Really nice prog but is this possible

Ok i have to say this is a nice program and i will be purchasing it with that said here is question.

I often have many iterations of files as i am working on any given project and like to have a history incase i need to go back. For an example of what i mean see below

Could be any file_1.jpg
Could be any file_2.jpg
Could be any file_3.jpg
Could be any file_4.jpg
Could be any file_5.jpg
Another file_1.jpg
Another file_2.jpg
Another file_3.jpg
Another file_4.jpg
Another file_5.jpg

Now i would like to filter the view so that it only shows the latest of each file and not the iteration so the above would become

Could be any file_5.jpg
Another file_5.jpg

note: Highest number obviously has latest creation date.

Is this at all possible in Opus perhaps with Regex? Can you point me in the right direction on how to achive this.

It would be great if it could be kinda intuative as i also sometimes get or use the following naming convention so there may be a mix

Could be any file#5.jpg
Could be any file 5.jpg

Like i stated at the start of the post i think this program is great i have only just started using it but i like it so far. I have a few suggestions that i would like to make but i will leave that for latter and another post. :smiley:

You can't do exactly what you want since the show/hide patterns are static and don't have any way to tell which is the highest number for any group of files.

If you create the different file versions within Opus then it would be easy to modify that step so that it includes a pattern which Opus can ignore when creating a backup of the current file. When I want to create a snapshot/backup of a file in Opus I use a button which adds the current date and time to its filename. You could make a similar button which copies the selected file, putting the date/time and a special string (e.g. "snapshot") into the new file, then filter out files matching that pattern so that only the current version is still visible.

Of course, if you are creating the different files by saving them in another program, manually increasing the filename's number when you do so, then this won't work as well. You could still rename the files using a button in Opus but you'd have to manually select them each time, which would be a pain.

Actually, you could make it a one-click operation in Opus by writing a clever VBScript rename script, I guess. The script could look at the directory and rename all but the highest-numbered files of each group so that they contained a string that made Opus hide them.

Thanks for your reply i will have a play with what you suggested namely the vbscript part and see where i get.

Perhaps a version tracking feature can be added in a future version as it would be a very usefull feature.

What do you mean by version tracking?

Um sorry probably the wrong terminology.What i mean is basically something like in my first post where you could filter to see only the latest/current version of files. It would be good if you could also then drill down through the version history of each file and quickly change which is the current version-for roll back to an earlier version. It would also be nice if you could attach some extra information to these files like comments/signedoff tickbox ect.

Hopefully that gives you the rougth idea of what i meant. Like i said i will try the VBScript idea when i get a moment and post results here incase anyone else is interested in what i come up with. Thanks again

Cant seem to see a way to edit posts- but i wanted to add that the above is mainly oriantated to Graphic files just to put it in context. As i can preview the images in opus. Altough perhaps if you could attach a preview to any file it may also work for otherstuff. For example if you have on say a 3d model file that opus cant show you a preview but you had the ability to attach an image render of the model to this file. This way the file would show the image preview in the explorer but would still be the 3d model file.

Got ya.

There are systems of varying complexity and power for doing that kind of thing, from CVS/Subversion (which can store a history of versions for any file(s)) to big asset-management/sharing systems like some game development teams use for their artists. (Where the "assets" that are "tracked" are things like textures and 3D models, not physical computers or crates of goods as in other "asset tracking/management/etc." systems. :slight_smile: )

Personally I think that it's best left to a dedicated system since doing it well/properly is a job in itself, but Opus could benefit from being able to plug into those systems to show you views of your data. Opus already plugs into CVS/Subversion to some degree using Tortoise, though that doesn't give you a filesystem view of previous versions (you have to explicitly extract them from the archive). I don't know enough about the more specialised asset systems.

If you just want something simple then Vista also provides something that may be useful and that works in Opus. You can create snapshots of directories, either once a day or (I think) on demand, and if you want to go back and look at a previous version then you can do it via the Properties dialog. The result looks like a normal directory and can be viewed in Opus or Explorer. I'm not sure how much control you have over which versions are kept, though. It seems more like something hat might save you if you accidentally mess up some data and need to get back a recent copy than if you want to track different versions of a file through its lifetime and never lose the history.

yeah i am aware of asset managment systems and have used alienbrain in the past however i did not really want to use the term asset managment as what i am on about is a striped down slimline system mainly for homeuse. So really only a couple of areas that i find useful on a day to day bases - but that does not warrent a full asset management system with all the things that they entail. I have a few ideas of how i can create such a system that i am looking for in opus - i have just started using opus but i think it is possible so i will see how i get along.