The File Browser is an interactive browser to navigate through
the network to either load or write scripts, images, lookup files, expressions,
or tracking files. With the Browser, you list images as either a long
list of individual files, or toggle to a sequence view showing you the frame
range of a given sequence. Additionally, you can filter out certain file types
so you are only looking at images and scripts, for example. The 2.2 Browser
has been rewritten to have expanded capabilities. You can now create directories,
or delete files and directories directly in the Browser. Its behavior
has been expanded to act in a more intelligent way by remembering types of directories
that you have searched in, as well as giving you the ability to have a favorite
set of directories to browse in.
Calling the Browser
The File Browser can be called from the interface either when
creating or editing a FileIn, a FileOut, a PullDown, a
PullUp, or an Average command. Additionally, the Load-
and Save Script buttons access the browser. Clicking on any of
these buttons will launch the browser.
When editing a file path in the Parameter View, the browser can
be re-launched by clicking on the folder icon next to the file path in the individual
node:

The Browser should look something like this:

Navigating in
the Browser
You can go to a directory in several ways:
- Type the entire path with or without the file name itself in the File
name field at the bottom of the Browser.
Absolute file paths can be one of several styles:
/my_proj/pix/my_file.iff
/d4/my_proj/pix/my_file.iff
D:/my_proj/pix/my_file.iff
//Biggo/D/my_proj/pix/my_file.iff
|
Local file paths may also be used:
- Use the Directories pulldown menu at the top of the Browser:
The pulldown menu will allow you to browse up your entire tree, including
your root directory. After that is the favorites section which will
always include the directory you launched Shake from, the $HOME directory,
the Shake installation, and any favorite directories you have entered. It
will also automatically add recently visited directories to the list.
You can explicitly add directories to the list with one of two ways:
The Bookmark button. To temporarily add an entry to the favorites list,
hit the Bookmark button.
To save the settings in your script, make sure "include interface settings"
is turned on when you save your script. When loading a script, make sure "include
interface settings" is on. Otherwise, go to File - Save Interface
Settings, and they will load by default.
You can also permanently add to your favorites list, by adding an entry in
a ui .h file similar to these:
nuiFileBrowserAddFavorite("D:/icons/scr");
nuiFileBrowserAddFavorite("/shots/shot1/pix");
You can also tell Shake what directories it should look in when you first
start up the software with the following ui.h settings. Each listing is for
a type of file, i.e., images, scripts, expressions, etc. Note the slash at
the end of the path:
gui.fileBrowser.lastImageDir= "C:/pix/" ;
gui.fileBrowser.lastScriptDir= "$MYPROJ/shakeScripts/" ;
gui.fileBrowser.lastExprDir= "//Server/shakeExpressions/" ;
gui.fileBrowser.lastTrackerDir= "$MYPROJ/tracks/" ;
gui.fileBrowser.lastAnyDir= "C:/" ;
For more information on a ui .h file, jump to Customize
Shake.
- Navigation in the file listings.
By clicking on folders or drives, you will enter that directory or drive.
|
This icon indicates a folder. |
|
This icon indicates a drive. |
|
This button will take you to the last directory you looked
at. |
|
This button will take you up one directory.
You can also hit Backspace to do the same thing.
|
up/down arrow keys |
These will carry you up and down in the list. |
Once you have clicked in the file listings, hitting a letter on the keyboard
will jump to the next occurrence of a file or directory starting with that
letter.
Selecting Files
You can select files in several ways:
- Selecting Single files:
-You can double-click on the file you want
-You can use the up/down arrow keys, and then hit the
OK button or Enter on the Keyboard.
-You can hit the first letter of the file you want. Hitting it again will
jump to the next file starting with that letter. Hit the OK button
or Enter on the Keyboard.
- Selecting multiple files in the same directory:
You can drag-select multiple files if they
are in the same directory. Hit OK and they will be loaded. |
 |
You can Shift-select several specific individual
files if they are in the same directory. |
 |
-
Selecting multiple images in different directories:
When reading in images, you can use the Next button on the Browser
to load the current image(s) and keep to Browser open to continue
to add files. When you have reached the last file, hit OK instead
of Next. At any time in this process, you can access the Node View
to examine an image.
You can also hit
the Space Bar to load in another file.
Viewing Controls
There are several tools to help you in the Browser.
-
Arranging the file List
Clicking on the title of a column will arrange the list according to that
type of information, i.e., clicking on Modified will list files by creation
date. Hitting it again will reverse the order of information.
-
Toggle Buttons.
These buttons will also change what gets listed in the
Browser:
Short Listing |
Toggling this on will list out only file names, type
and size. |
Sequence Listing |
This will toggle on and off the listing of an image
sequence as one listing or as several. If you want to read in the
entire sequence, make sure this is on. These icons signify single
or sequence files:
Indicates a single file
Indicates an image sequence
|
Images Only |
Lists out only recognized image types. |
Show exact sizes |
Will show the exact file size in kilobytes, rather than
the rounded off megabytes. |
Show full path |
Will list out the entire path of the file you have selected.
|
Filter |
Use this to filter out information. Use
* and ? as your wildcards:
Wildcard |
Means... |
* |
any set of characters for any length |
Example |
Lists.... |
*.cin |
a.cin, image.cin, image.0001.cin, ... |
*.cin.* |
a.cin.0001, image.cin.hr
|
*.cin* |
a.cin, image.0001.cin, image.cin.0001 |
image.*.tga |
image.1.tga, image.10.tga,
image.0100.tga |
Wildcard |
Means... |
? |
any character in that single position |
Example |
Lists.... |
?.cin |
a.cin, 1.cin |
??.iff |
ab.iff, 01.iff
|
a.??? |
a.cin, a.iff, a.tga |
image.????.iff |
image.0001.iff, image.9999.ifff |
image.???1.iff |
image.0001.iff, image.0011.iff, image.1111.iff |
|
-

This button will refresh the listing of the current directory in case you
have recently added or deleted files from it.
Reading or Writing Sequences
When reading a file, you can select a file by clicking on the file name, or
click in the main file display area and use the hot keys as described above.
You can also simply type the name in the File Name box at the
bottom. Once it appears, you hit OK to validate. If you are reading in
an image sequence, you should either hit
(see below) or replace the frame number with the proper frame symbol. For example,
if you want to read in image.0001.cin, image.0002.cin, etc., you
would make sure your File Name is image.#.cin. For more information,
see About Time.
When writing file, select the directory you want to be in, and enter the file
name in the File Name window. If you are writing an image sequence,
be sure to insert a # or a @ sign where you want the frame number to go in the
name. This is a table of examples:
Files |
Shake
Notation |
image.0001.cin, image.0002.cin |
image.#.cin |
image.1.tif, image.2.tif |
image.@.tif |
image.iff.0001, image.iff.0002 |
image.iff.# |
image1.tga, image2.tga |
image@.tga |
image.001.tga, image.002.tga |
image.@@@.tga |
image.01, image.02 |
image.@@ |
Once you are finished, hit OK to validate.