I may be too stupid to own a computer (it only took me three custom installs to figure out that the extra models weren't in the Catalog Room--still haven't found those extra shaders). While Carrara can import an object created in A7, it doesn't appear to easily bring it from the Assembly Room into the Modelling Room. I got a message that I needed to edit the model in A7 (what, hadn't I already done that?) and then to click on an update button). The only way I've been able to get an A7 object into the Modelling room is to ungroup it and go through multiple conversions--no sign of an update button. And once I'm finished, I can't save the work as an Amapi object (and I don't think A7 can import a Carrara file without converting it to yet another format). Have I missed something in the documentation?

What this is telling you is that the model was created in A7 and if you want to edit it, you have to go back to A7, change it, and then update it. I haven't figured out a clean way to make this work yet either. -Kix

Thanks. By the way, how did Eovia let A7 out the door without the ability to import Carrara format files?

I think the idea is that you will use AMAPI 7 to create your objects, then export them to Carrara 2 for rendering. If you need to edit an object you've imported, simply make the necessary modifications in A7 and click the Update button. BTW, I have discovered that Carrara 2 can not hande objects with Dynamic Geometry. You have to reduce the DG before exporting to Carrara. Brian

Thanks, Brian. I sort've assumed that was what they thought. Still, I think having the export option would have been a good idea.

First you can go from Carrara to Amapi using the obj exporter. This will work pretty well if you want to edit an object from Carrara into Amapi.

The main reason why we there is no importer of Carrara file format is that it is not very useful. You want to use Amapi to model objects for Carrara and not the contrary !

What the update button allows you to do is to update changes to an object after your modified it in Amapi, without loosing your Carrara shader or the position or the instancing.

A simple example: if you model a colum in Amapi, you can use it to model a temple in Carrara with 50 instances of that column. You can then edit your column in Amapi 7 and save it to the same file. When you click on the update button, the 50 instances of the column will be updated all at once.

If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to email our tech support at support@eovia.com

Charles

Thanks for the full explanation, I appreciate it.