Script to extract every asset thumbnail into category folders for refrence

1st Official Post

    I've written a Windows Powershell script that will go through the entire Enscape offline assets folder and COPY the thumbnails to another folder with the correct asset names but before I post it I'd like permission from Enscape to do so.


    • As it's a script it's completely readable in any text editor so you'll be able to see all the code.
    • It doesn't do anything to the offline assets other than read the contents of the folder(s).
    • You can set the source folder of your offline assets.
    • You can set the destination folder for the new named thumbnails.
    • You can set the language that the thumbnails and category folders use for their names!!
    • You can repeat the process next time the Library is updated.
    • It only takes a few seconds to run


    I've found a way to be able to automatically print each category folder to a PDF with 20 thumbs per page but it involves installing a .NET library so I'll look at that separately, for now, they can be printed manually using whatever app is best.


    Kaj Burival  Clemens Musterle

    please dont take my question in the wrong way, as its a genuine question:

    but why is it usefull to have the assets thumbnails in another folder if you can see them in the asset library, even when Enscape is not active?

    I just like to understand other peoples' workflow, because most of the times there's something that I can learn to improve my own workflow...


    PS- if this helps other people I think they should give you permission to share it....

    Quote from jpgfar

    if you can see them in the asset library

    Only 'I' can see them in the asset library and only when SU is running.

    My boss wants to be able to pick items from his Mac/from Home. The ideal solution is for Enscape to have them all visible on their site but they don't so I did this.

    The asset library uses UUID's and JSON files to store everything so there was no 'easy' way to simply print everything out. I had to loop through every file and decode its name/category.



    Additionally, the thumbnails are higher resolution than they are displayed in the Asset library, here's a couple of examples:

    • Official Post

    Paul Russam , since this script only involves data extracted from locally available offline assets you have been given the green light to post your script. I appreciate that you're sharing this with the community as well.

    • Best Answer

    Thanks Demian Gutberlet


    Attached is the script, it currently has a 'txt' extension, you'll need to change that to 'ps1'

    You can view it in any text editor but I suggest you use a code editor as you'll then see all the syntax highlighting.

    I've put a good load of comments in (Anything starting with #) so you should be able to follow the flow.

    It's only 100 or so lines long with a lot of those being comments so this isn't anything complex.


    The 1st bit is a Function that's called to unzip the big JSON file in the main bit of code, you can skip past this bit and go to the part below # ** MAIN ROUTINE **


    Next, there are some variables you'll need to edit to suit your setup:


    SourceFolder is where you've decided to save the offline assets

    DT is your desktop, I suggest you leave this alone unless you specifically want the new thumbnails in another location.

    ParentFolder is the folder that will be created on your Desktop to contain the new thumbnails

    TargetFolder is just the full path (Desktop and Parent Folder) ... Don't change this.

    Lang it the language you want the thumbnails and category folders to be in, its currently en-US but you can change it to any listed on that line (it, fr etc)


    That should be the only changes you'll need to make, saving it, right-clicking on it, and selecting 'Run with Powershell' should produce a folder on your desktop with a bunch of subfolders containing all the relevant thumbnails.


    ****** IF YOU'RE UNSURE ... DON'T USE IT!! ******


    If you know what you're doing with PowerShell feel free to point out all my mistakes. :)


    It was fun to make, this is only my 2nd attempt at Powershell ....and the 1st that actually worked :)

    • New

    Yeah it was. I just had to modify the directory path to the folder that stored the offline assets, but that's easy. The rest I kept stock and it worked as described.