I work in an office where we’re now using blender for interiors modeling and rendering. Here’s the problem: Blender works great when the files are somewhere on our desktop. However, once the files are placed on our server, they cannot be opened or shared, and blender has no way to search the path to the server. In fact, if we save the files to the server and try to open them from the server, blender simply crashes. Is there a way to have blender include a search path to the server without this problem? FYI, we use Macs.
i use mapped drives on XP. dunno what the equivalent is, but you define a drive letter like Y: to point to [\server\folder\folder\subfolder\yetanothersubfolder](file://\server\folder\folder\subfolder\yetanothersubfolder) and then in blender you see the Y: drive just like C:
Now, the only caveat is that you have to refresh the mapping by clicking on the drive when you log into the network to prime the pump for XP, then it verifies connection and gets the folder list. if you do that, that drive letter is available to all apps, even Blender.
Thanks for your response, but does anyone know how this is done on Macs? the server does not show as an option from blender, even when I’ve logged onto the server and an icon is visible on the desktop.
Well if all else fails, if your server icon is appearing and you are able to copy files from it to your desktop or other folder(s), create a local folder, copy the files to and from the server <-> your local machine, then open the (local) file in Blender, save it locally and copy it back to the server using the Mac’s desktop/ O.S. tools.
What Mac O.S. are you running?
I run WinXP and I’m not familiar with how Mac OS’s networking works.
Does the Mac use “mapped” drives for networking? (I.E. assigning a drive letter "D, E. … etc)
See my attached picture, what do you get when you click on the double arrows in the Blender file dialog header? That is where your network drives will appear if Blender is recognizing them. If they don’t show up there, then the “manual copy” procedure I described is what you’ll have to use.
I saved a file to my server and then accessed it. When you select File>Open (F1), the top 2 entries should be dot and dot-dot. .
…
Click the dot-dot until you see Volumes, click Volumes… this is when I see my network server attached… and then can find my file to work with in Blender.
