Another Carrara question

I have been working with Carrara since it was called "Ray Dream Studio" and made by Fractal Designs, Inc. I have a ton of RDS files now converted to CAR files, many of which I'd love to bring into SL - dozens of armor suits, whole avatars, props, vehicles, etc.

My question is - is there a tutorial that starts with "Open your Carrara ".car" file and then..."? I am looking for an easy way to bring these Carrara items into SL, but so far I can't find much on converting pre-existing CAR objects into SL. Has anybody actually taken any of their Carrara content - made with spline objects, mesh objects, boolean objects, etc - and successfully brought it into SL? If so, how?

Many thanks in advance, and many apologies if this is a stupid question. I'm a pro at Carrara/Ray Dream Studio, but I'm a total newb when it comes to Second Life. Thanks again.

Unfortunately so far we cannot easily bring objects inworld. There is one method that is a script used in conjunction with blender however unless it has changed since I looked at it last
it counted each face as a prim once you got it inworld.

The most recent innovation for people to work with more customized shapes is that of sculpted prims which will allow you with certain very specific limitations which vary from program to program to convert and export your 3d object as a baked rgb map which is then
uploaded into SL as a texture. SL created a new spot under the "object" tab inworld to input
sculpted prim maps which changes your normal prim into a "sculpted" one. Which will more or less resemble the object you created in your 3d app. The variance in quality is large depending on skill and technique and workflow which is why there are so many posts in here
about "sculpties".

As far as Car. files SL does not allow the direct import of any 3d object files. So your object would need to be converted in one of the ways described above. When I first started I also assumed that I would be able to bring my models in, but it is not the case.

I think I have heard of someone saying they could do a direct rgb bake in carrara that might work as a sculptie map. However this has not been confirmed to me yet.
I recently got a deal on Carrara 5 pro so now I am interested in that aspect myself.
However that deals with one of the technical aspects of sculpted prims.

All in all Sculpted prims are the hot ticket right now for affecting prim shapes in a custom manner.

my tutorial can be found on the sl wiki

I know I have been remiss in updating the broken files on the wiki, but you dont really need it to bake sculpties in Carrara successfully.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Hypatia_Callisto/Carrara_Sculpt_Baking

I still love Carrara for baking sculpties, though its got its own quirks (like anything) you actually do have a huge amount of control with the process.

Infiniview, just talk to Eleanora Newell (who works for Daz) and she can confirm it works. We've both got quite a catalog of work done with Carrara to bake sculpties. We've both used the process for a long time in Carrara, though both of us have migrated more to Modo recently.

a second note - no, spline objects, booleans will not work. You have to use a mesh with a perfect uvmapping. This is the case for *any* program - it is a restraint of sculpted prims. Need a hole in your mesh - use a torus

hint, if you have uvmapper pro you can just generate the obj file you need, without having to uvmap it.

Wow thanks Hypatia!

Great tutorial reminds me that I have not checked the wiki in a while. So if I understand correctly now you guys are baking in modo? Very Cool!