News » P3dO Explorer 2.2.8

March 25 2010 - 2.2.8 pro March

Here comes March stuff for 2.2.8.
Contrarily to what was announced last month not yet 2.3. 2.3 asap once I have completed Poser search.

Thumbnails Print
You may now Print a whole directory at once.
This is the so called "Catalog Print" which has been delayed so many times.
If have a lot of ideas for the Catalog, just a matter of priority. But expect more to come.

Search dialog improved
Even if I didn't complete Poser search (it is here already but not finished :), I fixed a number of Search dialog oddities and it is now much more handy to use.
Among those I added a "Find" command on context menu so that you may call the search on any directory directly.

Repository Navigation history
I added back/forward navigation buttons. The navigation Span over various Repository domains (Temporary storage aka Repository, Project Manager, Favorites, compare directories,... » read here for more details).
This to say that thank to the navigation buttons you may use the Repository as is then back to the directory you were working on. Cute.

Senosoft news vs Twitter blog
The Repository was born at the same time as the Search dialog (P3dO pro 2.2). Since then it has been improved in 2.2.5 and earlier 2.2.8.
As well I didn't say a word about the Poser and Carrara Libraries navigation buttons I added recently on the Folders toolbar (practicle for navigating Poser & Carrara Runtimes).
And didn't mention that Plugins are now showing icons on InDepth and Folders toolbar (very handy too).
This to say the news just focus on some new/handy features but P3dO is rich and under constant evolution.
This is why I felt there was the need for a blog. So I opened a Twitter blog that I will update frequently with P3dO news (updates, bug fix, schedules,...).
To get a complete overview of P3dO updates information, you should read this page.

Next update will be 2.3 which is nothing more than 2.2.8 renamed to 2.3.
I mainly have the Poser search to complete for 2.3, the rest if any will be bonus.
2.3 is also P3dO's 10th birthday update. Please spread the information.
P3dO 1.0 was uploaded on April 21st 2000. Then guess when is 2.3 upload date ?
In fact, It should be much early on this website since April 21st is Renderosity.com uplodad date.

February 26 2010 - 2.2.8 pro February

Here are the features added in february:

Carrara thumbnails editor
This one completes last December's update. It is now possible to add a thumbnail to any Carrara file, including those who don't have any.

PoserPython: Add to Poser Library button
This is actually Poser's Library Save button, it will allow you to Save Poser content in P3dO (much more handy than with Poser).
This facility is available for long with PoserPython plugin but it is in File menu. So I placed a button on InDepth toolbar for easier access.
note: in order to save a Material with this button you have to be in Poser's Material room. The same with Poser btw.

An option to Stretch thumbs
On modern computers people tend to use larger cell size then sometimes the original picture is smaller than the cell itself.
This new Thumbnail layout option will stretch those thumbnails and you'll see how great your Poser and Carrara thumbnails look at 256x256 display.

Updated Metafile viewer
Somedoby reported that some Metafiles failed (the render was blank), so I decided to rewrite the loader. This new one is faster and like the other viewers is able to show Zipped Metafiles.

More Updates notifications
The updates notifier has been modified to send a notification for all the updates instead of just major releases.
For example current system did send a notification in October (2.2.5) and will send another in March (2.3). You may now ask for all updates and then you would also have been warned for all three 2.2.8 updates.
Look in Options dialog, "P3dO Online" tab to activate this.

Next update in about one month.

January 22 2010 - 2.2.8 pro January

Another 2.2.8 update, focusing on Daz Studio. I am working a lot of Daz formats those days: Carrara, Hexagon and now Daz Studio.
More is coming.

Daz Studio formats association
I updated file thumbnails association and PoserPython for the following formats: .DAZ, .DS, .DSA, .DSB, .DSE, .DSX. Working like it does for Poser.
I also wrote a viewer for Daz Studio Layered Image (.DSI) file format: thumbnail and Layers list but not the actual DSI image.
Daz Studio format information and advices provided by aRtBee www.artbeeweb.nl.
I also fixed a problem with Daz Studio 3 Runtimes.

Poser Folders Assistant
As you may know, since Poser 5, LibraryPrefs.xml is the parameter file for Poser Runtimes.
Though it is very important to tell P3dO where that file is.
For various reasons that file is difficult to find manually and finding it dynamically is hazardous.
So I wrote and assistant wizard (Assistant menu and Options dialog) that will look for that file on your HD and configure P3dO automatically.
Use it if your Runtimes list is not correct.

One update per month in 2010
I released 2.2.8 on Christmas because of Christmas but the version was far from complete. And I still have a lot to do before completion.
I also decided to change the way I release versions this year.
I will release updates more often (once a month) with ongoing work. 2.2.8 will be released in April under the name 2.3, while there will be intermediary updates in February and March.
This way I hope to save time on full release uploads which take too much time.
The other reason is that April is a major rendez-vous: it will be P3dO's 10th birthday.

December 26 2009 - P3dO 2.2.8 pro beta

Here is the now traditionnal P3dO Christmas update.
This is only a beta since some features are still under development for the final 2.2.8 to come (early January).

Edit Carrara thumbnails Open Carrara pictures with P3dO's editor and customize your stuff. P3dO's editor has no other feature than Copy - Paste - Save, you will customize the picture in your favorite picture editor and P3dO will do the rest.
Editor's limits - At the moment it is not possible to add a picture to a file without any (coming with final 2.2.8), CBR pictures may be saved at 86x64 dimension but are only 64x64 in Carrara browser.

Librarian update many changes in Librarian. I fixed bugs and improved this fast Poser libraries reference checker. This version will check even more References.

Extension block option in thumbnail view. File's extension will show as a colored block at the top right of each cell in the grid.

The UI has been freshened a bit, I have not finished with this yet but the new Toolbars design is cute.

This update has been prepared for Christmas. I will upload another update next week. Final release in 2/3 weeks. Some more features are coming.

Merry Christmas