April 21, 2010 - P3dO 2.3 released

Happy Birthday P3dO.
Ten years, it has been ten years since I started a project whose code name was P3dO: Poser 3D Object Explorer.
What an amount of work since that cold February 2000 morning when I decided to do something, being unable to work with Poser properly. And on April 21st 2000 P3dO 1.0 was uploaded at Renderosity.

Most of the initial goals have been reached with 2.0 in 2008 and I have new objectives for 3.0. And so goes the life.
What's next ? P3dO 2010 - 2020 ? You can bet on it.


The list of features added since 2.2.5:

Poser Multi Runtime search in Find dialog.
Poser 3D viewer & InDepth tree now have support for external Runtimes.
Carrara thumbnails editor is a unique feature to allow Carrara thumbnails customization.
New Daz Studio formats added: DAZ, DS, DSA, DSB, DSE, DSX, DSI
Thumbnails Print improved. You can send Print complete directories to your Printer (or PDF Printer).
Repository improved with better navigation.
Awk 2.3: Directory manager improved. Unkown Poser references are grayed and Files in other Runtimes are not selected.
PoserPython 2.3: with Add to Poser Library button
Librarian 2.3: several bug fix and new references added to the scan
ZIP shell context menu: right click a ZIP and get your system context menu
Poser Folders assistant: will help configure Poser paths in P3dO. No need to manually look for LibraryPrefs.xml anymore.
Metafile viewer updated
Extension block & Stretch thumbnails options. 2 useful options to see large Poser thumbnails and visualy detect files in wrong Category.
3D animation fast forward button: speed x4 if you hold down shift or control button at the same time.
Tips of the Day dialog has been reviewed with new and updated Tips. Please read them to learn useful Tips.
Fixed 2.2.8 bug: Poser thumbnails not saved

And as usual many other improvements and bug fix (did I say a lot of bugs :), New icons, Redesigned Toolbars and Docking Toolbars.

This feature fills the gap with recent Poser versions.
The search is smooth and progressive. That is you can begin to work with the result set even if the search is not completed.
I got greatly inspired by the Search dialog and I have other plans for it. So prepare for more features coming with the May and June updates.

Give your Carrara scenes the definite touch by editing the thumbnail. This is a unique exclusive feature by P3dO.
You may change the image with the image editor, add pictures to a blank CBR, convert 64x64 thumbs to 86x64, compress/uncompress Carrara files.
Carrara is as important to us as Poser. More features are coming (soon too).

This is something I wanted to do for long.
This very useful feature allow to manage ZIP files the same way as Windows Explorer.
P3dO was a ZIP viewer, it is now also a ZIP manager.

This year we are uploading a P3dO update every month.
There will be a major Release every 6 months as usual and a monthly update with latest new features.
The automatic updates notification modules has been modified and you may configure it to be fired for monthly updates or just for major releases.
At any rate we highly recommend that you activate P3dO Updates module.
We also opened a Twitter blog to keep you informed of latests news, schedules and bug fix.

April 15, 2010 - P3dO is 10 today !

On April 15th 2000 P3dO alpha was first uploaded at Renderosity. The project was born on a cold February Saturday morning when I got bored with Poser library - see what I mean :)
A beta 2 days later and P3dO 1.0 was uploaded on April 21st.

To commemorate this event, P3dO 2.3 will be uploaded here on April 21st.
2.3 is 2.2.8 with multi-Runtime search, ZIP shell context menu and updated Awk Runtime manager plugin.

We also have an exceptionnal birthday limited time offer:
P3dO pro for 20$ instead of 26$ (for purchases made on this website).
This is a real gift, go get your P3dO pro license.
Offer expires on May 10.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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 regular 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.

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

New 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