Text Editing A:M Files

[robcat2075]

Most A:M users will never need to do something like this, but it is possible to investigate and make useful changes to an A:M file with a text editor.

 

You'll need your close-up glasses for most of this.

 

AMTextEditing.mov

 

Things I have done with text editing

 

-fixing the "dragged bone in a chor" problem (shown in this video)

-changing the name of an item throughout a PRJ

-changing a bone to a null

-finding and fixing name spelling capitalization mistakes. ("Left" instead of "left"

-fixing a corrupted file or saving some portion of it.

-finding and deleting an external link to something that is not really needed in a PRJ yet is not easily findable because it's buried in some asset.

-other things i don't recall

[robcat2075]

Another occasion where text editing a file was useful... I had a long series of bones and each one had to have an "Aim At" constraint to the next one in the line.

 

Once I found out what the text was that made one bone aim at the next bone, i could use search and replace in a text editor to add that to every bone quickly.

[johnl3d]

I remember helping rescue early corrupt projects/models with text editing ..nice tip Robert

[Gerry]

Also: ALWAYS work on a copy or do a "save as" before messing with the file in a text editor.

[robcat2075]

Here's another case where text editing was able to resurrect a file damaged by a power outage...

 

Model "disappeared" after power failure, Model won't appear in Project Workspace

 

 

Post #6 has screen caps comparing damaged and undamaged versions of the file.

[KJ'd Beast]

Thanks,

 

Another nice instructional video, Rob.

[robcat2075]

Don't miss... my tutorial series "It Can't Be Done" is a ground-up explanation of text editing for people with no previous experience at such things, using a practical project need as the premise for exploring it.