Any tips for noobies as to how you manage/organize your Intuiface project files?
I come from an editing background, and currently, I have a dedicated “Intuiface” folder for each client. Inside each, there is a separate folder for each project made for that client. Inside that will be a folder where the actual Intuiface .ifx project file as well as any assets, resides. From time to time, I will right click on this folder and make a .zip folder of it and date it so that I have an encapsulated .zip folder of that current version. I’ll do this before I do major changes to a project (add/delete a scene, for example).
I like doing this so that I have a saved point in time that I can go back to in case I mess up a project during an edit. When I edit video, my non-linear editing system will usually save backups of previous versions of a project, so this is what I’m used to. But I would like to hear from any seasoned pros as to what they do to keep backups, or if they think this is irrelevant because of some hidden feature within Intuiface that I’ve yet to discover.
What is the best practice of making a duplicate of a project because your client needs the XP to be shown in both 16x9 and Samsung Galaxy Tablet formats? I duplicated my first project, renamed it and renamed the .json and .ifxp files the same way. It was working okay, but now when I put it into demo mode, it will get stuck and won’t show up, or will go into demo mode, but won’t exit when I hit Esc.
Hi Megan,
It’s been awhile. Were you able to find some solutions? I’ll move this topic to Help from Community category so your request can get more attention.
The best way to do a copy of a project is to open it in Composer and do a File -> Save As.
This will generate a new “Experience ID” for your copy which will make it unique / different from the original one in regards to the Management Console.
Regarding my way to organize my work / files:
I have a “Project” folder where I gather all inputs / contributions for each customer. This is also where I create the Excel files I’ll use during a project.
I then use the default My Documents/Intuiface folder to put my experiences in.
I name my experiences “Customer-V0.X” while I’m working on it.
After each significant step, I make a copy of the experience (File -> save as) and increment the X as a version number. Each version is published on My Intuiface, enabling me to share these different versions with the customer and save the work on the cloud.
At the “end” of the project, final project is named “Customer-V1.0”, published and shared with the customer as well.
@Seb This is EXACTLY what I needed. I figured out the “File > Save As” on my own as duplicating/renaming resulted in some bugginess.
I’ll have to remember the “Customer-V0.X” next time, although I guess I already do that somewhat when I put the date at the end of each zipped file of the project.
Do you mind putting up a screenshot of an Explorer window with a test project so I can see your filing structure? I think I understand what you’re saying about the having a “Project” folder and then the default My Documents/Intuiface folders, but I’m a very visual learner, so a screenshot or two would help me significantly! Thanks!
Sure @megan, here is an example (with customers name blurred, but you’ll get the idea)
On the left hand side, my “projects” folder where I gather all graphic elements / data files (Excel) sent either by customers for Service / Bootstraps or our internal graphic designer for samples / trades hows experiences.
On the right hand side, the My Documents / Intuiface folder that contains all my ~500 local experiences.
My main rule is: never do something manually in Windows Explorer in the folders that contain the Intuiface experiences
Thanks @Seb! I think I understand now. I’m an organization addict, so I like to know how the pros organize things. Especially when the pros are people who work FOR the software company and know the best practices!
A question re:
I know that technically, you’re not supposed to delete things within the IF XP folder. What do you do about situations when you’ve had to replace elements (revised graphics/video, etc)? I know IF has a function to delete unused content, but if I’m trying to reduce the size of the overall XP folder, I’ll sometimes go in and delete earlier iterations of elements (making sure not to delete the current ones!). Is there anything in the works that might delete the older versions within Explorer once you replace them? I’m used to Adobe products which don’t have this capability, but since I’m usually giving a flattened product (exported video or an .eps, .jpg) to clients, I don’t have to worry about older elements taking up space. I’m starting to find out that with IF, I do have to worry about older, replaced files, so this has been on my mind.
I do use the “delete unused content” which will delete from the file explorer the previous versions of media you’ve replaced in the content library.
If you are using an Excel file that references media, that’s the only exception where you have to add / remove manually the content in this folder. To make sure I’m at the right place, within Composer, I do a right click on the Excel files -> Open file location and only work in this folder (for each Excel file).
Huh! I could have sworn that there were a couple of times where I had pressed “delete unused content” and though the older one was deleted within IF, it was still in the file structure. I’ll have to do some testing on this to make sure. I had a case recently where I was trying desperately to reduce the file size of the entire project (they were going to download it locally so they could play it offline), but it’s been a couple of weeks and I tend to have the attention span of a Golden retriever… Squirrel? Squirrel! I’ll keep you posted.
I prefer to keep all my project files on a separate partition instead of the main C: that contains the OS, because with computers you never know when you will run into problems. So in case I have to reinstall the OS, my projects are not affected as they are on a separate partition.
@melvyn_br, I keep all of the original content on a separate disk, but I’ve been keeping the main IF files in the Documents>Intuiface folder… that’s a good point, though, I may have to start doing that!
@Seb, so I was thinking about our conversation on here last night as I was settling down into bed, and I realized that there might be a misunderstanding between us.
What I meant to say was that when I hit a graphic/video/audio file, right-click, then select “replace,” it replaces the graphic (let’s call it “graphic 1” and “graphic 2” for now) with “graphic 2”. “Graphic 1” isn’t shown in IF, but it still exists within the Files>Images section of the IF project. It would be nice that when I select replace, it not only replaces “graphic 1” with “graphic 2” within IF, but deletes “graphic 1” inside the client_intuiface>Files>Images… I had a project where the client was still in the process of finalizing spec sheets while I was building. They would send spec sheets, tell me they were the finals, and then the next day… you guessed it! New spec sheets. I stopped selecting replace until it was delivery day because I found out that I had all of the other versions of the spec sheets still within client_intuiface>Files>Documents They were going to play it locally, and I was trying to slim down the size of the entire project. When I went in and saw all the older spec sheets that had been replaced, I deleted them and voila! it dropped two dress sizes. It was better than the keto diet!
Thanks!
I’ll keep you posted.
They were going to play it locally, and I was trying to slim down the size of the entire project. When I went in and saw all the older spec sheets that had been replaced, I deleted them and voila! it dropped two dress sizes. It was better than the keto diet!