Update Manager, Alternative paths???

[Lars Egerrup / LKE Design]

Hi there, I have now installed RC 3 with Update Manager. Hmmm and I am a little disappointed that there are no option for an alternative placement of downloads and libraries, as well of handling of the various placement settings.

First of all, WHY is the C drive the only supported placement for the downloaded files? The C drive is the one drive you want to keep as clean as possible for "dead weight" - as it often is an SSD drive - and often in a limited size compared to other drives. The C drive should in my book be dedicated to programs and their execution only, period!! Data storage and the likes should be placed elsewhere. I will claim that most people have a dedicated destination for all their program downloads - and it is NOT the C drive!!!
Of course I can move the files once they are downloaded, - but I'm quite sure that the Update Manager then will refill the hardcoded folder as it can't see the moved files anymore, OR???

Secondly, I have earlier asked if there was a way that FP and RC could maintain set settings and not resetting them to default values at every update. You replied that you were working on it, but it doesn't seem to show in the update manager  - so I still have to go and change values in 3DS.ini as well as the registry on all the computers in my setup, if I don't want the default setup???

So if all this is true (and I haven't misunderstood the idea with Update Manager, which I hope I have) -  it's a setback in my book.

[iToo]

Hi, we ask for your patience in this issue. We just moved our assets management to a completely new tool, and we must refine and improve it on next updates.
I added your suggestion to the wishlist. We should evaluate the best way to do it, because also affects to the offline instalation and render nodes setup.

Said that, please note that assets are not installed strictly in the C: drive, but in a path within the user's folder. If space is a problem, you can move the entire user's folder to another drive.
I have not the exact procedure to do this, but you can find on Google many entries about it.

Secondly, I have earlier asked if there was a way that FP and RC could maintain set settings and not resetting them to default values at every update. You replied that you were working on it, but it doesn't seem to show in the update manager  - so I still have to go and change values in 3DS.ini as well as the registry on all the computers in my setup, if I don't want the default setup???

This should not be a problem once we implement alternative paths to the Update Manager, because the size of the RailClone folder, without assets, takes only 15 Mbytes.
Actually RailClone settings are reset because safety reasons: when a new version is installed, setup program first uninstalls completely old version if exists, to be sure there is not any wrong file or setting that would cause problems.

Thanks,

[JG_archviz]

actually the deinstallation of older versions creeps me a lot.
As i need to test new RC version on complete separate workstation before distribute to all the other workstations.

Its quite impossible to work with 3dsmax 2017 with Railclone2 and test with 3dsmax 2018 with Railclone 3 on the same workstations.

There was a workaround for RC1 and RC2 which worked quite well, when i had seperate RC install-folders ... usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro2" and so on...

So it was possible for me to keep older 3dsmax versions with older plugins working for past project - if they ever come back for some changes. As it is usually a hassle to open up old project files with new plugins (various changes result in different output)

It would be great if there would be a check-box if you really want to uninstall the previous versions before that just happens.

[iToo]

We just added this FAQ entry, with the procedure to install assets in an network path, using an unique workstation to download them.
I hope you find it useful.

It would be great if there would be a check-box if you really want to uninstall the previous versions before that just happens.

We'll check it this option can be added. Thanks for your suggestion.