A little "Ah ha!" moment...

Maybe everyone else already knows this, but I'll share my experience, just in case.
(I should make a video tutorial out of this, and a couple other things I've gotten better at.)

I was bothered by what appeared to be an inconsistent locking of the "Shader Type" (Classic/PBR) drop-down list.

It would often be grayed-out, and I blamed it on a number of things, but could not duplicate it reliably for reporting in FeedBack Tracker.
> Was certain clothing?  Nope.
> The "Clear/Keep" option that was at the root of a bug I found?  Nope.
> Skin?  Nope.
> Certain PBR Substances?  Nope.
>  What, and when, and why was this happening?

I finally figured it out.  The "Shader Type" cannot be changed when the Appearance Editor is opened.
I guess that makes sense.


STEPS:
1) Start with a default project, like "Base Female"
2) Select something, like the dress (
3) In the MODIFY panel, APPEARANCE tab, do NOT click the "Activate Appearance Editor" button yet. (Fig 1)
4) In the MATERIAL tab, notice the Shader types "Classic/PBR" are available... leave in on Classic (Fig 2)
5) Back in the Appearance tab, apply a Substance to the dress... but you don't see the change yet... (Fig 3)
6) To see the substance you just added, you have to click the "Activate Appearance Editor"... click it now (use the "Keep" option) (Fig 4)
>>> That is why I would often activate the appearance editor - so I could see my newly added Substance
7) Go to the Material tab again... the Shader Type drop-down is grayed-out and non-selectable (Fig 5)
>>> I would wonder what's wrong... why can't I use the PBR shader on this Substance?
8) Return to the Appearance tab, and "Unload Appearance Editor" (Fig 6)
9) Go to the Material tab again... you can now change Shader Type from "Classic" to "PBR" (Fig 7 and Fig 8)


LESSON LEARNED - Version 1:
a) Load PBR Substance in the Appearance tab
b) Immediately go to the Material tab and check the Shader Type (and change it if you plan to use the other shader)
c) Go back to the Appearance tab, and THEN finally Activate Appearance Editor to see your new material and begin working with it.
 
<<<  OR  >>>

LESSONE LEARNED - Version 2:
a) Load PBR Substance in the Appearance tab
b) Immediately Activate and Unload the Apperance Editor to "activate" your newly loaded substance
c) Now you can go to the Material tab and change Shader Type (if you wish) and continue on with your material edits


Fig 1


Fig 2


Fig 3


Fig 4


Fig5


Fig 6


Fig 7


Fig 8

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

it seems my test is over :satisfied:
At the moment CC is for me only waste of time
Why had it worked in the 1. beta version ,  but  now I have only trouble  ?
For me importing  a Dress, feels like a gambling not like a creation tool. 
The result of bind mesh with Maya excactly like the whitepaper description



And this with aditional copy weights


also in Maya a get a strange messages

That Mesh is UV mapped. I have also try with delete the history in maya , I'm on the first Keyframe . I have so many tested I have no Idea more what do I wrong


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liebe Grüße vidi

meet us here

I just had an issue with a pack in the Marketplace that has both CC 1.5 and CC 2.0 cloth, I am assuming the buyer doesn't have the beta. When attempting to install, it prompted him to install CC. I'm still waiting on confirmation about the details of his system, but it seems to me there may be some issue distributing packs that contain both PBR and non-PBR files. 

This is my item:

http://city.reallusion.com/ContentPreview.aspx?i=JCCdcd130aa7e32a8445

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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

Hey Vidi,

I'm having a similar issue trying to get Blender files to import now, I receive the error "missing the designated mesh"  I just tried the 1.5 version and am now having the same issue there as well. Older stuff that I created and set up in Blender still can import from their FBX rigs, so I am not sure what the heck is going on. As far as I can tell, everything is parented and weight mapped ok. I'm at a loss as to what is wrong. BUT, that being said, I can import into CC 2.0 with what had worked previously, so I'm thinking it is my own error. I don't have a damn clue right now why, but I'm going with that and try to figure it out inside Blender. 





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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

Check mesh and material names in Blender. Sometimes numbers get appended to the names. That will make everything fail.

And I think I figured out my issue: somehow I got a subsurf modifier added to the Base.fbx rig, I must have hit a smoothing hotkey, not seeing that it was selected. Once I resolved the error in Blender, the cloth comes in just fine to 2.0. I do wish we could just do the weight mapping and attaching inside CC and make it simple for everyone across different modelling platforms, let us just import OBJs and be done with the compatability issues. Maybe one day, CC 3.0 perhaps? I just dream of something like Sculptris being part of the CC feature set. Until then, much of the character creation will have to be done elsewhere.

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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

I hope it will get all integrated too. That would be very nice.

One huge feature request of mine, maybe minor to many, but still: please allow us to define a default .fbxkey file so we don't have to choose it every time we import something. It just doesn't serve much purpose to have us select the same exact thing again and again. 

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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

Submitted an enhancement request.

Issue #1980:  http://www.reallusion.com/FeedBackTracker/Issue/Request-easy-way-to-SET-DEFAULT-PROJECT-same-as-in-iClone

It would be nice and convenient if it was as easy to set the DEFAULT PROJECT in Character Creator as it is in iClone.

I am attaching a picture from iClone 6.53:

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD