I'm trying to run down a solution for a problem posted on a different site. The question seemed like an easy one but it's turned out to not be so easy. It's got under my skin and I've been trying to find an answer for quite awhile, with no luck. In looking at Dopus I have the feeling it's possible but I'm not sure, nor would I have any idea how.
So what I'm looking for with this post is to confirm it's possible, and a rough idea of how it would be done. If it is possible I'll pass the info to the original questioner and let him come here for details on how to implement it.
So here's the issue. He has thousands of files named sequentially. They are image sequences for a 3D stereoscopic video. So the files would be named, as an example:
I don't really understand "where" you'd want to see such a representation of the info... based on your attempt at seeing if file collections would do the trick. But perhaps you could use the Grouping feature to give a similar sort of summary view? For instance, here's a Grouped view based on TYPE:
...I realize it's not exactly what you asked for, but I think it's about as close as you're likely to get. Guess it all depends on what value he's looking to get out of what you're asking for... for instance, I see very little value in having the ability to display something like the 'range' of file suffixes (1 - 336). What happens if you don't have ALL files in the range, i.e. there are "gaps" where there is no _00224 and _00318 files... What use would there be in displaying 1 - 336 then... particularly if the real goal is to just get a count of how many of these files are present in the directory.
If just the filetype count is not enough, and he's looking for the count of actual "filename_#####" EXR files, then maybe he can apply a FILTER for the filename prefix in question in order to then get a count of how many files match that specific filename pattern, rather than JUST the count based on TYPE?
I gave a rather simplified explanation of what he's trying to accomplish so let me expand a bit.
First, the display issue. Imagine a two pane display like you get from explorer. In the left pane is the folder list. When you highlight a folder the right pane shows all the individual files. Instead of the individual files in the right pane he would like to see that summarized view, "filename_#####.exr 1-336".
My example had just one sequence. Imagine instead that there were hundreds of sequences where the "filename" part of my example was different, and within each filename there were hundreds of files.
If there were a break in the sequence, missing, to use your example, filename_A_00224.exr and filename_A_00318.exr then the summary in the right hand pane would reflect that:
