KineBody Pro Help: Saving Repositories

KineBody Pro Operating Instructions:

(last updated 240424)

Backing Up & Restoring the Repository

For reasons explained on the Save & Restore Poses - Background page, it can be worthwhile to backup the KineBody Repository to a file on your device, and then later to restore that backup into the Repository.

This page provides instructions to save & restore that file, targeted to users of our PoseTools subscription. Note that non-subscribers can also restore the Repository from a file, but with fewer options than shown here. Streamlined instructions for non-subscribers are provided at Loading Poses from a File.

Users of our Android Edition should review the special considerations regarding saving files, at Saving KineBody Pro Files to Android.

Instructions:

Controls for these operations are located in the 'Save & Restore' section at the right side of the KineBody Pro window.

To:	Do this:
Save the current Repository to a file	(Optional) Enter a filename, with extension, into the textbox to the right of (or below) the [Save Repository ] button. This filename is originally set to ‘KineBodyRepos.txt’. If you change it, your new filename will be retained for reuse, in your browser/app storage area. When you reuse the filename, the operating system will add a suffix in parentheses, e.g., KineBodyRepos (2).txt. The suffix will be changed automatically each time you reuse the same file name, so that previously saved files with the same name won't be overwritten. Users of our Webapp Edition can also modify the destination (path) for the saved file, as described below in the Details section. Click on the [Save Repository] button. After the pose is saved, a confirmation message of the form 'Repository saved to <path &/or filename>' will appear (temporarily) below the repository filename name text box. Using the Webapp, you can also confirm the save by reviewing the new contents of the dowloads folder, typically by pressing Ctrl+J.
Restore the Repository from a file	Decide whether to Merge or Replace the existing poses (as described in the Background page), then indicate your choice via the Replace vs Merge checkboxes. [Optional] If you chose to Replace existing content, you may wish to backup your current KineBody Repository to a file (using the instructions above) . Click the [Load Repository] button. A file browser window will pop up, allowing you to navigate to and select your desired file. Once you’ve selected the repository file, a confirmation message will appear briefly, below the Replace and Merge checkboxes. If you get an error message, press the associated [Ok] button before retrying. You can verify the contents of the new or merged repository by scanning the options in the ‘View a stored pose’ menu.

To:

Do this:

Save the current Repository to a file

(Optional) Enter a filename, with extension, into the textbox to the right of (or below) the [Save Repository ] button.

This filename is originally set to ‘KineBodyRepos.txt’. If you change it, your new filename will be retained for reuse, in your browser/app storage area. When you reuse the filename, the operating system will add a suffix in parentheses, e.g., KineBodyRepos (2).txt. The suffix will be changed automatically each time you reuse the same file name, so that previously saved files with the same name won't be overwritten.

Users of our Webapp Edition can also modify the destination (path) for the saved file, as described below in the Details section.
Click on the [Save Repository] button.

After the pose is saved, a confirmation message of the form
'Repository saved to <path &/or filename>'
will appear (temporarily) below the repository filename name text box.

Using the Webapp, you can also confirm the save by reviewing the new contents of the dowloads folder, typically by pressing Ctrl+J.

Restore the Repository from a file

Decide whether to Merge or Replace the existing poses (as described in the Background page), then indicate your choice via the Replace vs Merge checkboxes.

[Optional] If you chose to Replace existing content, you may wish to backup your current KineBody Repository to a file (using the instructions above) .

Click the [Load Repository] button. A file browser window will pop up, allowing you to navigate to and select your desired file.

Once you’ve selected the repository file, a confirmation message will appear briefly, below the Replace and Merge checkboxes. If you get an error message, press the associated [Ok] button before retrying.

You can verify the contents of the new or merged repository by scanning the options in the ‘View a stored pose’ menu.

Details:

Merge suffix: The merge suffix has the form ‘_N’, where N is a simple integer. The integer starts at 1 and increases by 1 for each additional repository restored via the Merge option. Note that the merge suffix starts with an underscore (_) character, and is used in addition to the ‘pose number’ or ‘animation number’ suffix, e.g., ‘-12’, which looks similar to the merge suffix, but starts with a dash (-).

As shown by the example above, the merge suffix is associated with the ‘origin’ of the pose, i.e. which of possibly several merge operations it came from. It's not related at all to the pose number or animation number suffix.

The ultimate intent of the various suffixes is to force names within a given repository to be unique. Note that you can modify the root part of a pose name, as described here, but the suffixes cannot be changed. This restriction is imposed to keep the numbering simple and automatic.

Alternative file destination folder: If you're using the Webapp edition of KineBody Pro, the repositories are automatically saved into the ‘downloads’ folder that you designate for your browser. You can review or change where this folder is located, via the browser settings page:

Chrome: main menu > Settings > Downloads section.
Firefox: main menu > Settings, General section > Files & Applications subsection > Downloads.

Caution: these browsers also offer an option 'Always ask you where to save files' or similar - if you select this approach, it will apply to ALL of your web downloads, not just KineBody Pro files.