3ds Max® 2012 Bible

BONUS CHAPTER 3

Using Asset Tracking

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting up Asset Tracking

Using the Asset Tracking interface

How often do you go into your garage during the winter months? Unless you have a pair of warm overalls or a space heater, you probably just throw in any tools you use, the Christmas lights, spare quarts of oil, and the kids’ bikes wherever they fit as you make a mad dash back into the warm house; and then when spring comes, you have a real mess on your hands.

Max projects can be the same. During an aggressive project, Max files, textures, and render passes get saved all over the network. By the time the project is finished, you may have a hard time reusing things simply because you can't find anything. This dilemma is compounded when you work on a team with several individuals throwing stuff all over the place.

An asset tracking system can help with this problem by introducing a system that acts as a little secretary, logging every object thrown to the network. This little secretary also is smart enough to keep track of the latest updates of all files, making sure that each accessed file includes them. It also locks any file that is being used to keep unwanted fingers out of the pie.

Setting Up Asset Tracking

Max's asset tracking features provide support for several systems, including Autodesk's Vault, Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe, CVS, and Perforce. Each of these systems can be accessed using the Server Launch Provider menu command in the Asset Tracking interface. ...