Getting Path Translation Rules

Here we have prepared detailed information about how to find working "Path Translation Rules" for heterogeneous networks.

From Windows to Mac

If you cannot find the correct path translation rule then there is an easy, yet very effective method to get the complete path to another computer. First, you have to establish a connection to the remote Macintosh computer. This can be done easily with the “Network Environment” function. There you can already see the first part of the PTR – in this case it is “\\192.168.1.17\RealFlow”. Now that there is a connection with the OS X computer you can open a browser and enter:

\\192.168.1.17

You will now see an image of the remote computer's directories and you can click through the volumes and folders until you have reached your destination folder. In the browser's address line you will now see the entire path – including the PTR. You can use this with any other machine in your network as well:

\\192.168.1.17\RealFlow\scenes

If you want to use the browser path, please do not forget the terminating backslash. The final address for the “Path Translation Rule” is:

\\192.168.1.17\RealFlow\scenes\

A view of the remote Macintosh computer's folder system in Windows 7. In the "Address" bar you can see the PTR.

In some cases it is not possible to connect from a Windows-based system to a OS X computers with the Mac's IP address. If you observe this behaviour, please also try to login with the Mac's network name. You can find this name here:

OS X computer > System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name

If not already done, you should also enable “Windows Sharing” here. Once you have activated “Windows Sharing” you will be able to share additional drives in the “Shared Folders” section. To find this share point in the network, open a web browser and type to the address line:

\\Computer_Name_of_the_Mac\

“Computer_Name_of_the_Mac” has to substituted with the name you can see in “Sharing” preferences, e.g. “MyMac”. Please keep in mind that a computer name will always be translated into capital letters:

\\MACPRO\

With this notation it should finally be possible to access the files and folders on the remote OS X machine.

From Mac to Windows

Under OS X there is also a very convenient way to find out complete network paths. Please establish a network connection with the Windows PC running the “Job Manager”, e.g. with OS X's “Connect with server...” command. There you can enter a remote computer's IP and login to it. To get the network path, browse to the folder where you can see the desired directory (here: “RealFlow Projects”), open the “TextEdit” application and switch to plain text mode with

Cmd + Shift + T

Now, simply drag the target folder's icon (“RealFlow Projects”) to the empty canvas of “TextEdit” and you can see the complete path directly. This is exactly what you have to enter in the “Mac” field of the PC's “Path Translation Rules”.

If the Windows client(s) show “unknown path” errors though everything is correctly configured then you might need the OS X machine's computer name instead of the IP. A Mac computer name can be found in the “System Preferences” panel under “Sharing”. The name that can be seen here simply replaces the IP: