Little library browser trick that could save a lot of clicking

[FC1888]

As it is, if you have a lot of libraries, from say Evermotion etc.. You have a main folder in the library for each collection, inside of which is a folder for that volume. So you have to open the main folder, then open the volume to see all the plants etc.

Now say you have 10 folders Evermotion 01 to 10, inside of which you have folders for volumes 01 to 10. HOWEVER, you cannot rename the main folder YELLOW within the library, but can rename the folder GREEN.

So you go to preferences, rename Evermotion 01 to Evermotion plants. Back in the library, you now have Evermotion Plants, Evermotion 02, Evermition 03 etc

You can now drag all of the library folders from volumes 02 to 10, into the single Evermotion Plants folder. and you only have to open a single main folder to see all the libraries

So you can go from

Evermotion 01 > Volume 01
Evermotion 02 > Volume 02
Evermotion 03 > Volume 03
Evermotion 04 > Volume 04
Evermotion 05 > Volume 05
Evermotion 06 > Volume 06
Evermotion 07 > Volume 07
Evermotion 08 > Volume 08

to

Evermotion plants > volume 01, volume 02, volume 03, volume 04, volume 05, volume 06, volume 07 and volume 08


One more thing. In FP7, the libraries supplied with Forest Pack, lets say the PRESETS libraries. If you had the PRESETS folder selected, each volume inside of it, would have an image, Gravel, Lawns, Layered Lawns etc. In FP7, al but two have an image.. Leaves and Stones have a book icon.. in the 3D Folder, only Flowers ad Grass have a preview image, the other two are book icons... Not a massive problem I know, but could you fix it for when the library gets updated, with the new libraries that are coming soon

Oh and is it possible to easily create a preview image for user libraries

[Rokas]

I am not sure I understand. I think You did some strange library linking.
I think everyone just links the parent Folder with child subfolders in ForestBrowser in the first place, like this:


Maybe I did not understand what You meant to write.

Regading other notes- they are pending to be fixed. Thanks.

[FC1888]

Hi Rokas

To try to explain it better, say you have 10 libraries of planets from say Mextrees. Each comes with notes on how to install them. So if you install each library, you end up with 10 folders Yellow, each containing one library folder Green, so if you want to open a library, you open the yellow folder, then the green one.

My tip is using drag and drop, to move al the green library folders, into the ONE yellow folder, as shown in your example. So now when you want to open a library, you only have to open the one yellow folder, which contains al of the green folders, saving on clicks... I know it's not really much of workflow improvement, but when you want to view what items you have, when you have dozens of libraries, having to open a dozen yellow top folders, to then open each of the actually library folders, can get tiresome.

That said, I cannot wait to see a full tutorial on how this new library browser works, as so far I have added some small groups of plants, that I use in almost all my exteriors, which really helps. Otherwise I have to load in a huge file of plants, many of which I might not use, or I convert them all to V-ray proxies or I have to locate each one of them, on whatever drive they are stored on. So this very fast way of creating a library, buy loading all the objects into max, selecting them all and getting the library browser to generate the library, and thumbnails, is so much quicker.. and now if I want a particular plant, in my scene, from that small collection of plants I use most often, I just choose that library, choose the plant(s) job done

As for the rest, I am sure there are plenty of fixes and a few bugs to iron out, as we al know it is a beta, but so far, I have yet to encounter any problems serious enough to revert back to FP6

Cheers

Andy