Saving Assets

[dawn_mcardle]

Could you explain the purpose of saving an asset and where it's being saved?

I am able to save a modified Environment (I don't know where it goes), but when I access the Enviroment through the Asset Manager, it is unmodified.

I am not able to save a modified Material.  I get the error message: "Overwriting asset 'Paint black' failed. Please check your write permissions."

[sinje_thiedemann]

I assume you're using the VRED Example Assets that are installed with VRED.

These are located under C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\VREDPro-7.53\data\Assets, for example. You can also right-click in the Asset Manager on a folder an select "Open in Explorer", that will show you the location.

To have write access in that specific folder you would need to run VRED as Administrator. Otherwise you cannot overwrite an example asset.

But I would recommend you use another folder for your custom assets. By default VRED creates a folder under C:/Users/ (usernname) /Documents/Autodesk VRED/Assets for this purpose. This one should also be in the folder list of the Asset Manager. It is empty by default.

[dawn_mcardle]

I can save a modified Material orginally found in the VRED Example Assets into the C:/Users/C-3PO/Documents/Autodesk VRED/Assets folder by dragging it there.  I just don't understand the purpose of the Save button (green crayon icon over the "shaderball").

Follow me:

Assign the Paint Black (found under Carpaints > Unicolor) to an object.

Click Modify.

Change the base color to grey.

Click Save.

A warning comes up: "Material 'Paint black' references the material asset 'Paint black'.

Update (overwrite) the existing asset in the Asset Manager?"

Say yes.

Now a warning says, "Overwriting asset 'Paint black' failed. Please check your write permissions."

So I know if I want to save this as an asset, I can drag this Material into my C:/Users/C-3PO/Documents/Autodesk VRED/Assets folder (or a custom folder located below it).

So, I'm wondering what is the point of that Save button that isn't working for me?  Do I need to redirect the folder to where it's attempting to save?  How?  It's just a little confusing and I'm always afraid I'm going to overwrite the default Assets.  Thanks.

[sinje_thiedemann]

Do I understand it correctly that you want to create custom assets from the example assets?

The save button always tries to save the material at the location where the original asset is located (tries to overwrite). So it fails if the location is not writable.

The purpose of the save button is actually to save changes to one of your own assets, in your own asset library.

Creating a new custom material asset in your own user folder based on the example assets is something you have to do manually. As you said, you can drag the modified material into your own user folder, and choose "Create New" in the dialog that pops up.

Then your material in the scene will be referenced to this newly created material asset. You can check by right-clicking the material in the material editor, Asset > Find in Asset Manager. That will select the corresponding asset in the Asset manager.

[dawn_mcardle]

Ok, thanks.  That partially answers my questions.  I'm inquiring about these specific things because I teach VRED and want to make sure I fully understand it.

So, the workflow for saving a custom material or Modified Asset is to drag into a custom folder in C:/  

As for an Environment, say I click Save after I Modified the Airfield by changing the Exposure to 1.1.  It appears to save.

When I open a new scene and drag Airfield onto my dome, the exposure is back to the default: 1.

In its folder, Airfield was saved in February, so that's good- I didn't overwrite it, but where did it go when I saved it?

So, would you just ignore that Save button unless you have permission and intend to overwrite the default assets?

Is there a benefit to referencing Assets that would reduce your file size?

[sinje_thiedemann · Accepted solution]

Hi,

you're welcome.

I just reproduced your steps with the example environment. Actually, here we have the same problem with missing write permissions. So the environment was not saved at all.

In this case, no message box is popping up to tell you about the failed save, as it is for the material asset. Instead you get an error message in the Terminal:

Failed to write file 'C:/ProgramData/Autodesk/VREDPro-7.52/data/Assets/Environments/ENV_Airfield/Airfield.xml'.
[Overwrite] Could not save environment node Airfield.

I admit that this is a bit inconsistent...
This would be a general advice: Look at the Terminal output when you perform some action and wonder if something has happened or not. Many error messages go in the terminal instead of error message boxes.
You can also notice that saving was not successful by seeing that the environment is still marked as modified. That would not be the case if saving was successful.

    dawn wrote:

    So, the workflow for saving a custom material or Modified Asset is to drag into a custom folder in C:/  

Yes, if you want to save it as a new asset. For modifying existing (custom) assets you can use the save button.

I'm not sure what you mean with your last question. Could you rephrase it, please? I can just tell you that using assets don't reduce the file size, everything is saved in the project file.

Regards
Sinje