Load and Save file-export-preset to/from file

[Friksel]

I have several file export settings defined in my own presets. I'd like to move these export presets around per preset to other systems and other Affinity software on the same machine and make copies and backups of them.

I've noticed there's a file_export_options.dat file in the user-folder somewhere within AppData, but that doesn't seem to be made for (compatible) distribution and exchanging. Also with this file it's obviously impossible to export a single filepreset alone to move that to a different system or another Affinity application.

Also because that *.dat-file is a binary without some Affinity recognisable extension, like pallets have for example, it's clear these are not made to exchange and we never know if using them on a different system (or newer version of Designer/Photo/Publisher with maybe more settings added to the program) have them running without problems or crashing the system. If these were xml's or json's that would be a lot easier for us to have faith in compatibility and we would be able to edit them at least, but they are not so it's on our own risk now to move these files around, which I don't really like and we're obviously not meant to do that.

So I would like to see a way to export a preset to a file, like *.afFilepreset or json or xml. And to be able to import this preset from file in another Affinity application. That way we can create our preset once and copy them to other systems and Affinity products on the same machine. So we have the same presets everywhere and don't need to toggle on those settings on and off on all machines and software.

I put this in the Affinity Designer forum, but the same goes for Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. It would be great if we could also move these presets around from Designer to Photo and Publisher (on the supported file-types ofcoarse)

[Friksel]

Actually it would be nice if all apps could use the already exising 'Common'-folder to store these export presets instead of storing in their own seperate app entries! 

Like this:

C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Common\1.0\exportPresets

That way we could at least have the same presets available on all three Affinity products on the same machine/account! And when we adjust a preset it's synchronised throughout the other Affinity products on the machine.

An export-to-file option would still be needed to export our settings by file to other machines and to backup these settings. But if all Affinity products would use this common-folder (they already have and use for other things, like clipboard and dictionaries) we would only have to paste these preset-files to just one folder on each machine! 

[R C-R]

41 minutes ago, Friksel said:

Actually it would be nice if all apps could use the already exising 'Common'-folder to store these export presets instead of storing in their own seperate app entries! 

AFAIK, there is no Mac equivalent to the Windows Affinity 'Common' folder -- in fact, all the per user Publisher stuff is stored at a substantially different file path from the Designer & Photos ones, so at best this would be a Windows only feature. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I am not sure any 'all the eggs in one basket' approach is a good one.

So what I would like to see instead is some kind of general preset/resources manager, one not limited to export or any other kind of presets, & capable of displaying & managing the distribution of brushes, swatches pallets, assets, shortcuts, & etc. across all the apps. Since this would take a lot of development work, I would not mind if it was sold as a separate "Affinity Manager" app, like with the others as separate Mac & Windows versions. If it was priced about the same as the iPad apps, I suspect there would be more than enough buyers for Serif to cover development costs & generate a bit more profit, too.

[Friksel]

On 6/23/2019 at 2:02 PM, R C-R said:

AFAIK, there is no Mac equivalent to the Windows Affinity 'Common' folder -- in fact, all the per user Publisher stuff is stored at a substantially different file path from the Designer & Photos ones, so at best this would be a Windows only feature. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I am not sure any 'all the eggs in one basket' approach is a good one.

So what I would like to see instead is some kind of general preset/resources manager, one not limited to export or any other kind of presets, & capable of displaying & managing the distribution of brushes, swatches pallets, assets, shortcuts, & etc. across all the apps. Since this would take a lot of development work, I would not mind if it was sold as a separate "Affinity Manager" app, like with the others as separate Mac & Windows versions. If it was priced about the same as the iPad apps, I suspect there would be more than enough buyers for Serif to cover development costs & generate a bit more profit, too.

I don't want 'resources'-software. Nor those cloud-based things. I just want to save a preset to a file or load it from a file.

And who talks about a Windows-only feature? Like it's impossible to create a common-folder on Mac...

[fde101]

14 minutes ago, Friksel said:

Like it's impossible to create a common-folder on Mac

Because of sandboxing rules in the app store...

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Friksel said:

I don't want 'resources'-software.

I suggested an 'Affinity Manager' app because a lot of people, myself included, would like a comprehensive way to manage all their Affinity resources across all their Affinity apps, including brushes, swatches, shortcuts, UI layouts, etc.

3 hours ago, fde101 said:

3 hours ago, Friksel said:

Like it's impossible to create a common-folder on Mac

Because of sandboxing rules in the app store...

... and because OS level sandboxing in general provides an extra layer of protection, not only from malicious apps but also from poorly written ones that potentially can cause problems with well written ones.

[Friksel]

23 hours ago, R C-R said:

I suggested an 'Affinity Manager' app because a lot of people, myself included, would like a comprehensive way to manage all their Affinity resources across all their Affinity apps, including brushes, swatches, shortcuts, UI layouts, etc.

... and because OS level sandboxing in general provides an extra layer of protection, not only from malicious apps but also from poorly written ones that potentially can cause problems with well written ones.

I understand. I personally hope Serif will start fixing some long standing breaking bugs first (like outline stroke and svg import export problems), than long awaiting feature requests like warps and image trace and UI improvements (weird opacity slider, renaming swatches, stuff like that, although great programs, a lot of improvements still could be done there). And hopefully only than, and if their team is big enough to maintain all applications, thinks about creating a new application. In other words: please stability and all the must-have features completed first before starting a new project.

[Roland Rick]

Oh, yes, I support this idea fully 

 

On 6/17/2019 at 8:18 PM, Friksel said:

I have several file export settings defined in my own presets. I'd like to move these export presets around per preset to other systems and other Affinity software on the same machine and make copies and backups of them.

I've noticed there's a file_export_options.dat file in the user-folder somewhere within AppData, but that doesn't seem to be made for (compatible) distribution and exchanging. Also with this file it's obviously impossible to export a single filepreset alone to move that to a different system or another Affinity application.

Also because that *.dat-file is a binary without some Affinity recognisable extension, like pallets have for example, it's clear these are not made to exchange and we never know if using them on a different system (or newer version of Designer/Photo/Publisher with maybe more settings added to the program) have them running without problems or crashing the system. If these were xml's or json's that would be a lot easier for us to have faith in compatibility and we would be able to edit them at least, but they are not so it's on our own risk now to move these files around, which I don't really like and we're obviously not meant to do that.

So I would like to see a way to export a preset to a file, like *.afFilepreset or json or xml. And to be able to import this preset from file in another Affinity application. That way we can create our preset once and copy them to other systems and Affinity products on the same machine. So we have the same presets everywhere and don't need to toggle on those settings on and off on all machines and software.

I put this in the Affinity Designer forum, but the same goes for Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. It would be great if we could also move these presets around from Designer to Photo and Publisher (on the supported file-types ofcoarse)

[nezumi]

I just upgraded my PC and I was hoping to move my old presets to the new installation. Correct me if I am wrong - at this moment I have to re-create these presets? I don't see any way to get the old ones copied to new installation..? I am on PC, win10

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, nezumi said:

I just upgraded my PC and I was hoping to move my old presets to the new installation. Correct me if I am wrong - at this moment I have to re-create these presets? I don't see any way to get the old ones copied to new installation..? I am on PC, win10

Assuming you purchased directly from the Serif Affinity Store, you could copy the data from your old PC to your new one. (I don't know if this will work for purchases from the Microsoft Store.)

You can find all your settings by pressing the Windows Key and R, and then typing or pasting the following into the Run box and pressing OK:

%AppData%\Affinity\

You'll get a File Explorer window, and should see directories for Photo, Designer, and Publisher. If you want the Photo settings, you could copy the Photo\1.0\user directory to the new machine and you'll copy all your settings for Photo, including export presets, brushes, etc. You could do the same for Designer by copying Designer\1.0\user to the new machine.

[nezumi]

Thanks @walt.farrell! It seems to be in AppData\Roaming\Affinity\ , will test if it does contain presets as well!

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome. And it does, in one of the (I think) .propcol files in the user directory.

[nezumi]

Yes sir! It worked Very cool! Again - much appreciate your help!