8

Asset Tracking Dialog 495
Proper t ies—
Opensaread-onlydialogthatshows
information about the highlighted asset such as
vault and local locations, versions, and check-out
status.
Get From Provider—Lets you copy files from the
database to the loca l working folder. Use the Get
Files dialog to navigate to the folder from which
to get files, highlight any number of files, and
then click Open. The highlig hted files and any
dependent files, such as bit maps a nd XRefs, are
copiedtothelocalfolder,usingthesamefolder
hierarchy as that of t he database.
Working Co m me n t—Opens a dialog that containing
a common text buffer for the current session.
When you check out a file, any comment you
enter in the Asset Tracking dialog is copied to
the Working Comment dialog. You can edit this
text at any point during the session. When y ou
check a file back in, all Working Comment text
appears i n the Asset Tracking dialog; you can edit
it as necessary without affecting the original text
before completing the check in. The checked-in
commentsremainwiththatversionofthefilein
the Vault.
Browse—Lets you browse the local directories for
missing files such as bitmaps. Use the Browse
dialog to find the file, and then click Open.
V iew Image File—Opens a window showing the
highlighted image file. The file must be present
inalocaldirectory.
Reveal In Explorer—OpensaWindowsExplorer
dialog showing the location of the highlighted
asset.
Cu stom Dep endencies—Opens a dialog that lets
you specify files to be dependents of the current
scene; files that aren’t necessarily present in the
current scene but should be associated with
it. On the Custom Dependencies dialog, click
the Add button and then use the Add Custom
Dependencies file browser to open dependent files.
The Custom Dependencies function lets you
associate files that aren’t true scene dependencies.
A true dependent file is required for rendering,
animation, exporting, etc. A custom dependency
mightbereferenceartwork,atextfilewithscene
documentation or tasks to accomplish, custom
scripts, etc. Basically, any collect ion of files that
should “travel along” with the scene.
One potential use for a custom dependency is as
a way to per form simple project management.
For example, you could add a file called
GameTitle-A.txt as a custom dependency to any
scenefileassociatedwithGameTitle-A.Youcould
then instruc t the provider client, such as Vault
Explorer, to display al l files that are dependent on
GameTitle-A.txt ,whichwouldgiveyoualistof
files associated w ith that project.
Refresh—Reloads the asset listing from the local
scene and updates the window contents.
Paths menu
The tools on this menu help you resolve
file-path issues such as missing files. They
include functionality also available in the
Bitmap/Photometric Path Editor Utilit y (page
3–511)
, but their integration into the Asset
Tracking dialog helps speed the workflow of
managing scene assets.
Highlight Editable Assets—Highlig hts all assets
whosepathscanbeaffectedbytheremaining
commandsonthismenu.
For example, if your scene materials use bitmaps
from a number of different folders, you could copy
all the bitmaps to a common directory within your
working folder, use Highlight Editable Assets to
highlight all the bitmap assets, and then use Set
Path (see following) to designate the common
directory.
Set Path—Opens a dialog for editing the scene’s
record of the highlig hted asset’s or assets’ path and,