"Show Folder Thumbnails" in P11/P12 - how to get it to work?

[Electro-harpist]

I've never been able to get this Library feature to work in Poser 11. That's been true of Poser 11 on different PCs, and on different Windows versions.

Now I find that the new Poser 12 has the same problem. I tick "Show Folder Thumbnails" at the foot of the Library panel. I search. But there are no pictures on the folder thumbnails on the search results, just dark folder icons. Other search result items show up normally, with pictures. There are pictures/items in the folders, they're not empty.

Is there a fix or workaround for this problem? Or is it a known bug?

 

[Miss B]

It's not a bug, that's how it works. If you uncheck that option, you won't see any thumbnails for any of your folders.

For those folders where you don't see any when it is checked, that's because that folder only has subfolders in it, so there's no Poser thumbnail to show.

Hope that helps.

 

[Electro-harpist]

Thanks. Now I'm confused. Possibly because you're using Poser 2014, which according to its manual does indeed act as you've described. Or.... it does if the user is not using 2014's external Air Library. I find the Air Library automatically adds a mini-thumbnail to each folder icon in the search-results - based on the first PNG found inside the folder.

However, the current Poser manual says that folders in search results should have a small icon on each. If the folder has content inside: "Show Folder Thumbnails: When checked, a thumbnail of the first item in the selected folder will appear on the folder."

This expected behaviour is what I'm not seeing, in either Poser 11 or 12.

 

[Miss B]

No, I've never had Poser 2014. I went from Poser 9 to Poser 11, and now I also have Poser 12.

That said, however, I AM using the External Library in my browser with Poser 11 and 12, as I get the use of my whole laptop monitor for the Library, which makes it so much easier to find things in a very full folder.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[Electro-harpist]

That's ok. Thanks for trying. My current guess is that having mini-thumbnails on folder icons will be a Poser 12 thing, but is something that has not yet been implemented.

Incidentally your ability to put an External Library panel on your laptop is interesting. I understood from Charles Taylor that, in Poser 11 and 12, the Poser Library panel could not be dragged/moved outside of the main Poser software frame (as 2014's external Air Library could be). He expressed his regrets about that to the audience, in the official Poser 12 launch webinar.

But it seems he was wrong (though perhaps right at the time, since that was a few years ago now). I've just tested it. With both monitors on and "Extend These Displays", the panel can indeed by detached, dragged across and placed over on a second monitor. Great news, thanks.

 

[Miss B]

Oh, I didn't "drag" it to my browser. There are specific instructions how to set it up. You can view it in this thread from 2017:

Setting Up External Library

It works for both Poser 11 and Poser 12. The only difference is, if you're working in Poser 12, both Runtimes are available, whereas for Poser 11, only the Poser 11 Runtime will show up. All I did was save the URL it created in my browser as a bookmark I wanted to save. Then I just click on it each time I want to use it. Ohhh, and you CAN drag something from the Library to Poser to conform it to a figure, but I'm not sure if that works with a dual monitor setup if that's what you have. I only have the one monitor and checked it out to see, and it works. I don't use that for my workflow, but some folks do.

 

[Electro-harpist]

Thanks. Fascinating, so the library can also display in a web browser! I never knew that.

However, I think that may no longer be needed, at least on Windows. Since I find that the panel can now be detached, dragged and located somewhere outside of Poser's main app frame. Even on another monitor. Not sure if that's possible on Macs or newer Windows OS's, though.

Dragging and dropping over to Poser 12 from a Library on a second monitor works on Windows. I confirmed this with tests with the Poser 11 Library, the 2014 AIR External Library, and PzDB.

Indeed - given that Poser's native library can't yet show mini-thumbnails on folders - I now intend to run 2014's AIR External Library and PzDB side by side on a smaller widescreen second-monitor. Using AIR mostly for the directory browsing, and PzDB for the search. AIR has the advantage of showing mini-thumbnails on folders, and PzDB has the advantage of just showing everything (no folders). Both are very fast.

 

[Miss B]

OK, I don't usually "search" in my runtimes, so that's definitely interesting. BTW, what is PzDB?

Oh and the Library only shows up ready to be used IF you have either Poser 11 or Poser 12 up and running. It won't work if you just want to look for something, and you don't have a version of Poser open.

 

[Electro-harpist]

PzDB was the best and quickest solution for searching very large Poser and Daz (and Carrara, Vue) runtimes. Search results shows everything at a glance, by ignoring the clunky concept of 'folders' with hidden contents. Such a view greatly helps creative mixing of items that might not otherwise seem to fit together. No longer sold. It went off sale about a year ago now. But it still works, for those lucky enough to have purchased it. It needs to launch with internet access and then checks a server for a valid serial number, so it may not last forever. If the server dies, it's gone.

 

[Electro-harpist]

For those without PzDB, the closest thing is the standalone freeware Advanced Library for Poser at 1.9.2 at Advanced Library for Poser - and still working for me on Windows.

It takes a bit of initial manual setup - follow the instructions at Advanced Library for Poser - but then works well for search and is actually the quickest of the bunch. What it's unable to do is then drag and drop to Poser. It used the old and very defunct 'script listener' PRPC method. So it can only be used for search.

Method:

1. Keyword search in the tiny box in the bottom-left.
2. Instant results. Right-click on any result.
3. Filter by type, if required.
4. Memorise the item's name, right-click on the item, "more / explore folder...".
5. Then try to find the required item in Windows Explorer. It is not automatically highlighted by Advanced Library.

As you can see, 4 and 5 are not ideal.

It is standalone, so does not require Poser to be launched. And free. And works like PzDB - shows everything, ignores the concept of folders. Worth a look for those who do a lot of keyword searching.

 

[Miss B]

OK, I've not heard of either of them, but thanks for listing them, as others who see it might be interested in the Advanced Library For Poser.

 

[DanaTA]

What about Shaderworks Library Manager? I have Poser 11 Pro. will it work for that? Is it worth it? The version I have says P9 Beta. Hmmm...beta.

Dana

 

[Miss B]

I "think" I used that with Poser 9, so not sure if it would work with P11 or P12.

 

[Electro-harpist]

Dana, Shaderworks Library Manager is no longer sold or available. I tested and found:

It definitely doesn't work in Poser 12, and probably no-one will ever fix it for Poser 12.

It does work in Poser 11 with the free AVfix version-fix from the Dutch Poser users, but it regularly throws occasional errors when in use. Not fatal ones, so it's actually kind of usable in 11, but I thought it not a great choice for daily use. The UI and navigation are also unfriendly, unless perhaps you're someone who still has the 2000s-era muscle-memory for all the moves it needed.

It works in Poser 2014, which is to be expected. But it was very unstable there for me. I don't think that instability was because I was using an 11 version in 2014. There was no version for Poser 11, as far as I know.