Main Menu - Export

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 04 Aug, 2014
4 min read

“Export” contains everything you need to store, manage and save your simulation data. Here you can also find "Export Central" – a sophisticated tool to specify file names, image formats, paths and attributes that should be written to a certain file or directory.

 

 

With a single click you can activate all options in "Export Central". Particularly with large object numbers this can be a very convenient way to save the desired data.

In contrast to the previous function, this one disables all export features. 

When you click on this entry you will be asked to confirm, because with “Yes”, all currently active export resources will be overwritten. If you do not want to lose your files please make backups and store them in a safe place. It is also important to know that resources from nodes in cache mode will not be overwritten – cached nodes do not export any files and only read existing files from disk. Click on “Cancel” to abort the process.

This command opens the "Export Central" window – RealFlow’s control centre for all kinds of files, export options and simulation data management.

The "Export Central" dialogue contains all functions and options to manage your scene and data files within a single window. Since this is a very complex tool, it is discussed separately here.

Sometimes, especially after many changes, RealFlow does not display the previously recorded files in the timeline. By using this function, all available simulation data will be read from their individual directories, and imported to be used, for example, for playback. RealFlow does not check for consistent simulation files and just loads all available BINs.

This little helper provides several alternatives to customize your RealFlow data files. The first one is “File Name Prefix” and is used to add a custom prefix to your BIN sequences. ”Frame/Extension” order represents the format (syntax) of file names from simulations. “Padding size” is the number of digits that is used to enumerate the recorded files. To avoid errors this number should always be set to 5.


Sometimes it necessary to export just a single BIN file for testing purposes or as an initial state. Using this function writes all particles positions at the current frame to one file.

XML is a common format for easy exchange. “XML” stands for “Extended Markup Language”. All currently selected nodes will be written to a single XML file. The advantage is that the files are very small in size and they are perfectly suited for exchange with other users or scenes and backup purposes. This function gives you the possibility to write the currently selected nodes to an XML file. You can choose which properties you want to store with the nodes and even animation curves are supported. “Selected nodes as XML” comes in handy when you want to reuse certain parts of scene in another project, for example a particular emitter setup, animated objects or the parameter configuration of splash emitters, to name but a few. You simply have to export the XML file, create a new project and reload the XML. All elements within the file will be automatically added including their animation settings and parameters. Particle or cache data are not written to the file – only the nodes, their settings and their orientation in space are saved.

Similar to the previous function, this option is used to store the entire scene containing all nodes in XML format. The benefits are exactly the same as explained before, but there all scene elements will be stored. Especially when you want to save backups of scenes, this function is very convenient. Another advantage is that XML can be edited and changed with any standard text editor. The XML format can also be used for RealFlow's automatic backups. In contrast to a complete FLW backup, the XML output is very fast. You will love this feature! Especially when you have to work on network drives.

XML files consider alternative paths and it is also possible to convert all paths into relative paths. This is of particular importance when you want to export an XML for use with the RealFlow RenderKit's XML import option. In the RenderKit you have the possibility of reading these XML (files?) and transfering all mesh-related settings including the attached emitters to your 3D application directly. This way you do not have to enter all mesh parameters manually as they will be taken from the XML instead. With “Convert to absolute paths”, the path to an emitter's particle sequence will be found in any case.