Freebie - Auto file revision control software FileHamster.

[Touched]

This was posted as the weekly freebie for a completely different software, but it works for anything, it seems. I've just tested it out for Anime Studio. No more accidental save overwrites (ever hit ctrl-S on a file that you forgot to rename, and overwrote the original, losing a lot of work?), and most importantly, zip compression on those .anme files! While I love the fact that .anme files are plain text and editable with a text editor if you know what you're doing, I make incremental saves of any project I'm working on, which adds up to a lot of space.

Here's what they say about it:

As an artist, you know how long it takes to create a finished piece of work. And, anyone that’s used a computer understands how painful it is to lose something you’ve been working on for any length of time. Whether your file becomes corrupt, is accidentally deleted, or you inadvertently saved over a good file, you know the pain. There are methods for dealing with these problems that include special naming conventions, archiving backups to removable media, or moving files to a different folder, but these solutions are archaic compared to what FileHamster offers. Even worse, they all disrupt your workflow.

FileHamster presents a much better way.

It is simple to use. Tell FileHamster which directory or file to watch and get back to work. Every time you save, rest easy knowing you’re not losing any of your precious work. In the background, FileHamster automatically detects that your file has been saved and creates a revision of it. In addition, you have the ability to make notes each time you save to help you later identify a specific file, or use those notes to see a detailed account of the work you've done on a particular project. Go to http://www.filehamster.com/ProductTour/ for a demo.

MOGware also provides a powerful plug-in architecture that enhances FileHamster’s functionality. Plug-ins are freely downloadable at http://www.filehamster.com/Downloads/ including a zip plug-in for saving your revisions in a more compact form, a floating notes plug-in to help organize comments, and more.

FileHamster is simple for beginners, but customizable for more advanced user. Put archaic methods where they belong, in the past, and move forward with FileHamster!

Get it FREE at http://www.filehamster.com

I've started using it in my main animation folder, on this file of my character Pepper that I've been working on, which had 34 copies already with slight changes, and I think I'll be using the annotations so I'll know what's different in each file. You can open any of the revisions in the list nondestructively, and if you want to stop using it entirely, you can just copy the revision archives into your main folders.

EDIT: Ha! I just noticed this -- it also serves as a Recent Documents list for Anime Studio files, if you right-click on the icon in the system tray!

Oh, and yeah, this is a Windows-only program.

[jahnocli]

Great link - thanks for sharing!

[erik]

This is super! Thanks so much!!!

Although I would like to change the place where FH saves the versions. Thats in the root of C:|. I wish I could change that...

[Genete]

Oh, and yeah, this is a Windows-only program.

[Touched]

Although I would like to change the place where FH saves the versions. Thats in the root of C:|. I wish I could change that...

I notice you can only specify the directory when you first create your backup library. I don't think you can change it afterward.

Did you get 1.3.0.15? I'm still using 1.2.1.10 because one of the intermediate versions suddenly lost the ability to sense Anime Studio files being saved. Is it working again? It's been very useful for my current project.