Posts by Norbert Graeser

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  • proxies - relative file paths

    And here it comes ;o)

    The ZIP holds the mainfolder "#EnscapeResourcesOnX" with all the subfolders and 2 scripts / BAT files.

    Just unzip it somewhere on your machine and run MapFolderAsDriveX.bat. This will automate the process of mapping the folder as drive X:

    With the second scrip you can unmap the folder.


    To map any other folder as X: - just copy the BAT files to the folder and run it from there.

  • proxies - relative file paths

    Hi Franza,


    we still don't have ways to change material paths afterwards automatically or via relative paths.


    What I can offer is a proven workflow that can be useed n shared / team projects:

    The problem

    Enscape uses a bunch of external resources. These are Custom-Assets, Downloaded-Materials, Material-Textures, Skyboxes, Light definitions, Sound files or Linked Sketchup Models.


    Depending on your Design Application and storage infrastructure, these external files are not found if you open a project on another PC. This leads to error messages, missing assets and bad material quality (no Height or Roughness Maps and so on). Currently, external resources have to be manually reassigned.


    Solution

    Accessing external resources on a dedicated mapped drive within a predefined folder structure enables Enscape to load ALL external resources without errors and show the result in original high quality.


    The underlying set of folders can be located anywhere on the local computer or on the network. This will work with dropbox, SharePoint and OneDrive, .... too. But folders must be keeped on device!


    Resources can be shared with externals via structered ZIP files, starting at folder level “EnscapeResources”.


    Proposal for a folder structure:


    Used drive will be X:\

    Main folder for resources could be #EnscapeResourcesOnX - this one will be mapped to X:\
    inside this the predefined, commonly structured folders are located.

    Consiting of the mainfolder EnscapeResources and the following subfolders

    • Custom_Asset_Projects
    • Custom_Assets
    • Downloaded_Enscape_Materials
    • IES
    • Linked_Models
    • Skyboxes
    • Sound_files
    • Textures


    Within the Custom Assets -, Textures-, Skyboxes-, Sound_files- and IES folders you can create subfolders for individual projects, if needed. This will help exchanging projects with externals via ZIP files.




    To share downloaded native Enscape Assets as well, an EnscapeAssets folder can be included on the level of the EnscapeResources folder. This make sense if Assets should be stored locally and not be downloaded individually on each PC.


    Now map the folder as a networkdrive:

    1. Locate your Resource folder (e.g. C:\....\....\....\#EnscapeResourcesOnX) and copy path
    2. Edit path (e.g. in Notepad) and change drive C:\ to \\localhost\C$\ (D:\ must be renamed to \\localhost\D$\) - result should look like \\localhost\C$\Users\...\...\...\VIZ-Projects\#EnscapeResourcesOnX. Copy this to the clipboard.
    3. Inside Windows Explorer go to “This PC” and open “Map network“ drive from the Computer menu.
    4. Map drive X: to the edited path by pasting it from the clipboard.
    5. Now your drive X: shows the content of the mapped path. If you want, you can rename the drive name to something like “Enscape Resources”.


    Last step will be setting paths up in Enscape:

    1. Downloaded Materials
    2. Custom Assets Library
    3. Custom Asset Projects source path


    And most important:


    Select files like Textures, Skyboxes, IES ,... directly on drive X:\



    If you have any feedback or ideas to improve, please let me know.