Displaying thumbnails in Win Explorer

[PopaR]

I'm using WinXP, and I have v17. I'd like to be able to browse my models (that have thumbnails) with win explorer, this would also allow browsing with thumbnails in the open dialog box.

 

So, any ideas?

[robcat2075]

hmmm... there used to be a feature where the open dialog would show you a preview of the model but it was PC only and has been taken out.

 

I guess you're wanting to change the actual icon of the file? I don't know if that's possible.

[Rodney]

A subject near and dear to my heart assuming I understand your request....

 

Unfortnuately there is no direct method currently to achieve what you are after although there are several alternatives.

The most promising in the short term is to assign or associate an external bitmap to the file and then have your operating system use that as a thumbnail or icon.

 

If it is the A:M file's internal icon system you wish to access then that is something we would need to code as a utility/program.

If I understood more about the code I could do it but several pieces of information still elude me.

Here is an old topic where Yves Poissant discusses A:M files internal icon format:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9636

 

Here is the important part (Yves' response):

 

It is binhex RLE encoded raw RGB data.

You have the size in the [PREVIEW] header.

In the [DATA] section, you get a sequence of lines, R line, G line and B line, etc.

Then basic RLE stuff:

read byte

byte >= 0 ? read next n+1 bytes

byte

 

At one point I researched this to the point where I thought I understood it (then trying to use the file image data to appear in a webpage's layout by converting to ) but subsequently learned that I did not.

If I recall correctly my goal was to convert the A:M file's code to a base64 or similar web-displayable image as that means of conversion back and forth is well known.

 

There are several sites where images can be converted back and forth online:

http://webcodertools.com/imagetobase64converter (this one of the base64variety)

 

I'm not sure how hard or painful it would be to convert A:M's native use of binhex RLE encoded raw RGB data to base64 but I (from my naive perspective) this might be worth the effort.

Unfortunately, this would be a breaking change that would make new A:M file icon's incompatible with previous versions so it wouldn't be worth the effort in the short term.

Perhaps something like this could be plotted for the next major file format revision.

 

In the mean time you can assign custom icon's to each file and shortcut in your operating system.

That however, sure seems like a lot of work.

When considering the Extra CD and subsequent DVD(s) my initial approach was to place a bitmap image into the same folder as the resource. This bitmap was (idealy) be the one that was used to create the icon used in the A:M file (and hard coded into it in binhex REL encoded rawa RGB data as the files icon). That would be used internally within A:M (for viewing in A:M Libraries) while the accompanying bitmap in the folder would be used for external programs.

 

One interesting thing I've noted is that current Windows releases tend to automagically show the first image (and often more) as the folder's icon.

If one considers the ramifications of this... the thumbnail image from inside the folder automatically being displayed as the folder's icon... it can be exploited.

 

 

Edit: Robert mentions a slightly different 'preview' that allowed users to see a turnable preview of the asset before opening.

As I recall this preview was limited to models and was not available on the Mac so the preview it was dropped.

It was really nice though!

 

 

Note to Self: A python resource worth looking into: http://docs.python.org/2/library/binascii.html

[GAngus]

Something like this is easily done in any Mac system.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy in a "windows" system and perhaps one of the many things

about OSX that makes it nice using a Mac.

 

1) Get a "screen grab" of what you want your Icon to be .

2) Open the "Get Info" window on the model file. (equivalent to PC properties window)

3) Click (i.e.;select) the current Icon

4) Then just copy/paste the screen grab and you have a new Icon for that file.

The "screen grab" just overwrites the original and it sticks.

Somehow the Mac system transparently deals with any sizing issues and it "just works".

 

I would think that with all the software out there there has to be something available for PC's

that can assist with this. A simple google on "icon editor windows free" brings up all kinds

of possibilities.

[robcat2075]

It seems to be possible to customize the icon for .exe (program) files but data files seem to require the uniform icons for all files of a type.

[NancyGormezano]

It seems to be possible to customize the icon for .exe (program) files but data files seem to require the uniform icons for all files of a type.

 

I remember that there was a way to have the icon be different for each model file, and I loved it. I believe that capability stopped after windows 95 (maybe win 3.1?) because of OS change (not A:M).

[GAngus]

There may be some useful info with these links...

 

Picture preview icons...

EDIT: I replaced the full paths for these Links,

which seem to work fine now, sorry.

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...e7-c3f5e8c42939

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...ture-thumbnails

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/6768-63-...show-thumbnails

[robcat2075]

There may be some useful info with these links...

 

Picture preview icons...

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... f5e8c42939

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... thumbnails

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/6768- ... thumbnails

 

All those links come up 404

[GAngus]

I edited that first post, the links should be fine now.

sorry

[PopaR]

Corel does this with their programs, they use the registry to point the explorer shell handlers to some shell extensions. The nice thing about doing it this way is that anything based on the explorer shell inherits this functionality, which means that the existing open/save dialogs would gain this ability. It does require some different registry entries for file handling, but it does not require rewriting the base program. It does require a thumbnail to be saved, which AM provides for.

 

I found the dlls corel uses here:

Program Files>> Common Files>> Corel>> Shared>> Shell Extension

there are 2 dlls: ShellExtEN.dll & ShellXP.dll

 

I think under win standards you'd change Corel to Hash & add the needed dlls, then make some registry changes.

 

Another nice thing, this could be made available as a separate install until the next major update.

 

The capability to create icons still exist, it's only used in the file properties as "preview" and if you add it to your library it would be visible there (but only there). In a model window, right click, on the context menu it's just above the views option and is grouped with add to library.

Edited November 18, 2013 by PopaR