Not understanding shader saving.

Turner

Ok, I give....

This is driving me nuts - I have a shader that's working great, all I want to do is duplicate it, edit the color channel of the duplicate shader, and save it. Or, edit the original.

There doesn't seem to be any save dialog except closing the window... sometimes it doesn't ask me to save.

But when it does, it applies a new name (untitled.cbr) and doesn't know where the origial was.

Uh... what? I can't really make any rhyme or reason of it.

Not sure if I've been doing something wrong all these years, but it seems to me that the only option I really have is to point Carrara back to the (quite buried) shader directory every time...

Any help understanding this appreciated.

thanks
Andrew

Diomede

Turner said:

Ok, I give....

all I want to do is duplicate it, edit the color channel of the duplicate shader, and save it. Or, edit the original.

There doesn't seem to be any save dialog except closing the window...

I might not be fully understanding your question. But, if I wanted to create a duplicate shader and edit the color channel, but still have original, and then save with a changed name, I would use the shader category in the browser tray. Seems to work for me. But based on your reference to .cbr files, maybe you are trying to do something more complicated?

Turner

Hi there -

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've been doing. I can duplicate a shader, which is done through the fly-out menu in the shader tray; it creates a file called "Copy of XYZ".

I can edit that new shader, but when I try to save it (simply close the window, of course, which is clunky) sometimes it just closes, and sometimes it opens a save dialog wherein it remembers neither the shader name nor the location.

thanks!
Andrew

PGre

I think drag-and-drop between the master shaders tab in your document and the shader tray in the browser is the only other option for saving out shaders. it requires no closing of shader windows.

I didn't come across the problem of shaders not remembering location or name. I'm using 8.5 pro on a PC.

The only time I was not able to get a save dialog box was when I double clicked a shader in the master shaders list and made edits, then closed the box. It just alters the selected shader for that particular documet.

Here is the work flow I tested.

If you double click a shader in the browser it opens up in the texture room, but it is not added to your list of master shaders in your current document. So if you use duplicate file in the browser flyout you get the "copy of XYZ" and you can double click it, make your edits and close the shader window to get the save dialog. For me it remembers the location and the filename. I can change the name, but since the file is already duplicated in the browser, I will end up with shaders "XYZ", "copy of XYZ", and "renamed XYZ", only the latter containing the edits.

If you do the above without first duplicating the file, ie double click to open from the browser, make edits, close window, you will get the same save dialog but can rename the file without having to keep the one that says "copy of XYZ"

If I instead drag shader "XYZ" from the browser to my master shaders list and then do a copy-paste, I get a duplicate shader named "XYZ 1" Double click that and make edits, Drag and drop from the master shaders list back to the browser and you will get the save dialog shown in diomedes screenshot. Rename it whatever you like.

One curious thing I found, was that if you drag a shader from the master shaders list that has not been selected (with the yellow line underneath) that the dialog says "no name" instead of its actual name.

P

evilproducer

I either use an existing folder in the Shader tab of the Browser, or create my own folder and add it to the browser, and drag and drop the shader to whichever is the appropriate directory.

For those that may not know, If you close the shader window, you can still find it by selecting the shader tray on the right side of the screen. Even if the shader is not in use (and you haven't removed unused shaders) there should be a thumbnail for it. To save it, just drag and drop it onto the shader browser in whatever directory you wish. A dialogue will open where you can name the shader. You can also name the shader in the shader's general tab when you select the thumbnail, as well as see all the objects it's used on.

PGre

The only time you will not see the shader in the shader tray on the right of the screen is if you double click it in the browser. It will open a window in the texture room that is titled "[SHADER NAME] of [ SHADER NAME].cbr" instead of "[SHADER NAME[ of [DOCUMENT NAME]".

P

PGre

Also, I just learned the if you select a shader window titled “[SHADER NAME] of [ SHADER NAME].cbr" the Menu item FILE->SAVE changes from .car to .cbr and you can save your shader in that way. In fact, if you are just making changes to shaders already saved in the browser you do not need to open a .car document at all. Just open the shader directly.

NexySaloon

The easy way is to just put the shader on something, anything, a shoe for example.
Then you can simply drag it back down to the shader tray and save it with a new name.
Or change shader folders and save it in the new one with its original name.
You can drag it back down as many times as you want.

Turner

Hey all -

pgre - I'll try that....

DeCarlo - one of the main issues is that I'm frequently being asked to save shader info and Carrara forgets it name and location; therefore, even if I want to edit an existing shader, it doesn't seem to remember anything about it.

Pretty sure it's a bug, but either way, definitely something that should be addressed.

cheers
Andrew