I'm trying out the Demo and I'm sure there were some modelling tools when I first opened it, but since I "chose a sky" these tools have totally vanished and I don't know how to find them again.

That was question 1, here's question 2:
Where did that sky I thought I'd chosen actually go?

Q3 How do I render, and I mean a real render not just a preview of it?

Oh and Q 4, is there a manual?

Look at the top browser. You will see a Hand, wrench, pencil,brush and cam film.

Hand is the building scene. Wrench are where the tools are. Pencil is the storyBoard. Brush is materials. Cam film is the render and settings.

Now if you look at the animation pallet, on the side of it you will see 2 tabs. One of them is the browser tab. You can just click and drag anything there to the properties list. preset stuff usually have thier own camera. Look in the top left corner of the scene window and you will see the cammera that you are using. click on it and you will find a camera list.

Documentation are in the carrara folders. You can also click Help in browser.

I see the wrench, but when I click on it all that changes is that the word "Model" pops up - no tools for modelling are visible, no primatives etc, nothing.

Help?

(Thanks for the Browser tip, Now I can see the list of skies again but what happened to the one I chose?  Where did it go?)

No documentation in the Carrara folder, but the online help does go to a pdf file - which also doesn't explain how to begin modelling... Help?

And yes, I HAVE looked in the PDF under "Modelling" - spline - vertex - and metaball, but none of them explain where the darned tools ARE.

Select hand. Try File > new. If tools don't show. Try File > Reset Preferences.

You don't have to reset preferences. If you want to create one of the types of models, you have to pick one of them from the "insert " menu or drag one of their icons into the scene. Then you will be able to create it with the tools for that specific type of model.

**beryld,

**Thanks, File/New worked, but of course I lost everything I'd been playing with up til then - big deal! A terrain and a sky that had completely vanished.  But I hope I don't have to do that EVERYtime I want to add a model to a scene - do I?

I don't seem to be getting very far though... now I can get a weird wibbly closed cylinder to turn up... hmmm, and I can rotate it...

Are there any really simple tutorials?  Ones with text big enough to actually read?  Or if they must be video, slow enough and large enough to be able to see what's going on?

Mosty aren't I find.

**Patrick_210,

**Where's the "Insert Menu"?  I don't seem to have one of those.

Oh and if you look above at my previous message you'll see that the reason I was asking about how to find the modeling tools is because I DIDN'T HAVE any of the icons you mention, visible!

Now maybe that's because I don't know how to find them (true) or because the program had a glitch (possibly also true) but if you know of another way to find these icons when you have a terrain in the scene (since that and a sky were all I'd used) please do explain how to do that...

When you start Carrara you have to either hit New from the menu or go to the Scene Wizard where you can pick from ready made scenes. The modeling tools will not show up if you make a new scene and dont insert an object. Start a new scene. At this point you are in Assembly.  Now go to the top menus and select "Insert Vertex Object" When you do, the modeling room will automatically open. From there you can access the modeling tools. They are not available unless you insert an object. Either spline or vertex.

If you insert a terrain you are also switched to the modeling room. But it is context sensitive. You are now in the modeler for terrains. You need to switch back to Assembly, insert either a vertex or spline object. From there you will see the tools.

Good luck!!

Donnie

Open Carrara, Under  "File" choose "New",  Under "Help" choose "Carrara Help" and you will find the manual.

Sorry, I guess you already found the manual. There are chapters in there on basic modeling. If it is in your budget, I would suggest  the "Carrara 5 Pro Handbook" It is a great resource for someone new to Carrara. Also has a couple of Hexagon chapters in it. I believe Amazon has it for a little over $30.00. Borders is around $50.00.

**
dbigers,

**> Quote - When you start Carrara you have to either hit New from the menu or go to the Scene Wizard where you can pick from ready made scenes. The modeling tools will not show up if you make a new scene and dont insert an object. Start a new scene. At this point you are in Assembly.  Now go to the top menus and select "Insert Vertex Object" When you do, the modeling room will automatically open. From there you can access the modeling tools. They are not available unless you insert an object. Either spline or vertex. If you insert a terrain you are also switched to the modeling room. But it is context sensitive. You are now in the modeler for terrains. You need to switch back to Assembly, insert either a vertex or spline object. From there you will see the tools.

Okay but HOW do I switch back to "Assembly"?

**Patrick_210,

**Ah.  well I'm still trying to decide if I can afford Carrara - never mind anything else on top of that.

Especially as I just found out that the repairs to my laptop are going to cost me $431.222!  Arrrggghhhhh!

You switch back to Assembly by selecting the Hand icon at the top of the screen. The hand is Assembly. The wrench is the Modeler, etc. Each one switches you to that part or room of the program.

Quote - You switch back to Assembly by selecting the Hand icon at the top of the screen. The hand is Assembly. The wrench is the Modeler, etc. Each one switches you to that part or room of the program.

Okay, ta.  I've got all that sorted, now I'm just puzzling over why volumetric clouds don't show up in the render, only when you're ON or IN "volumetric cloud"... hmmmm.

Fran,
As long as it is in the view, lit, and you render with light thru transparency (do this in both places if using a GI option) it should render "correctly".

I found one place where "light thru transparency" was location, - in the render settings.

But I don't know where to find the second one - where do I look?

P.S. even enabling that "light thru transparency" didn't let the cloud show up in the render.

The visible part of the cloud is behind the camera. I realize you can see the corner of the bounding box, but clouds don't render right to the edge. Drag the bounding box away from the camera so that you can see the entire box, then try a test render. Light through transparency doesn't affect clouds.

hmmmm. I didn't know that. I guess they are post rendered or designed to be volumetric, as in the case. (so makes sense) Sorry for the misinformation then fran, kinda new myself. However, try using the 4 view pane in the assembly room this will help you see all sides of your scene. Perspectives can throw you at times.

Quote - The visible part of the cloud is behind the camera. I realize you can see the corner of the bounding box, but clouds don't render right to the edge. Drag the bounding box away from the camera so that you can see the entire box, then try a test render. Light through transparency doesn't affect clouds.

Um, I don't think so - as I said, I spent a long time getting the bounding box of the cloud into view - the three arrows: red, green and blue - that's the centre of the cloud.  So it's not behind the camera - is it?

Or am I going completely doolally?

Ren_Mem gives sage advice when he suggests you use the four-pane view for assembly.  You can see exactly where something is in the scene if you can see it from top, left and front, as opposed to just from the rendering camera's point of view. 

You can area render from any of the non-ortho views, as well, so you'll see exactly where, within the volumetric cloud's bounding box the cloud itself exists.

I have tried the 4 views but could only see the arrows indicating the location of the Volumetric Clouds in one of the views... (shrug)

Ah, if you're only seeing the arrows or the bounding box in one of your four views, your cloud may well have been placed way the heck off in one direction or other.  (This happens often if you drag an item into the perspective view window.

Select the item and set its location to 0, 0, 0 -- or at the center of the Carrara Universe.  Then you should be able to find it in all three views and position it where you like. 

In your picture posted above, it looks like your cloud may well be VERY distant in the view because I can't see any bounding box for the cloud.  Check its position; I bet you'll find it's far away.

At least I hope so.  Or I'll feel somewhat foolish!

 - Dex

Zoom your camera out with the scroll button. They can cover a large area. The opposite could also be happening... the cloud is far away. If you just did insert and everything is at 000 as stated then  the corner with manipulator on it would be right in front of you. Keep in mind the bounding boxes don't really show the full cloud coverage depending on what type of cloud you select. In other words that box could cover a huge area, but render a smaller cloud. Depends on your settings for the cloud type.

See this thread for the answer:

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2648527

Quote - Ah, if you're only seeing the arrows or the bounding box in one of your four views, your cloud may well have been placed way the heck off in one direction or other.  (This happens often if you drag an item into the perspective view window.

Select the item and set its location to 0, 0, 0 -- or at the center of the Carrara Universe.  Then you should be able to find it in all three views and position it where you like. 

In your picture posted above, it looks like your cloud may well be VERY distant in the view because I can't see any bounding box for the cloud.  Check its position; I bet you'll find it's far away.

At least I hope so.  Or I'll feel somewhat foolish!

 - Dex

I would set this bothersome cloud's position to 0, 0, 0, - if only I could find the location of the cloud's position settings... grrrrr!

Gawd this is driving me bananas!!!!

• Dex

I posted many answers to your problems 2 days ago, I wish you would read them. I explained why you clouds wouldn't show up.

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2648527

Quote - I posted many answers to your problems 2 days ago, I wish you would read them. I explained why you clouds wouldn't show up.

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2648527

Oh I did read it, just after posting my last reply in this thread, I thought I'd replied in that thread to your reply... but obviously I didn't.   Sorry for that. 

I think my only problem with what you did is that I have no idea HOW you did it - so seeing the picture of the scene hasn't really helped my frustration.  Hang on, I'll go take another look at the other thread - it was very late at night when I saw it & I probably felt too tired to reply at the time and went to bed.  I'm really sorry...

Quote - Maybe this image will help.  The position is viewable and adjustable in the properties pane.

• Dex

Thanks for that, I've now reset the centre point but I still can't see any cloud, Patrick is right, there must be an awful lot more wrong with it than just that.

At least I've learnt where the centre point is - even if it didn't work for me.

You had the volumetric cloud "opacity" set at 8.2 %, so it was basically invisible.

I loaded a preset called "fleecy" and it arrived in shot, see the 4 view image.

Why on earth can I NOT see it?

I don't know why, but in the properties box I can see that your cloud is only .02" tall. It is too tiny to see. The default size when you insert it is 20". Somehow it got resized way down.

Well, for some reason it appears to have entered your scene VERY SMALL!

Note the size in your four-up screen:  .19, .19, .02 inches.  Now, i'm not sure what the overall scale of your scene is, but it seems like that's pretty tiny.  The scale setting says that you're already at 185%, so try taking your scale up to 5,000%.  If you don't see it then, I don't know....

Did this file originate in another software package?  Sometimes that can cause strange scaling issues.

 - Dex

Oh!  I did't see that this had gone to a second page, and Patrick beat me to the punch on the size thing.  Hopefully that's the problem!

 - Dex

I've once more given up on that particular cloud as I tried changing that .02 size and it did nothing at all.

So I added a new volumetric cloud, and this is the result.

I GOT ONE!!!!

It's grey and thus looks totally different to the clouds in the sky, but at least the gawd darned thing is visible.....

I was beginning to think that my entire 30 days of the demo would involve this dratted cloud.

I'm fed up with that image now, so I'm moving on.  No idea why the first two didn't work - although Patrick got the first one working.

I'd like to thank you all for your help, and to move on to displaying models...

So I'll be looking at lighting and materials.

Ta ta, and thanks.