Image file swap-out

[FxDrew]

Hi everyone,

I've got a project where I need to be able to update image files that are indexed in the library, but have it work seamlessly in the background. I would not be swapping out a file that would be currently active. Anyone have any ideas? I want to avoid having Catalyst perform a SCAN function to update the library unless there is a way to automate this with an apple script/automator function.

My initial thought is to use a quartz composer file that is indexed in catalyst, but would reference a file that I could replace with the same file name and storage location.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers,

[NevBull]

Hi Andrew

No way that I have found up to now - would be a very useful function to be able to swap files out like that!

Nev.

[SourceChild]

Drew,

If I understand you correctly, you need to change and update files but do not need to see the thumbnails or file attributes, correct?

This is a very crude workaround but has worked for me in the past on DMX controlled Cats.

Create a blank Movie (I do this with a 10% scale of my default test pattern). Make it a few frames (one frame is enough). Create it at your default aspect ratio for your content (this is the case in my example of default test pattern).

Once you have this file created, create 254 copies and place them in the folder you'll be using. Then use a batch renumber utility (I prefer A Better Finder Rename) to number each file 0-255 and include a space and then the character z before the name. Example: 000 zTest File.mov

Then use an SSH replication/backup application like Chronosync to keep your source content in sync so that you do not need to enable File Sharing.

Set Chronosync to keep a blind replication to the destination content drives on each Cat machine. As you add files to the host drive, run chronosync to update all your machines.

Now the trick is this:
Since you named all of your files with the 5th character as z, as long as you add a new file with a 5th character less than z alphabetically, it will show up in your content drive on your Cat computer ahead of the test file. Catalyst will simply ignore the older file since the new file is alphabetically ahead of it. Furthermore, if you know you will keep versioning a file then use a backwards numbering system so that your originals are simply ignored for newer files.

Example:

• 000 zTest File.mov
• 000 10-Show File Version 1.mov
• 000 09-Show File Version 2.mov
• 000 08-Show File Version 3.mov
• 000 07-Show File Version 4.mov
• 000 06-Show File Version 5.mov
• 000 05-Show File Version 6.mov
• 000 04-Show File Version 7.mov

In this example Catalyst only sees 000 04-Show File Version 7.mov and ignores the others.

The downfall of this method:

This is dangerous. If you change a file while Catalyst is running the previous version, It Will Crash. Also, the thumbnails in the file scan will be wrong, also the names in scan file will be wrong.

I will note that this is not exactly the right way to do this. However, it is a crude workaround that works.