Missing Library Previews for XfrogPlants Volume 1 & Volume 2 TGO

[penboack]

Is it possible to get the Library to show previews for Xfrog objects automatically?
At present I find that only Xfrog objects that have been loaded into a project get a preview image for the .tgo files.

I have Xfrog Plants Volume 1 and Volume 2 in TGO format.

[jo]

Hi,

The Library tries to find Xfrog billboard files and use those for previews. It does this by looking in certain places. The problem is that when the billboards are in a place I wasn't able to tell it to look then it can't find them. My Xfrog Plants DVDs are packed away at the moment so I can't check to see what I have. Could you please take a screenshot of an Explorer/Finder window showing the folder structure for me and post it here? I've attached an image showing what I mean.

Regards,

Jo

[penboack]

Hi Jo,

In November 2012 I took advantage of one of Xfrog's sales and "upgraded" my XfrogPlants Volume 1 TGO format bundle to XfrogPlants Volume 1 and Volume 2 in a number of formats. I think the reason that Terragen 3 doesn't find the Billboards is that I reorganised the folder structure to eliminate the duplication of the XFR models, billboards, and perspectives which are supplied with each format in Volume 2, such as VUE or C4D. As the Billboards alone take up around 60 GB this saved a huge amount of disk space.

I don't have the original downloads, as I deleted them once I'd finished reorganising the library.

The reason I'm asking is that I've just got a new MBP with a 1TB SSD, which I'm setting up as a clean build. I've installed Terragen 3, but haven't copied over the XfrogPlant libraries yet, so I have an opportunity to tweak the library a little.

Overview
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Expanded View 2
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[jo]

Hi,

Thanks for that. Yes, the reason the billboards aren't found is because you've rearranged things. I'll think about some sort of manual scanning mode for the Xfrog billboards. That'll be useful if the folder structure from Xfrog changes down the track as well.

Regards,

Jo

[penboack]

Thanks Jo, that would be great.

Kindest Regards,

Charles

[penboack]

Hi Jo,

After some testing I have just reorganised my libraries so that each library folder contains sub-folders for "Models" and Billboards. The Terragen Library now produces preview images for most libraries, however, I ran into two issues.

1 When I scan the folder containing XfrogPlants Volumes 1 I am getting a repeatable crash. I have send you the OS X Console Crash Report by email.
2 XfrogPlants Volume 2 scans fine, but Terragen only generates previews for the models in the Oceania libraries, on closer inspection, there is a difference in the file naming of the billboards. In the Oceania libraries billboard files are named in the form "OC01_1_bill.tiff" in the libraries where Terragen does not produce a preview they are named in the form "FL41_Billboard_01.tiff"

Please could you have a look into this.

[penboack]

Work around for the crash when scanning images is described here:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,17708.0.html

In the case of the XfrogPlants Volume 2 Libraries where Terragen does not create previews I found that renaming the Billboard image files, using OS X Automator (you could use Terminal to do this if you prefer the Command Line), to be the same as the model files fixes the issue where the previews were not generated. Xfrog naming is a bit inconsistent!