Digital Workshop

Opus Pro 04XE

I guess I'm stupid 'cause I cannot make the resource manager do what I guess its supposed to do - manage resources.

A friend sent me a CD with an .imp file in the root directory and two folders. The first was a folder called 'A resources' and under that as a sub-folder is 'B voiceovers'

For some reason, 'A resources' had nothing in it and everything is in the subfolder.

Now all I want to do is move the resources into 'A resources' and delete the other folder. Can I do it - hell no.

I end up with the resources sitting in both folders and nothing shown on screen - no resources that is.

Publication properties show the resources as being where I want them. Consolidate does nothing except flash a bar across the screen and affects nothing.

I guess I'm missing something somewhere.

Suggestions most welcome before I'm reduced to hammer and chisel on my computer - and Opus.

John

Hi John,
You're not stupid -- the resource manager still frightens me after using Opus for 4 years.
A good tutorial about this monster would be a good idea.
A detailed workthrough of why, how,and when you need it to solve problems would be welcome.
Something titled "how to dig yourself out of a resources hole with the Resource Manager"

Paul

Hi Paul,

Monster's the word.

'Change data paths' sounds ever so straightforward, and relevant for what I want to do - but I can't get it to do anything remotely like what I need.

It really ought to be very straightforward to tell Opus - 'My resources for this app are in this directory, move them to that directory.' But it isn't.

Resource Manager might be a gift to the erudite - but it seems rather less than friendly to me.

I think I'm going to have to re-create the app from scratch - what a total waste of time.

John

John,

To address your query: with Opus CLOSED, use Windows Explorer to move all the resources from "B voiceovers" to "A resources".

Delete the empty "B voiceovers" directory.

Now open Opus, and open your project. It will say that there are 82 resources missing, and "Would you like to open the Resource Manager to deal with it?"

Click OK, and the Resource Manager will open. What you'll then see is your "B voiceovers" directory with a red cross or line over it.

Right-click on this "B voiceovers" folder name, and say "Change Resource Path".

Then fill in the "re-map Resources at this location"

c:\A resources\B voiceovers\

To this location

c:\A resources\

Read the other settings and tick as necessary... I recommend keeping "Only change resources that exist in the new location" ticked, and "Resource Folders Selected in Tree".

Click OK, and another box will come up showing the resources being remapped. Click OK when done.

Resources now remapped.

John, I have to disagree with Paul's view... I use the Resource Manager all the time to re-map all or part of the resources for projects, without problem.

I need to do this as I work on the start, and the end, of major projects, but pass them over to another developer to do the bulk of the work. This person will have their drives labelled differently, their folders sorted differently, even their program files on a different drive... the Resource Manager enables both of us to get the projects running smoothly each time with the minimum of fuss.

The only confusion I can imagine is if you're expecting the Resource Manager to actually MOVE the files... in which case, that isn't what it does... it merely maps where they're being accessed from.

It's a very valuable tool, and one worth playing on a test project with for 10 mins to conquer!

Thank you Linda for the detailed explaination of a real world example.
For a new user -- use of the Resource Manager is not intuitive, and I know of more than a few users that have rewritten Pubs from scratch because of missing resources.
I use it only once or twice a year because I work primarily with vectors and use Opus mainly as a prototyping tool,and have problems because the terminology used inside the manager could possibly be improved.
thanks

Paul

Hi Linda,

Very many thanks for the 'step through'.

I'll take your word that the Resource Manager is very valuable. However, the analogy (heresay or otherwise) of a starving tribe of people being dropped canned food but having to waste much of it in the opening process because they couldn't work out what the tin-openers were for, springs to mind.

I spent about hour and half trying out the various possibilities of the Resource Manager before giving up. OK - in context, maybe I'm a pigmy when it comes to understanding Opus, but I'm not unintelligent in the general sense - and Resource Manager sure had me beaten.

I think Paul's correct in it needing a tutorial of its own.

Off now to try out your solution

Very many thanks.

John

Hi Linda,

Worked fine - thank you.

I had printed out much of the help file for Resource Manager, but got nowhere fast - until your input.

LATER EDIT

Spoke too soon

Saved the app, and lo and behold, the unwanted folder and duplicates of all resources were recreated by Opus!

It was only when I saved the app with a different name that the unwanted folder wasn't recreated by Opus.

So - problem solved. But I'm still not convinced about the user-friendliness of Resource Manager or its help files.

John

'Bump' !!

I have found Resource manager useful... somewhat.

However I have to agree with some of the sentiments "it's not intuitive" or "it doesn't seem to do what it's supposed to do".

Case in point. I brought over a Pub from a WinXP machine and although I have the needed files and resources on the new Vista system... Opus will always open that Pub with "33 Resources missing... etc". In the Resource Manager, I am presented with the path: C:\Documents and Settings\UsernameonWinXP\path...\path...

I cannot purge or clear these. On the other hand... may be I am just not using this feature correctly. Changing data path looked like it would do the trick, but not quite so. I do not have a workaround or a solution as yet.

So just a 'heads-up' in case anyone encounters that path that cannot be valid in Windows Vista.... IMO.