Save As doesn't save the Project Folder

Because of getting burned and losing much time (I’m looking at you Maya!), I save versions of files.

Here’s something that I found out, and could be fixed, or at least clarified.

When I create a new project, “Foom” for instance, I get a main folder called “Foom_001” and inside that folder are some folders and files.

Folders are : Elements, Enviroments, jobs and Palette-library.
Files are: Foom_001.aux, Foom_001.digital, Foom_001.digital~, PALETTE_LIST and PALETTE_LIST~

Now when I perform a Save As on Foom_001, I get the usual dialog asking me where to save the file. I save Foom_002 on the same level (i.e. inside the parent folder of Foom_001). Now when I go to this parent folder and look inside it, I see the folder named Foom_001 and an Animate file named Foom_002.digital.

So, when I create the file/project, Animate creates a Folder structure with the Animate (*.digital) file inside the project folder. When I do a Save As, only the *.digital file seems to be saved.

Since I’m on a Mac (OS X 10.5.5), I recalled that Studio would save files as a kind of “Package” and I can right click on them and select the menu item “Show Package Contents” from the contextual menu to see the folder structure. Sure enough, all the files that I created via a “Save As” command all had the “Show Contents” menu item and when I viewed the contents, there was the folder structure that was in the files that I created “From Scratch” within Animate. And the *.digital files inside these project folders had no “Show Contents” menu item when right-clicked.

The sizes for the project folder and the “packaged” project file are about the same, give or take a few hundred KB.

From within the program, I can’t tell any difference between the Folder-project (with the file/folder structure) and the packaged *.digital files.

Each of these projects seem to be independent of one another. Meaning if I delete the Foom_001 folder (which contains the folder structure and the Foom_001.digital file) Foom_002.digital (which has the contextual menu item “Show Package Contents”) still works as before.

Just as an experiment, I copied the Foom_001.digital from the Project Folder Foom_001. Opened it in Animate and had no drawings visible. Now, this is a *.digital file that isn’t a “package” like what I get when I do a “Save As” on an opened project. Also, Animate created new folders on the same level as the *.digital files – enviroments, frames and jobs. Enviroment and Jobs contain a folder named digital and all these folders contain no visible files.

So my work-around is just to initally create a project, do a save as (where I add a _001 suffix to the file name) and then delete the original Project’s folder. This way, I don’t confuse myself with too many folders.

Anyway, am I correct in this workflow? Were the “Folder-based projects” intended to be a “packaged” *.digital files?

One more question, are the “packaged” *.digital files able to be shared with Windows users? I ask because Packages seem to be a Mac OS X thing and I don’t know if they’re cross-platform. If they aren’t, how does one go about sharing files with Animate on Windows?

Thanks and I hope the Animate debut in L.A. was lots of fun and good to everyone!

Hi,

Unlike Toon Boom Studio on Mac, Animate uses a folder structure of file to create it’s project. The .digital file is actually an xml file that can be opened and understood with a text editor. The data contained in that file is mostly links through the folder structure and how all of the material is assembled and animated.

When you use the save as feature it will create a whole new file structure. This being said I am not quite sure how you managed to save your project within the folder structure of the previous one for there is currently a lock that prevents this and you should get a warning whenever you try to save inside of the structure of the currently opened project. The folder base was not necessarily meant to be packaged. We made the .digital file accessible to user so they can have an easier access to it to get scripting references (if you plan on doing any QSA scripting you usually rely on the .digital file to figure what the parameter should be named and their value entry).

Best regards,

Ugo

Ugo, you deserve a bonus or at least some chocolate for you putting up with me. I’m just kicking the tires and slamming the doors of Animate and sharing the oddities I find.

Since I’m an artist, here’s a picture to illustrate what’s happening to me:


http://www.crtoons.com/tb-animate/saveasissue.jpg


So the initial creation/save gives the folder structure, like you said. But when I do a save as, I get the “packaged” file as outlined in the way too long graphic above.

I’m not saving files within the initial project folders, rather I’m saving them into the folder that they are within. Like, I’m not putting cheese into the egg, I’m putting the cheese into the Fridge where the Eggs are kept.

Anyway, the thing is that Animate isn’t consistent on the Mac, when it comes to Saving a file for the first time and then performing a Save As action. In the Save As dialog, there’s a drop down menu that has two entries “All Supported Scenes File Format” and “Digital Pro Scenes” and either one gives the same result: a packaged file that can be right-clicked to show the contents. There’s no checkbox to select to have the project be saved as a Folder Structure or as a Package.

And Studio document files, on the mac, are indeed packages. Right click on a Studio *.tbpd file, I get a “show package contents” menu item and when I select it, I get a window with the *.tbp file and a Folder for the Scene, Sound and Templates. Unlike Animate, Studio has two different extensions, “tbpd” for the package and “tbp” for the actual Studio file within the package.

This is just a minor point, in any case. Animate has yet to crash on me or really stump me. What you said about scripting, though, does interest me. Will the way that Animate does a “save as” affect how scripting is done on a mac? Can I share the ‘saved as’ packaged *.digital files with Windows users?

Take care, and thanks for all your time and help, I do appreciate it muchly!

Hi,

I will need to investigate some more about this package saving tomorrow (working on late shift limits the resources available :wink: ). As for sending the packaged folder to a Windows machine this will work. Since windows does not know what to do with the package it simply turns the .digital to a folder so if you look at that file from a windows machine you will get a folder structure, no actual package.

As for the QSA scripting this will allow you to automate some task within the software though it is not an action scripting, it interacts mostly with the parameters that can be set manually (so you could make a script to reverse or offset keyframes since those are numeric values but not actually to travel through your projects, basically to batch some task that would need to be done 1 by 1).

There is some basic coverage of scripting in Chapter 17 and 18 of the software Help though if you get stuck somewhere you can post here in the forum someone should be able to help you (or define if it is possible to do or not).

Best regards,

Ugo

Thanks for the info!

I’m slowly plowing my way through the User’s Guide and have skimmed the chapters about scripting. I’m not close to trying out the scripting…but Xmas break is coming soon and I’ll have some time on my hands.

Hi,

Just as a quick notice, the packaged .digital file will be created whenever you leave “.digital” as an extension when you use the save as feature. You may want to avoid keeping that .digital when you do a save as to keep your project the same as the original.

Best regards,

Ugo

Hey Ugo,

Thanks for that info. I’d rather have the packaged files in any case, as I have folders with art I created in Painter and scanned in. Less confusing for my workflow.

Have a great weekend!