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File Commands


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modo provides all the standard controls necessary for opening, closing and otherwise managing files to and from disk. Most options perform from operating system specific dialog boxes. File managementis largely accomplished through the commands in the menu bar under the 'File' menu. User need only to LMB+click on a menu command to invoke the operation.

New: The 'New' command will create a new empty (blank) scene file and add it to the 'Item List'. By default, the scene will be named "untitled". If other currently opened scenes are also named "untitled", modo will append a number to the name, such as "Untitled (2)", "Untitled (3)" and so on. Use the 'Save As' option to name the scene.

Open: The 'Open' command allows users to load any previously saved modo scene files, as well as variety of other 3D object and image file formats. Scene files are added to the 'Item List', as are other 3D object formats. Images are added to the 'Images' list of the currently active scene file.

Open Recent: The 'Open Recent' command allows users directly open a file from a list of files previously opened/saved files, bypassing the 'Load Scene' window. To use Open Recent, simply go to the menu bar under "File > Open Recent" for a list ,and choose the appropriate file name from the list. If you happened to move the file to a different location and then try to use 'Open Recent', you will get an error message letting you know that file is no longer at that location. Should this occur, use the 'Open' command and navigate to the files new location. The list of Recent files are stored in the modo.cfg (aka the config file). If you delete this file, your list of recent files will also disappear.

Import: The 'Import' command will append a saved file into the current scene. Items will be added to the bottom of a scene in the 'Item List' into its own subgroup with its name corresponding to the imported scene or object.

Close Window: Dismisses the current floating window viewport.

Close Scene: The 'Close Scene' command will close the currently active (selected) scene. If the file was not recently saved, modo will also ask the user to save it. If the closed scene was the only one currently in the 'Items' list, modo will automatically create a new blank scene.

Close All: This command will close all currently open items in modo, including images and scene files. modo will default to a new empty scene. If any scene or image file has changed since the last save, a popup dialog will as if the user wishes to save recent changes.

Save: The 'Save' command will allow users to save the currently active scene as a file to disk. An operating system specific dialog box will popup if the file has not been previously saved requesting a file name as well as a location. Users may also specify a format. LXO is the native format for modo and should be used for files requiring further refinement in modo at a later time. For more information on other formats, see Import/Export.

Save As: The 'Save As" command will open a file requester allowing users to specify a file name for the currently active scene file as well as location. Users may also specify a format. LXO is the native format for modo and should be used for files requiring further refinement in modo at a later time. For more information on other formats, see Import/Export.

Save All: The 'Save All' command will save all currently opened scene and image files in one step. For scenes not previously saved, i.e. no filename or path specified, an appropriate dialog box will popup.

Save Incremental: The 'Save Incremental' command will automatically save version of the file with a numeric value appended to the end of the filename allowing users to save iterations of a scenes progress. Each time 'Save Incremental' is invoked, a new file is created with the numerical value incremented by '1'. Once saved, the file become the active file and all future 'Save' commands will save to this increment.

Export As: modo will let users save their work in several different formats by using the 'Export As' command found under the 'File' menu. Users can save as a LightWave LWO, X3D, Collada DAE, DXF, OBJ or FBX file format. This is different than using 'Save As' and choosing the format because Export will not change the current setting of the file as it is inside modo. Which is to say, when you save a model in a particular format modo will remember this and each subsequent save will be in the same format. If you save the model as an 'OBJ' and then use "Export As" to save an 'FBX' file, modo still considers the file in memory to be an 'OBJ'. Export simply allows users to quickly export in different formats without changing the internal file.

Revert: The 'Revert' command will remove the currently active scene from memory and load in the last saved version abandoning all subsequent changes made since the last time the file was saved. A popup requester will ask users to confirm this procedure because it is not undoable. Selecting 'Yes' will load in the previous version, and selecting 'No' will cancel the procedure.

 

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MkIII January 29, 2011 at 3:09 AM

No mention is made of Import Reference, Save Item or Environment Preset, Save Assembly & Config Saving & Exporting. These are likely to stump new users more than the "Open Command", and links to the appropriate pages might be handy.

MutantPixel January 31, 2011 at 9:07 AM

These options are all covered elsewhere, where it is more appropriate. The documentation is organized not by the menu layout, but by utility.

Sven Kalkschmidt February 16, 2011 at 8:34 AM

And where might that be? A search for "config save" returns this page as a first hit - all the other search results had no info on "config save" command. Unfortunately I find the way it is organised not very helpful, still no clue what that command does.

Graypercy February 23, 2011 at 4:30 AM

And what can I do if I don't want to save at all (i.e. dismiss the scene entirely)? modo doesn't seem to give me this option always DEMANDING the input of the filename. Either I changed something in the settings that I can't find anymore or it wasn't available from the beginning... So far, I have been saving as a bogus file, which I delete later, but this is crazy. I mean the trial files I want to try something while learning and I don't need anymore later.

MutantPixel February 23, 2011 at 10:51 AM

You should be able to dismiss the save scene dialogue with the 'Cancel' option. modo doesn't ever force users to save, if so there is a problem and you should report it to customer support.

ChienP March 9, 2011 at 2:42 PM

Hm, as much as I like commenting, I don't like the way we do Luxologys work by commenting on missing stuff. Please get the documentation done properly. By doing this, it feels like a company can release anything, and then let the users do the testing and reporting. Wrong way. Please use internal test staff.

Sven Kalkschmidt March 11, 2011 at 8:13 AM

I agree with ChienP on that. The 501 documentation is by far not complete and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I worked my way through the whole 401 pdf, which I find far superior as a reference.

Jonathan_K April 24, 2011 at 7:23 PM

While we're moping and griping about the features missing in the documentation (which I don't mind helping Luxology to fix, but I wish they'd fix it already! If you don't have a chimp for this yet, hire me!) there needs to be some jazz for "consolidate scene" in here too.

Svante Segelson May 31, 2011 at 9:08 AM

No info about "Consolidate Scene"?

Tom81 January 28, 2012 at 2:21 AM

"Consolidate Scene" save the files (IES lights, Images)associated with the scene in the scene's directory

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