When Eovia was running things with Antoine Clappier as CEO (not that later guy from Adobe who was only in it for himself before moving on), what was the sense that you people got as far as what direction Eovia was going?  VectorStyle had just come out for Flash movies. And Carrara scenes could be exported in VET (Viewpoint) format and viewed online with a free license key by others without a watermark.

For me, the only reason to use Carrara is its ability to access Poser content and animate it with more advanced features than can be found in Poser. I already have superior modelers, particles, animation, texturing and landscape programs, but most of these cannot use Poser content with the flexibility and ease of Carrara.

I’m trying to learn to animate. I’ll eventually have my own content weight mapped, rigged and ready for animation in Lightwave, but animating ready-made content in Carrara is a good way to learn the basics of animation.

People do best with the program they are most comfortable with, but Blender, a free program, is actually superior to Carrara in functionality. It even has fluid dynamics and cloth, not to mention modeling layers (something I find it hard to function without.)

Klebnor

Quote - ...

  Providing boxes and manuals is a high cost strategy in an age where electronic delivery of software is accelerating, and the marginal unit cost of delivery approaches zero.  This choice is up to the manufacturer.  I personally do not want to pay for a manual which will sit on a shelf (when a searchable PDF is available), nor do I want precious financial resources spent on such production, printing, handling and mailing.

Valid points about the cost.
NON-valid point about the "Choice".

YOU  don't want to pay for a manual. That's YOUR choice.
I TOO want a choice. That's all I asked for.

They can charge me more, and I'll pay it, or they can CHOOSE not to.

WE all have choices. If I can't live with theirs.
They can live without mine.

No hard copy...no sale.

Well I would let DAZ know your thoughts.

so apparently this means that some users actually read the manual.
just having it there sitting on the shelf ain't the same as actually using the program.
anyway, it's quicker just to ask in one of these forums than to read the manual,
as shown by many of the threads here AFAICT.  daz has no plans to sell carrara
to any other company AFAIK.  their whole strategy involves competing with
poser 7/8 and its late-90s renderer (FFRender).

I must admit, I didn't find eovia until later on with C5, which interested me for the Poser import. If there was some eovia 'golden age', that wasn't it. The Poser import bugs didn't get all get sorted and as for my investment into modeling with Hexagon - a great program but plenty of bugs that weren't addressed until the next version (particularly that interface!).

I'm not a DAZ fan boy and I'll agree that there were C6 bugs that shouldn't have been left until the next version. However, I don't think they've done badly either. As for the suggestions that their development in content orientated, well no. Granted, C6 saw some big improvements for Poser import - by fixing the C5 version of it! However, there were plenty of other additions in C6 and just  how many new features in C7 do you see for content import? C7 doesn't seem to have been a content user update at all.

Sure, I like a paper manual but then I'm not going to pay postage from the States for one, or get clobbered with import tax on getting a boxed version sent to me or wait until I might be able to buy in the UK. That's life but its not going to ruin the software for me.

Good points, Philebus.  In the US, physical delivery is a given.  I will never forget going to the Zollamt at the Franfurt airport several years ago to pick up a graphics card ordered from a US vendor which was being held for ransom.  They advised me that the duty was 400 DM (yes, there were still DM then).  The card cost about 500 DM.  lol.

Klebnor von der zollabteilung

"...just how many new features in C7 do you see for content import?" 

I suspect some work went on under the hood because C7 seems able to open Poser 7 files with a greater degree of sucess than C6.

I'm sure that Poser import improved but my point was that the substantial new features I have in Pro are not at all aimed at importing Poser content.

Having said that, the ability to use this content is a benefit to Carrara, it attracts more users (such as myself), who often go on to explore the wider potential (such as myself), and it brings money in for further development. After all, there is only so much to be done for the import alone, everything else is good for all users.

I'm hoping that one day Carrara's developers will realize that would be really useful to include open-ended dials that you could pull with your mouse. Having to type in the parameters exceeding the UI dial-limit might be traditional but it can be less than convenient.

 well, I stayed out of this for some time, but i got to say.. I hate PDF manuals.. not because they are hard to read ( which they are) but because I don't like having to bounce back and forth between many windows....

for a simple one line answer.. sure they are fine. but most of the time I need the manual there are many steps to the process I'm trying to learn/remember... do a step... bounce windows... read... do a step... bounce windows....read......AHHHHHHH !!!!

if I have a hard copy I can just work along with it and do each step with out all the window flopping!! also trying to find settings can be annoying because something might be in a diff window/palette than you are looking at.

I really want a manual!!  though I find Carrara's is way out dated.  the after market manuals always seems better!!

any one written one yet?

Like several of the big packages that only come with PDF manuals I take it and have a one off printed and bound for me.  Wasn't too costly and I have a printed manual and I had them put in extra large binding rings/spirals.  Yeah the Carrara manual isn't so much on the teaching, just this is tool X here is how it works.  I have Carrara 5 Pro Handbook and I learned alot more , I also have Mark Bremmers VTC tutorial set and those are great.  Though I like to have 2 monitors hooked up for doing that as I want to do as he shows.  I would suggest a video DVD but then resolution would be a problem.  

Quote - Like several of the big packages that only come with PDF manuals I take it and have a one off printed and bound for me.  Wasn't too costly and I have a printed manual and I had them put in extra large binding rings/spirals.  Yeah the Carrara manual isn't so much on the teaching, just this is tool X here is how it works.  I have Carrara 5 Pro Handbook and I learned alot more , I also have Mark Bremmers VTC tutorial set and those are great.  Though I like to have 2 monitors hooked up for doing that as I want to do as he shows.  I would suggest a video DVD but then resolution would be a problem.  

ya I have carrara 5 pro handbook too.. just wish someone would update.. I also use 2 screens but I use the 2nd one for all my palettes.  I have also tried the VTC and it's very good... but a little costly.. I do go there and just get a month now and then and try and stuff as much learning into my brain as i can in that month.  Did it a lot for Hexagon over there..... just wish that was stable on the macs because it is by far my favorite modeling program, just WAY to buggy to get anything done.

Make sure you have the version 7 guide.  For whatever reason, the old version 6 guide was distributed with early downloads of C7 (this may be updated by now).  To get the new guide, you have to go to DAZ3d.com > Support > DAZ Wiki > Software Guides > Carrara.   Scroll down to Carrara 7 Userguide.  This is the new, re-written version.

Klebnor

Quote - Make sure you have the version 7 guide.  For whatever reason, the old version 6 guide was distributed with early downloads of C7 (this may be updated by now).  To get the new guide, you have to go to DAZ3d.com > Support > DAZ Wiki > Software Guides > Carrara.   Scroll down to Carrara 7 Userguide.  This is the new, re-written version.

Klebnor

thanks for that.. I was wondering about some of it... i always take a quick glance at the PDF file with the new versions and try and get a fast reference of new features but i didn't see anything right off, didn't really have the time to look further into it.