Lost set

[ChrisB]

Hello Langmead,

I'm sorry to hear of the issues you are having. I can understand the frustation, especially if you are up against a deadline. Hopefully I can help and or provide some insight into what happened and, again hopefully, prevent it from happening in the future. Forgive me in advance if I cover old ground but I just want to make sure I'm clear on things.

OK, first item...you stated:

Thanks to some non-specific virus, I lost the original files and used the backup files from Windows 10 History. (I'd be grateful if Frameforge would give the option to embed the sets, pix etc, then this would not happen). Needless to say, when I put the programme and files on another computer, nothing was there, no pictures, none of my sets etc.

A non-specific-virus? I'll have to assume then that something malicious got into your system and corrupted/deleted/encrypted some of your files, including the working version of your previz project. In any case, it's gone or not accessible by you and so you fall back to retrieve an older copy of the file using Windows File History, correct? If this is the case, what was the time stamp of the file you retrieved from File History? What is File History configured for in terms of backup schedule? Every hour is the default but it can range from as little as every 10 minutes to as long as once a day. Any chance you retrieved an older file that lacked the work you are missing because it was backed up prior to you actually performing that work?

James comments mirror my own on this next point. You stated:

I put the programme and files on another computer, nothing was there, no pictures, none of my sets etc.

If you created/imported anything non-standard into FrameForge on the computer that had the virus and then opened a previz file, that contains references to those objects or textures, on a different computer which lacks those custom/imported objects & textures, FrameForge won't be able to find them.

You also stated:

The Sketchup Set (6.0.1) was reimported into Frameforge as the same name, but it does not load when I open the file.

It does not load? To be clear, you have a Sketchup file of a set, you can import it into FrameForge, you do so using the same name used when you originally imported it into FrameForge on the computer that had the virus issue and yet when you load a previz file that requires a set/object of the same name, you get a "Missing Object" message? If this is accurate then there almost has to be an inconsistency in the naming of the imported Sketchup object.

I have no idea where the replacement set has come from.

You lost me on this one. I thought you just re-imported it.

Importing the original set works but overlays the other set and is not in the 'same place'. I can see the set in the gallery.

Again, I'm not following. The original set? The one you lost? You recovered it now? I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean by 'overlays' or 'same place'.

In the shot manager, the images are still of the original set, but I cannot print them - wouldn't that be useful - and both printing options give the same incorrect first set - what you see is not what you get. If I open one of the shots, I get the replacement set.

This makes sense to me if you are missing objects and/or textures on this new computer that were present in the Object & Texture library of the computer that had the virus issue. Those shots you see in the shot manager are just static thumbnails, the real information is the data stored to fully recreate every shot. Camera position, height, focal length, et cetera. Every object's coordinate position, pose, scale, applied texture, opacity, specularity (and a lot more) that exists within the field of view of that camera. This is the data stored when you hit the snap shot button. Printing a shot means recreating the shot and renderingit at the specified size and in the specified format/fashion. There is another method as James so eloquently put it:

You can print shots as shown in the Shot Manager if you use the right settings:
Draft Quality Graphics or Print to PDF [Draft]
Render all shots in the style they were snapped
Do not override lighting/shadow settings

However, barring that, if FrameForge is unable to locate objects/textures (because they don't exist in the object/texture library) required to recreate and render that image then printing won't reflect what you see in that thumbnail. The same applies when re-loading a shot from the shot manager. You may see a scene in the thumbnail represented one way but when you load it, its recreating and re-rendering the shot scene. If the object & texture library lacks the files that the previz file is calling for, then they simply won't be there. Also, if the previz file calls for "ObjectA" which on your previous computer is a model of a Cadillac but on the computer you are working on now "ObjectA" is a model of an Elephant, the Elephant is what is going to be placed into the scene. Make sense?