You may remember this walk scene as the successful conclusion of "Pieces Flying Apart". I was working with it today, changing textures and I did a render. [CTRL_R] Nothing fancy. I got the render, and when I closed it out and went back to the Assembly Room, the work space was blank.

Up where the "Camera 1/Left/Right etc. views are listed. it said 'Rendering Failed'. With the Selection Arrow I could access the view menu. But as soon as I selected my new view and let the mouse button up, it went back to 'Rendering Failed', and the sceen remains blank in all views. [I'm assuming that the actual view changed. 'No way to tell.] I closed the model. When it asked if I wanted to save, I said 'no'[...hoping to restore it to its pristine original condition] Then I re-opened the model. Same thing. Blankness.

I opened and closed twice more. Now it just says "An unknown error has occurred upon opening".

And one more thing: when I tried to correct the feet on my "Porter", I couldn't get rid of the previous IK consraints. So I went to the back-up model [on a Zip disc]. When I tried to open that, it said "A not my type error has occurred'. "Not my type"? These errors are coming in a lot of flavors, but they're enough to cripple you on any project that requires several models being animated and working together over a period of time.

I suspect there's no work-around on these problems. My basic question is: I don't see other people posting questions on these errors. Is it just me that it's happening to? Or is it so common to Carrara that it's not worth commenting on?

I have had this same error on a file that had FAR too many items in the file. I started off by importing a dxf file of a building, then started adding tables, chairs, manaquins, etc, when after doing a test render, "Render Failed" came up. After re-booting the machine, (and saving the file,) I restarted C and opened the file to find the same error. AARRGGHH!!! So, I started all over agin, and as soon as I imported the dxf, I started elliminating all the empty groups, redundant groups, and other anomalies that had built up in the file. This time everything worked fine... on my PC. I also have a dual-1G Mac that I use for rendering, and as soon as the file opened in it, I had a "Render Failed" error again! AAARRGGGHHHHHH!!! I had to turn this file into a fly-through animation by morning, and compress it into an MPG AND upload it to my client.... oh yeah... and SLEEP! I went back to my PC, dropped the frame rate to 15 instead of 30, started rendering, set my alarm for VERY early, and went to sleep. Everything worked fine on my laptop, the client was happy, and I was a little bleary-eyed, but (sorta) happy. So, I hope my tale of woe helps you, in that you now know that... you are NOT alone. Murphy is ALLWAYS over your shoulder, waiting to strike fear, mayhem, and lack of sleep into ALL of our lives. ;>

bluetone: Your tale of woe warmed my heart, even as I was stricken by your anguish.[LOL] Your case was, by far, the worst. You had a client waiting in the wings. In the morning. Yet, the 'far too many items' scarcely applies here. There is nothing more in the model than what you can see. Still, the "AAARRRRRRGGHHHHH...!!" does ring a familiar bell.

Ah well, I guess that, large or small file, it's just Carrara. I assume, from various comments, that C. is relatively new, and I guess there is much to iron out. And I must say that since what we are building on the screen is nothing more than a matrix of electro-static charges reading '1' and '0', it's amazing that anything can happen right.

Your parting shot is dead-on: Murphy is always there. I'd go so far as to say:MURPHY RULES!

BTW, did you know that Murphy really existed? He's a real person?

Actually, C is a bunch of diferent orphaned programs shooved together to make one, sooo, I guess we are lucky that anything comes out at all! LOL I have created quite a few pieces for people that have actually PAID me for the pleasure, so I'm even MORE surprised! :> I haven't done much with the new bones features, and only have done some experiments with the GI renderer. But, when I get the time (?) I am promising myself a mini-movie for myself. Now all I need, is a script... (BG) Thanks for the reminder, I had heard that Murphy existed, but I can't recall the story behind him. Take care.

Carrara is a bunch of programs? I thought it was basically RayDream 6.0, or 7.0. What else got thrown into the pot?

I have the whole Murphy story written down somewhere in one of my journals, but off the top of my head, it goes something like this:

Somewhere in the 50's, or early 60's, there was an Air Force Colonel named Pruitt. He undertook a series of 'Deceleration Tests' for medical research. [I think it had something to do with bailing out of a jet at high speeds] It involved him riding a rocket-powered sled, on rails, that would decelerate sharply when it crossed a water bath. Major Robert Murphy was his engineering officer. [I think I'm getting the ranks right.] Now, this was in the days before digital read-outs. Pruitt, while decelerating from 500+mph to 0mph had to read a series of gauges in front of him, and then write down the figures when at full stop. On the last run of the series, Pruitt failed to notice in time that some technician had installed the gauges facing AWAY from him. When he told Murphy about it, Murphy just shook his head, laughed, and said: "If there's two ways to do something, and one of them will lead to disaster, somebody will choose disaster". A few weeks later, Pruitt was at a press conference, and it was there that he told the story. quoting Murphy in the now-famous version: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Within months, aerospace companies embraced the term and were touting their wares as being immune to Murphy's Law. Thus Murphy entered the language.

Infini-D is 1 I think, and Strata-Pro as well as RayDream. Thanks on the Murphy info. That sounds like you have it right to me. LOL. Imagine being the dufus who put the gauges in backwards?! I'll bet he was stationed in Alaska during the winter, and Honduras during the summer for a few years!!