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Loading things into library's oddities
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Loading things into library's oddities // Roundtable
Post by RichLevy // Oct 11, 2008, 8:51am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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If you load some items into a library by using the right click in the library you ,want to use, it brings up a file menu and you can pick 1 item and load it into your library, it gets put to the bottom of your library. If you go to the desktop and drag and bunch of files or 1 item it loads the files you dragged to your library at the top of the library window... Can this be standardized one way or the other? I would prefer the chance to choose myself where it should go, but at least making it consistant from 1 way to the other would be great.
Rich |
Post by spacekdet // Oct 11, 2008, 10:53am
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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Wouldn't Libraries be great if you could, you know, do 'librarian stuff' with them?
Like...sorting the contents by name, date added or date modified, size, or browse to other libraries, copy/move files, ...and all within the "Library" window?
It's so crazy it just might work! |
Post by RichLevy // Oct 11, 2008, 12:11pm
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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How about this insane idea...
Create a Project library
in that main library would be an assortment of folders that contained all of the things you would need in that project. like...
Project
Scenes
environments
objects
cameras
Lights
Animations
characters
effects
and something else, each of those librarys could also contain folders to further break up the project into organized fashion.
The beauty of this would be, you load 1 folder insted 8 to 10 folders when you start a project or move from one to another...
Rich |
Post by W!ZARD // Oct 11, 2008, 8:11pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Ah Grasshopper - you have yet to master the Zen of tS library Systems!
Tip 1: Open desired Library, right click on the topmost icon - the usual Library menu appears, click Insert or Insert As (and select Scene) and Hey Presto, you newly saved scene appears at the top of the Library instead of the bottom.
In fact, by right clicking on the Library item you wish to follow your new library iten and selecting Insert from the resulting menu you new Library Item will appear just before the item you right clicked on. This means you can save a new Library item anywhere you want within the Library panel. Try it, you'll like it!
Tip 2: If you don't like the order of items in your library panel you can easily click and drag them to whatever order you desire.
These features are not exactly intuitive at first but actually work pretty well and give a lot of control over your Libraries.:D
HTH |
Post by transient // Oct 11, 2008, 9:55pm
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transient
Total Posts: 977
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This is how I save to libraries as well, it keeps the library stack more organized.
I do this in 6.6 too, but it works a bit differently (it inserts the file after the one you right-click on, no big deal really). |
Post by RichLevy // Oct 12, 2008, 12:49am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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Ah Grasshopper - you have yet to master the Zen of tS library Systems!
Tip 1: Open desired Library, right click on the topmost icon - the usual Library menu appears, click Insert or Insert As (and select Scene) and Hey Presto, you newly saved scene appears at the top of the Library instead of the bottom.
In fact, by right clicking on the Library item you wish to follow your new library iten and selecting Insert from the resulting menu you new Library Item will appear just before the item you right clicked on. This means you can save a new Library item anywhere you want within the Library panel. Try it, you'll like it!
This is what I had said, now if you go and Rt click and select Import, the item you import will show up at the bottom of the library, Insert As will put it at the top... my bad, I explained it vaguely.
Tip 2: If you don't like the order of items in your library panel you can easily click and drag them to whatever order you desire.
These features are not exactly intuitive at first but actually work pretty well and give a lot of control over your Libraries.:D
HTH
Yes you can drag them around... is that what you want to do every time you start a new project? Would it not be useful to be able to select on 1 project and have all of your resources load without having to drag them in one at a time and than arrange them on the stack as you want?
And a tip for you, you can drag your library off to the side so that it is always available for you to use.
I do appreciate the almost condescending tone though :) |
Post by transient // Oct 12, 2008, 3:45am
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transient
Total Posts: 977
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Yes you can drag them around... is that what you want to do every time you start a new project? Would it not be useful to be able to select on 1 project and have all of your resources load without having to drag them in one at a time and than arrange them on the stack as you want?
I'm not exactly sure what your complaint is, at least what you think would be better. At the moment, you can create as many libraries or library places as you want, and open them as necessary.
You can also create libraries of assets you already have by pointing a new library place at an existing folder on the hard drive. "Import" is legacy from 7.0 from what I understand.
You can kind of have projects as in 6.6 by saving layouts, which save everything including the existing library stack setup, although this is unnecessary imo (you can create a new library place instead - much cleaner).
Personally, I think libraires are one of the things which have been improved from 6.6, although at first I didn't get them either. |
Post by RichLevy // Oct 12, 2008, 4:33am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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I'm not exactly sure what your complaint is, at least what you think would be better. At the moment, you can create as many libraries or library places as you want, and open them as necessary.
You can also create libraries of assets you already have by pointing a new library place at an existing folder on the hard drive. "Import" is legacy from 7.0 from what I understand.
You can kind of have projects as in 6.6 by saving layouts, which save everything including the existing library stack setup, although this is unnecessary imo (you can create a new library place instead - much cleaner).
Personally, I think libraires are one of the things which have been improved from 6.6, although at first I didn't get them either.
We need to go back a step or 2 here guys... I have been using TS7 in one form or another since August 2004, I have been testing it since it was in early ALPHA stages. So please allow me some tiny bit of respect and do not constantly refer to me as a newbee. I would not talk to either of you guys like this. Do I know much about every aspect of the program, no, I work mostly as a modeler and a character animator. Have I used TS 7.XX in any capacity other than casual use... again the answer is no. I have my reasons for that and they do not need to be posted here. Next question, am I trying to learn the flow and working thru an entire project, yes. There are many things I do not understand about the program and things I am just sharing my point of view on, this was one of those situations. I am not attacking your precious program, to me it is only a tool, it has some ups and some downs. I ask questions to learn and to share... is this not the way to learn?
Now my point about the libraries was only an observation of something I have noticed, you both seemed to glance past the original post and pushed it somewhere I had not intended it to go.
Observation:
Rt click in any library in the stack, it brings up a menu
INSERT
Insert AS
IMPORT
ThumbNails
RT click in a Library, not on an icon in the library, they are 2 different things, we may be missing something here and that may possibly be it, though you 2 being so well versed in TS, I am sure you both knew that.
If you use INSERT, it places the object you have selected in your WS at the top of the library you rt clicked in
INSERT AS, it allows you to choose thru a few things you may want to save it as, and too places it at the top of the library
IMPORT when selected brings up a file menu, select an item than press OPEN, where does that item appear in your library? Mine brings it to the bottom of the library.
Drag some bitmapped images from your desktop to a library, if you set the mouse pointer to the end of the library and release the button, the files load to the top of the library, you can drag them and place them in a specific position in the library, they need to be before the last item though or they jump to the top of the library...
There is nothing earth shattering here, a minor annoyance... I did a horrible job of describing it though in my first post... and you guys are all bent out of shape for a minor point.
As for the library places, that is nice but it still does not do what I am suggesting. That is a place on the HD that you are telling TS you have things you use. What I am suggesting is a project folder that when I select it loads all of those librarys into the stack for me, not me loading each one, one by one, and closing the things that are already in the library... do you see the difference?
So before you both jump to defend and accuse me of being a newbee, look to see where I am coming from. I am only making an observation, this is not listed in the bugs section because it is not, is is not listed in the features section because I am not sure TS is ready for such a drastic change :) I can see already it is not likely to gain any support from at least you guys :)
Thanks for the fish.
Rich |
Post by TomG // Oct 12, 2008, 4:35am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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To achieve that effect (a collection of folders for different parts of a project) create a Library Place. This is just a folder on your hard drive. In there create subfolders for Objects, Layouts, Scenes, etc like you say. Now you can open the library place in the browser and open the required libraries associated only with that project.
You do have to open them one by one, but sometimes it can be handy not to have them all open anyway. So it does achieve almost what you request. PS Again - you can create a blank set of these on your hard drive, and just copy in Windows Explorer to make the same structure instantly. You just need to then Add Library Place and point at it to have it show up in the Libraries system END PS Again
PS - Ah a cross posting, you must have XP then, since it adds it to the top with an Insert and Insert As. That's less annoying than being added to the bottom :) I did think XP added it where you clicked (if you click in between objects or even on top of an object and did an insert) but not used XP in several years so couldn't say for sure, I just know the "appears at the bottom" is not what it does END PS
The movement of items in the list when adding / replacing is a Vista related issue, it doesn't happen in XP. In XP, insert makes it appear where you inserted, and replace leaves the item where it is. In Vista, insert makes it appear at teh bottom of the list, and replace makes it jump to the bottom of the list from where it was. Have raised this with devs a long time ago, as it's annoying :) Jumping to the bottom for a newly saved item means having to scroll down to get to whatever you were working on most recently (yet that is the thing you are most likely to want to get to).
HTH!
Tom |
Post by RichLevy // Oct 12, 2008, 4:41am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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To achieve that effect (a collection of folders for different parts of a project) create a Library Place. This is just a folder on your hard drive. In there create subfolders for Objects, Layouts, Scenes, etc like you say. Now you can open the library place in the browser and open the required libraries associated only with that project.
You do have to open them one by one, but sometimes it can be handy not to have them all open anyway. So it does achieve almost what you request.
PS - Ah a cross posting, you must have XP then, since it adds it to the top with an Insert and Insert As. That's less annoying than being added to the bottom :) I did think XP added it where you clicked (if you click in between objects or even on top of an object and did an insert) but not used XP in several years so couldn't say for sure, I just know the "appears at the bottom" is not what it does END PS
The movement of items in the list when adding / replacing is a Vista related issue, it doesn't happen in XP. In XP, insert makes it appear where you inserted, and replace leaves the item where it is. In Vista, insert makes it appear at teh bottom of the list, and replace makes it jump to the bottom of the list from where it was. Have raised this with devs a long time ago, as it's annoying :) Jumping to the bottom for a newly saved item means having to scroll down to get to whatever you were working on most recently (yet that is the thing you are most likely to want to get to).
HTH!
Tom
Thanks Tom
See my previous post for what I am talking about with loading the libraries... It's something I got from XSI, I hated it a first, now I really miss it. Every project has it's own set of resources that are specific to it, it one is part of the project and are always with the project and get loaded with the project. I think it would be nice to have all of those pieces load automatically when I hit a Library Place/Project... Silly idea I know :)
Thanks for the clarification on the Visat/XP issue, not a big thing, just a minor annoyance :)
Rich |
Post by RichLevy // Oct 12, 2008, 5:56am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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Hey Tom, in reference to your PS and our crossposting...
Vista here, I think we are picking from the wrong menus though, Rt click in the library and not on an item in the library (both from the stack) you get the menu that I am referring to. Click on an item in the library and you bring up a longer list of items that I do not use for this feature. Do these work differently? :) oh boy if they do hehehe. I probably would not even have mentioned the menu I did except it works well to load bitmapped images into a library, though dragging them from the desktop is becoming my preferred method the last few days, you can grab the contents of a folder and drag all of the files as opposed to just 1 at a time the other ways (Import and Insert As)...
Confusing, I promise not to mention this ever again :)
Rich |
Post by transient // Oct 12, 2008, 2:20pm
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transient
Total Posts: 977
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We need to go back a step or 2 here guys... I have been using TS7 in one form or another since August 2004, I have been testing it since it was in early ALPHA stages. So please allow me some tiny bit of respect and do not constantly refer to me as a newbee. I would not talk to either of you guys like this. Do I know much about every aspect of the program, no, I work mostly as a modeler and a character animator. Have I used TS 7.XX in any capacity other than casual use... again the answer is no. I have my reasons for that and they do not need to be posted here. Next question, am I trying to learn the flow and working thru an entire project, yes. There are many things I do not understand about the program and things I am just sharing my point of view on, this was one of those situations. I am not attacking your precious program, to me it is only a tool, it has some ups and some downs. I ask questions to learn and to share... is this not the way to learn?
Nobody was being precious or attacking you, I don't think that rant was called for.
I think I'll leave you alone to figure out ts in the future - perhaps you should just pm Tom in the future as he seems to be able to give it to you straight without offending you. |
Post by W!ZARD // Oct 12, 2008, 11:28pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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I do appreciate the almost condescending tone though :)
Whoops! Slow down there amigo - absolutely no condescension intended. I've seen your work and it never occurred to me to think of you as a newbee - not that there's anything wrong with newbeeness either!
I must confess it took me ages to realise that there is a difference between right clicking in a library and right clicking on a library icon! Discovering this was a real "D'oh" moment for me as I'd been busy saving all my new objects and scenes etc at the bottom of the library and grumbling each time I had to scroll down to find my most recent saves.
It's not immediately apparent that there's a difference between right clicking the library and right clicking an existing object.
Yes you are right about the different behaviour with Import but I've never noticed because of the way I use the libraries.
One of the cool things I like about the new interface is that you can double click on any window title bar and it maximises that window. So when I double click on the stack title bar with the library tab active my selected libraries expand right across both my monitors which makes it really easy to drag various library items to where ever I want them.
Anyway, I never meant to come across at all condescending - it was not (and never is) my intention to insulting - there's more than enough bad vibes in the world without me adding to them!:D
Re "Every project has it's own set of resources that are specific to it, it one is part of the project and are always with the project and get loaded with the project. I think it would be nice to have all of those pieces load automatically when I hit a Library Place/Project... Silly idea I know"
Nah Mate, not silly at all! I suspect your tS libraries are way easier to navigate than mine! There's no right or wrong, just different ways of doing things.
Personally I never use the "Projects" option as my various scenes often use the same resources - particularly texture images. Thus all my textures are gathered in a couple of VERY big folders - in some ways this is a bit unwieldy, in others I find it easier. I imagine anyone else trying to make sense of my system would end up tearing their hair out though!
I hope this clears up any misunderstanding - if not please feel free to PM me if you wish.
All the best
W |
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