Preferences, tools, bins

[slowtiger]

Right now I'm a bit pissed because after installing 9.5 all my toolbins, brushes, prefs, and keyboard shortcuts are gone. Vanished. Nothing left. When I started 9.5 after installation, all worked fine. Then I removed all old 9.0 versions except 9.0.5, and suddenly all of my work environment is history. I would have expected that, as long as I still keep 9.0.5 which was the version I worked with for the last months, I had a chance to somehow transfer everything necessary, like my custom papers. Well, I was wrong, obviously.

Part of this is definitely due to the very counterintuitive way TVP stores these informations.

Have a look at an average Mac application. It will create its own folder at user/library/application support/ or at users/library/preferences and put all settings there. If this program installs some plugins, it will do this inside its application folder. In case of an update, the installer will copy the plugins into the new application folder, and the new version will read the prefs from user/library/application support/ . If there's no installer, at least i can go inside the application folder and copy plugins over to the new one.

Not so with TVPaint. There's the program package, and inside of it I have to search for several different file types at several different places. I don't know which file is doing what. There's a folder "Default Config", but its content is the same in 9.0.5 and 9.5.1, so where have my settings been stored, and why are they completely gone now?

This definitely needs to be improved. Not only in case of an update, but also for people who work on different computers and need to take their workspace settings with them. Ideally stuff would be stored in the "preferences" or "application support" folders, so without longer searching these could be copied to another machine. Next best solution could at least be an "export all settings" button, located in the preferences panel, which would read all tool settings, all bins, all custom brushes, and write them into a nicely named archive which can be saved elsewhere, and get imported into TVP on another machine.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I update versions, with other bata-testers on a weekly basis and I haven't heard from anyone loosing settings. BTW, do you save your configs as a template? If you don't, you should, if you do, you should locate them through the startup panel. But of course I am speaking as a PC user, so Macs might not have this.

[elmisilhumano]

It works with macs too. I save my configuration to user/library/tvp animation 9 pro/my configuration. There you find also the default folder and if you save your own conf. to same place it is really easy to choose default or your own conf. from the start up panel configuration pop up.

M.

[ematecki]

On MacOSX, TVPA[P] stores all information in "your home dir"/Library/tvp animation 9 pro, just like, huh, tons of other Mac apps like Safari, iTunes, Mail, etc...
Name varies slighty depending on your version (ie no 'pro' for the standard version).
Everything is there (but the registration codes, which are stored in a location accessible to all users, see the post about that if you need it).
The "Default config" in the app is only the source when you use the "reset config" in the startup panel.

So depending on which version you had previously, you may have to rename the folder in ~/Library.

If you what a backup of your configs, just backup that whole folder (TimeMachine should do that by default).

[D.T. Nethery]

all my toolbins, brushes, prefs, and keyboard shortcuts are gone. Vanished. Nothing left.

'

Sadly I must report that the same thing happened to me when updating to TVP 9.5.2 . All my custom tools and settings are gone.
I'm using a Macbook Pro, Mac 10.5.7

However, I was able to recover them from my Library, but it seems odd that they'd disappear suddenly like that when updating.

[slowtiger]

Sadly I must report that the same thing happened to m

Ahh, at least I don't feel that foolish anymore! The strange thing was that in my library there were two folders for TVP 8 (named differently, from different version), but none for any version of 9. That's why I said "TVP should store in that place", because it didn't on my machine.

[ematecki]

This is strange.

I checked all the config management code, and :
- the only place a config is ever deleted is the "Delete" button in the startup panel.
- when it is impossible to create a config in ~/Library, there is no alternate place to store the config.

So I wonder a lot about how slowtiger's Mac was able to keep his config if it was NOT in ~/Library ?

[slowtiger]

See? I'm as puzzled as you.

Anyway, I'm reconstructing my stuff now, most of it is done, since I had to present TVP yesterday to another would-be-animator, and she's willing to buy it.

[slowtiger]

An update to this issue.

I had a look into my "tvp animation 9" pro folder and found that in my own config folder there is no entry in "Brushes", although I have stored several brushes in their respective bin. Unfortunately all those bins only give me the options "Put Brush" and "Default brush", but no export/import. So:
- where are these settings stored?
- how can I backup them?

[ematecki]

Hum hum....

These bins are "old-fanioshed". It's much better to use the Custom Panels now.

The settings of the brushes in the bins are stored in your config (in the big config.ini file).
You propably won't be able to extract anything useful from that file, short of loading that config, moving every brush to a custom panel, and exporting that panel.
The anim-brush itself (the pixels) is stored in the Brushes subfolder of your config.

Really, the best thing to do from now on is to not use these bins anymore.
In a custom panel you can rearrange your brushes, name them, make a custom icon, assign a shortcut key, and export the whole panel as a unit for either archival or sharing.

[slowtiger]

This sounds logical, but of course you know that it's a bit inconsistant right now to have both ways available...

I'm still fumbling around with the custom panels. Sometimes I delete a whole panel, to only have it show up at the next time I start TVP. The GUI feels a bit clumsy, like having a big but unresponsive title bar in an empty panel, where I have to carefully click in the much smaller panel area to be able to add things ...

I'll play around with them a bit more and maybe write more feedback. Thx for the clarification anyway, I'll paste a sticker on my cintiq USE PANELS NOT BINS! ...

[Paul Fierlinger]

To delete project files you have to click on the X at the top where the menu bar is. If you click on the X of the project panel you will merely hide the project, which is useful too. This is why the project popped up when you reopened TVP.

[slowtiger]

OK, I've transferred my tools to the panel, named them properly, and exported it to a safe place (not my bank). I assigned simple keystrokes to two of them (my "pencil" and "crayon").

Now I notice a delay of 1 - 2 seconds between hitting the keystroke and being able to draw with that brush. Is there a way to reduce this?

[Fabrice]

It's probably due to the size of the brushes / Papers.

Try to optimize them, or reduce the brush size in pixel in order to have a brush size setting of 100%.

[slowtiger]

I don't think it's the size. One brush was indeed a custombrush - of 1 frame app. 10 x 100px size. The other one was just a setting of the pencil brush tool - no bitmap involved. I suspect it's slower because it's the "Tool bin", stored somewhere else and being not as accessible as built-in settings?