MichaelHerron
Posts: 112
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:36 pm

FFF file location?

I've been looking for the new location for the FFF file in 3.0, but haven't found it yet. We have two users and we'd like to share the same files. We had this working in 2.2, but now it hides them...

Where are they stored?
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KeyboardWarrior
Posts: 480
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:02 pm

Re: FFF file location?

MichaelHerron wrote:I've been looking for the new location for the FFF file in 3.0, but haven't found it yet. We have two users and we'd like to share the same files. We had this working in 2.2, but now it hides them...

Where are they stored?
When you download the profile from the Configuration Assistant, it's not accessible as it's stored in the registry. However, you can go to File-->Export FFF file to create and export a FFF file.
MichaelHerron
Posts: 112
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Re: FFF file location?

KeyboardWarrior wrote:
MichaelHerron wrote:I've been looking for the new location for the FFF file in 3.0, but haven't found it yet. We have two users and we'd like to share the same files. We had this working in 2.2, but now it hides them...

Where are they stored?
When you download the profile from the Configuration Assistant, it's not accessible as it's stored in the registry. However, you can go to File-->Export FFF file to create and export a FFF file.
I see.. When you create a new material or a new quality setting--it is not obvious as to which settings are retained. I'm used to going into the FFF file and manually adding items to the autoconfig sections... is this still possible?

I'm also gonna guess that users can't share a "live" profile.. any updates will need to be re-exported and re-imported in order to stay current?
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jimc
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Re: FFF file location?

you have profiles that you use and import that are stored within the software. you see them in the dropdown list like it always was. when you make changes to the settings it will tell you (modified). if you want to save those change you can update the profile within s3d. if you want to save a fff file to disk or in a file on your computer then you export the profile out of s3d and save it where ever you want.
MichaelHerron
Posts: 112
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:36 pm

Re: FFF file location?

jimc wrote:you have profiles that you use and import that are stored within the software. you see them in the dropdown list like it always was. when you make changes to the settings it will tell you (modified). if you want to save those change you can update the profile within s3d. if you want to save a fff file to disk or in a file on your computer then you export the profile out of s3d and save it where ever you want.
This is workable, but as a CubePro user, the profiles are constantly being updated and improved(for the uninitiated, the CubePro is an abysmal, wretched printer that is natively unsupported by simplilfy, but through huge amounts of scripting and post-processing, made quite usable and far less wretched by Simplify3D.) With prior versions, profiles were stored on a network drive and every change was immediately accessible to all users. Now, every change would need to be exported and re-imported by all(both) users. Its a little less convenient for us, but for the masses, keeping the profiles internal is probably the right thing to do.

This deserves a new post, but i'll start it here:
How do you update and modify the Autoconfigure for Quality and Autoconfigure for material settings? The only way i can affect them is to export the fff file, modify it with a text editor, then re-import it. Is this the only way? it seems settings related to quality and materials should automatically update their respective autoconfig sections...
JoeJ
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Re: FFF file location?

Just change them in the UI and then click "Update profile". Now that just saves them in the internal S3D system. If you want to see that reflected in a text file, then you need to go to File --> export FFF
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AK_Eric
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Re: FFF file location?

Will piggyback on his: Upgrades to v3.0 are fan-tastic. But this is a step backwards regards to the profile functionality in a professional work environment. We also have distributed FFF files on our network multiple people share, and update live. Having to jump through these hoops to import\export is redundant, can introduce errors...: You basically have to do it every time to make sure you're up to date. Why break what was already working fine? :-(

If the casual user never dealt with this distribution to begin with, I don't see the benefit of internalizing this system and impacting your larger-scale users: Anytime anyone changes a profile you need to setup an email list (or some other notification mechanism) to make sure everyone knows to re-import the latest data. Sure, once your profiles are tuned in they shouldn't be changing that much, but this system can introduce errors when in the past, with a shared repository, it was pretty error proof. Not to mention if you wanted to (easily) store your profiles in version control like Perforce, Git, SVN etc. You can still do it by exporting them, but again, uber-clunky.

At home, this isn't such a big deal to me: I'm the only user updating stuff. But at work this is frustrating.

3.0, overall FTW, but this is a bummer.
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MikeO
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Re: FFF file location?

I agree, I love V3.0, but I'd like to see this feature changed.

I'm the only user of S3D here, but my backup procedure involves copying all important files to an offsite location.

I've got a script I run to grab the files I need from various locations, and this new method breaks that. Now I have to remember to export all of my .fff files before doing the backup.

And individual .fff files can only be exported one at a time, and (in Windows 7 at least) require each file name be selected from a drop-down list, then manually typed as part of the process of saving it to a local directory.

What would be much easier for me to live with would be a way to select some or all of the .fff files for export, in one operation, just by, say, highlighting all the ones to export, then just specify the destination directory and have it happen. Could that option be added?
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jimc
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Re: FFF file location?

how the fff files and profiles are handled is no different than it was before. buttons are in different locations but overall its the same concept and functionality. your profiles are stored within s3d or on your computer which is export. you can update them which was called save in 2.2.2 or you can export. nothing has really changed. if it worked for you in the past then the procedure should be no different.
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AK_Eric
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Re: FFF file location?

jimc: You're a wicked knowledgable guy when it comes to S3D, but... I'll disagree with you here. There's a big difference to just import a profile from a network drive and use/update it immediately compared to all the new hoops to jump though.

(And to be honest, this isn't a big issue. It's not like I have a team of guys updating hundreds of profiles every day: There's two of us. It just sucks when a workflow goes in the reverse direction during an 'update')

This is the simplest way I know how to do the same operation in v2 & v3:

V2:
* Open FFF Settings
* Import profile: It auto finds my network drive, I get it.
* Make change: 'Export' on top of itself in network drive for next person to pickup.

V3 :
* File -> Import FFF Profile: Browse to network drive and find it.
* Open your FFF Settings and 'select process':
* But this creates a duplicate (updated) local copy: You already had one with this name, now you have two, one with a number on the end.
* Delete the old one with the 'good name'.
* 'Save as new' on the new one, with the old name (since you can't rename these...)
* Remove the imported one with the number on the end so naming is consistent to spec.
* Make change to it and 'update profile'. But this only saves your local version.
* File -> Export FFF profile: browse to network drive and save on top of the previous one.

There's no argument this is a worse process than before. Not 100x worse, but worse. Maybe... 2.3x worse ;)
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