Hi!

Glenn Anthofer has asked me to post a new AM utility that he has developed -- he’s preparing for a work related move to Germany and he is very busy right now. In fact he has been very busy for the last couple of months but, despite this, five weeks ago when I posted “Programmers: I need a program written”, Glenn Anthofer not only answered but came through big time! Together we hashed out the program specs then Glenn started writing code and I started testing.

Library Manager V0.36 is a Beta Release and offered as ‘use at your own risk’. Please read all documentation before attempting to use.

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The program creates an AM library file by searching the specified ‘Start In’ folder and all the sub-folders under it recursively looking for the specified resources! It mirrors the folder structure found on disk within the AM Library (optional)!! It is enormously flexible and easy to use. It allows you to save your settings and in fact allows you to save multiple setting groups! It has a batch mode that can process these multiple setting groups (see the Commandline Arguments.rtf file).

It allows me to maintain a resource pool with a folder structure similar to that found in the ‘data’ folder on the AM CD (i.e. folders for Models, Materials, etc.). Below these folders all of the resources are further organized by multi-levels of sub-folders. On top of this, it easily manages sub-collections like the “Extras CD” or the “AM CD” and, get this!!!!, models no matter where they live are merged together!!! (i.e. if you have ResourcePool/Models/Actors plus ResourcePool/AM-CD/data/Models/Actors the actor models from both these areas will be automatically merged in the AM Library under Actors!!!

It is an awesome program. I’ve been wishing for a program like this for years and this is everything and more! Now I can drop new resources into the proper folder in my resource pool and then, maybe once a month, I can run Library Manager in batch mode from the scheduler and my AM Libraries will be updated.

The program user documentation in “LibraryManager V0_36 Documentation.pdf” (within the zip file) was written by me and any mistakes are mine alone.

AM Libraries Just got a whole lot better!
Rusty

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Rusty

This is cool!! I do networking and have set up several accountant's networks and all of them had a simialr program to keep track of returns, scanned paperwork, letters from the IRS, emails, etc. This will be a cool program to have.

Steve

This sounds like a great little program, Rusty. Tell Glenn thanks from all of us! It will be a great way to keep everything together.

When I first got A:M, I used to get very frustrated with what I called "moving models" in my libraries. I would spend a lot of time arranging my models in the way I wanted. Later, I would find that my models had disappeared from the library!!! After searching I would find that they hadn't actually disappeared, but had just somehow moved to a completely different folder. For example, Thom might end up in the vehicals folder instead of the actors folder. It was annoying, to say the least! At first I thought it was just a strange fluke, but then it kept happening. Finally, I went back and fixed everything for what seemed like the thousandth time, and set the file attribute for the library file to READ ONLY. That fixed my "moving models" problem, but it also meant that I had to turn off READ ONLY every time I wanted to add something to the library and then turn it back on immediately afterwards... and hope everything stayed where it should.

Do you know if this program will help keep the "moving models" problem from happening? (I am assuming I'm not the only one who has experienced this phenomenon. )

Rusty / Glenn
Thankyou thankyou thankyou.....This is an absolute must have, I just ran it through my texture collection( which is several gigabytes in size) and it performed flawlessly, presenting me with a perfectly organised image library based on my folder structure, in a very short time.

It's amazing how good libraries boost your productivity.
Is there a performance hit from large libraries? When I bring my texture library in it increases memory usage for each new library(Caching stamps?) but it doesn't seem to ever dump the memory. Should I have multiple smaller libraries?

Multiple smaller libraries are impossible to manage after a while... then turn into multiple large libraries anyway. If your PC is low end than breaking up libraries can save time by allowing you to hide stuff.

I have never seen nor head of 'moving models'... and, glad about it LOL. I can't imagine how that could be happening.

r

There are a couple of other programs I need written; one to place the folders and models in the AM library in alphabetical order. Currently you can still wind up with long lists of folders and files and must litterly go through each one to find some resource. Another is a plug-in or ???? that would allow resource searchs from within AM.

r

Hi!

Looks like I have someone who will write a C program to make sure that folders and files are alphabetically sorted in the AM Library! Maybe by Christmas. The resource search plug-in (I'm not even sure its possible) is going on the shelf -- I can do this from Windows.

Cheers,
Rusty

Rusty, I believe what T-Dogg ment is that when he, for instance, put a model in my library in A:M and later move it to another folder, out of A:M, the model/material/anything really disappears/breaks in the A:M library, will this application relocate them automaticly or will they become a broken path like they do in the normal A:M library?

Cheers,
J

Btw, thnx for the app, gonna give it a try later on.

Yes, quite true -- if you move the resource you'll have a broken link in the AM library. The AM library takes its form and contents from the library file (.lbr) and, if nothing changes the file then AM libraries thinks its still there.

Lib Mgr does not replace or change the 'normal' AM library. It merely creates a library file (i.e. .lbr) that AM reads upon startup to create the library. You tell it were the lbr files are in "Options->Folders->Library Files". You need a fundamental understanding of how the AM library works to use this program. For instance, if you run the program and specify a 'start folder' where no AM resources reside, nothing will happen. If you tell it to create the lbr file and AM doesn't know to look in that location, you will see no change in the library. If you do not remove or hide in some way the existing lbr files then you will see all of the library entries you had plus all the new ones lib mgr creates... this may mean lots of duplicate library entries.

Library Manager will fix the problem in that it can re-create the library to properly reflect what is on disk under the 'Start Folder' (by default it appends to the lib file so you need to manually delete the lib file before running it). Lib Mgr will re-find the resource if it was moved to a location that is under the 'Start Folder'.

I hope that makes sense and helps.


Rusty

Actually, that is not what I meant at all.

I did not move the models themselves at all. I was moving things in the library only... organizing the A:M CD Models, the extras CD models, and other models I had downloaded into one library that was sorted consistently. (I guess I was basically doing manually what this new program will do automatically.) I would turn on A:M later and find that models were missing in my library. I opened up the library file in WORDPAD and did a search and found some of my actors had been moved to the vehicles folder and things like that. I finally ended up bypassing A:M altogether and setting up my library in WORDPAD and then I saved it as READ ONLY so A:M wouldn't be able to overwrite it and move things around any more.

Of course, this time around I also made a backup copy and put it someplace else just in case it got screwed up again. Sorting all those models, materials, actions, etc. was a lot of work!!!!

Hi,

This is so cool. I just sorted almost a hundred misc models -- from the Extra CDs and from past projects -- into my models folders (props/outdoor/city, furniture/home, furniture/office, and so on). Before this I sorted over 200 images into my image folders (signs/road, signs/misc, signs/store, nature/flowers, nature/trees, backgrounds/city, and so on).

Then I clicked on one icon and went to dinner. When I came back, these were all in my AM library organized by folder.

THANK YOU Glenn Anthofer!!!! Library Manager is f'ing outstanding! One click on "UpdateLibrary.bat" and forget it! If anyone is interested, this bat file contains the following:

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
echo "!!!! BU Existing Library Files Now !!!!"
pause
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe RP-Models.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe RP-Resources.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe AM-CD-Data.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe AM-Extras1.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe Extra-Data.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe Extra-Data-Sets.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe Hash-CD-Resources.ini auto
LibMgrStatus-0.36.exe Actor-Factory.ini auto
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When executed it reminds me to nuke the existing library files (I don't want to append to these!) and then executes 8 LibMgr configurations I've saved which takes care of all the different ways I've saved models, images, projects, actions, sound effects, chors, and materials (and hopefully video clips can be added to images later).

YES!

Rusty

Edit: Darn, I forgot to add 2 models. Okay, no problem. I added them and... click! Who cares! (I also added deleting the existing lib files to the bat file.)

Rusty,

I'm glad you like it and are getting some use out of it. Maybe in late October we can discuss any short comings and/or features that might be added.

Animate the World!
Glenn