Folder Dictionary

When sending renders through a network, it’s possible that the path to a same file looks different on different machines. Especially when using MacOS and WIndows machines on the same network.

For example, let’s say Machine 1, is sharing the folder called D:\Work

If you open the project in that machine, the path can look like:

D:\Work\Project\graphics.aep

But to the other machines that path will be different, for example on another Windows machine it will look like this:

\\machine1\Work\Project\graphics.aep 

And on a MacOS machine it can look like this:

/Volumes/Work/Project/graphics.aep 

That’s where the Folder Dictionary comes in. It allows each machine to save a list of paths from different machines so it can convert them to an equivalent path that it can find.

You can find the Folder Dictionary in the File menu… 

And it will look like this:

Here you can add and remove entries.

Each entry specifies an incoming path (what the path looks like on the other machine) and a local equivalent (what the path looks like in this machine). 

You can make an entry apply to a specific machine, or to all machines, which is handy for cross-platform networks. For example on a MacOS machine, that will receive Render Jobs from Windows machines.

Importing and Exporting

Render Boss allows you to import and export the current dictionary to a file. That way it can be easily transferred to additional render machines.

Importing a Dictionary will replace all the entries with the ones in the incoming file.

Import and Merge will add the entries in the incoming file. If there are repeated entries, it will use the ones in the incoming file as well.