don't have enough code jockeys (witness the long birthing cycle for C8.5) to properly overhaul it. But it could be a badly written piece of software and changing the interface would break too much stuff.
It does sadden me that Carrara isn't all that it can be. There is much good in it; but there are a few gnarly warts too.
When I worked at Microsoft, I used 4 monitors (and I knew a guy with 6). That was freaking awesome man! So much easier to be productive that way.
I need to come up with a way to get at least 3 monitors into action when I consolidate my computers into one area of the house.
Sorry DAZ, but that is just sloppy programming. No excuses - the monitor order should NOT matter.
I gave this topic another try with my new monitor setup (1280 x 1024 and 2560 x 1440).
When I switch to Carrara's Full Screen Mode I get that what you see below.
No background colors, nor Tool Bars, no Icons
You have to drag the outside border of Carrara to both screens. Then drag the border of your working area back to your main screen. On your main screen is your working area and your other screen has the sequencer / explorer part (for me that is on the right hand side).
Because you have different sizes of screens, a part of your large screen will not be used. You could try different screen resolutions.
I tried setting this up on an iMac 27 with a HDMI 21.5 display to the side.
No luck.
Then Carrara crashed and refuses to reopen. None of the Carrara versions will launch (32bit 64bit, nodes).
Restarted system and no joy.
Tried deleting plists, but that didn't help. Looks like I will need to re-install. Ugh.
It is installed on another machine so I am OK until I can get this cleared up, but I won't try to set up the multi display again!
I've been using C on dual screens for many years. Now C8.1 on win7x64 with second screen in portrait mode; works for me.
Doug.S
ugg, Mac's were the 1st systems that Carrara (Ray dream back then) could do dual's on.. just upgraded from 7 to 8.5 so I didn't have to keep my old 10.6 MacOS running and now I've lost dual monitors.. errrrr not really happy about that.. It was awesome to have all the palettes and such on the 2nd screen with the main just work area. kinda disappointing to get an "upgrade" that is less function able.
Thom,
Go to the General tab in Prefs. There's a dual monitor setting there. I believe you have to click on the panel for the second monitor (its blank by default). At least that's how it works on my Windows system.