[SOLVED] Designer - Latest 2019 - SBAR files don't open

[VFXTobias]

Hi guys,

I just installed Designer and noticed that whenever I try to open an SBAR file that I cannot display the graph or see any results in the 3D view.  I've tried about a dozen files from Substance Source and nothing works.  I'm guessing there's something really obvious I'm missing.

I do see the SBAR loaded in the Explorer but when I double click on the network child nothing opens up.

Help appreciated.

Win 10 Pro 64 Bit - 64Gig Ram - i7 4.# ghz

p.s.  Found this in the error log despite that a valid license is reported in the Help -Manage Licenses window. Not sure if that is related.

"[WRN][1957][News]Dictionary variable 'license[softwareVersion]' not found"

***UPDATE

Disregard most of this....I think.  I realized that I needed to open SBS files for the most part but the odd thing is that some SBAR files opened just fine so I don't know if there's still an issue in general.  It's been a while since I've looked at Substance so forgive any obvious oversight on my part.

[Luca Giarrizzo]

Hello Tobias,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

To clear up what an SBSAR (or Substance Archive) is, here is a excerpt from the Substance Designer documentation - original page available here:

Substance Archives are compiled, optimized Substance files. They are much faster to calculate and can easily be shared without reference issues. Parameters can still be tweaked, but editing the graph is locked down. Substance Archives can be used in all Substance applications and any application that has a Substance Integration (some with an external plugin) such as Autodesk 3DS Max & Maya, Unreal Engine 4 or Unity Engine.

Indeed, the default working file format in Substance Designer is SBS (Substance File or Package). You can create and work in graphs contained within a package. Please note that you can place instance nodes of SBSAR files in a graph.

To get comfortable in Substance Designer, we recommend checking out the learning resources available in Substance Academy.

We hope this was both helpful and informative. Feel free to get back to us if you need further assistance.

Have fun using the Substance tools!

Best regards,
Luca Giarrizzo

[Vincent Gault]

As Luca said: sbsar format cannot be opened edited (by purpose). It's the sharing format, while sbs is the working/editable format.

[VFXTobias]

Got it.  Thanks guys!