Looking for some input on plant/tree bugginess. When I defined a leaf I got an error, could still proceed, failed to render tho. However, I noticed that the tree is parametric mapped w/ only the leaf assigned to a shading domain and now I am locked out of assigning the parametric mapping. I have seen this before with trees and other objects. It appears the parametric mapping and shading domains don't work together on the same object. Could someone confirm this? Also if this is the case then why is the plant modeller mixing and matching the 2 methods?

Hi Ren_mem, I haven't been getting the error messages you have. :-/ Post back if you get that one pinpointed You can use both on a single object. However, in my experience in the shader editor, the shading domains on the right side in the Properties pull out tray override the domains on the actual shader tree itself. If you are creating a tree from scratch and creating your own leaf textures, the best method is to create a separate shader and select it through the properties tray domain selector. Using the a layer list in the actual shader tree has been allowed to make the editor backward compatible with earlier versions of Carrara. Using the Properties tray is preferred though. Mark

Thanks for the info. I will have to check this out further. I guess I really mean layers list and shading domain compatibility are iffy together. I have had other objects that lock out the parametric mapping(I cannot see or change where they are applied in the layers list)once I assign a domain. This has coincided w/ errors often with trees.Usually I prefer, the shading domain method, however, the downside here is the way carrara limits grouping of shaders, applying etc. In other words, it makes you have to do alot of work over, whether you import tweaked textures or not you have to then assign them all over again(no presets).

I've had a few wierd things happen with the tree editor when I first installed Carrara 5.1.. but I had also just installed Max OSX upgrade 10.4.6.. did a quick "repair permissions" and everything seems fine now. Probably doesn't help you (guessing you're on Wintel?) but Mac people might get help from it.

Permissions would be a problem for anyone, but not normally an issue. I feel memory issues are a part for some of these oddities on large objects, but All the tree issues have layers lists So I may try them w/o.