Production Folder

A Production Folder is a folder on your computer that you can create for all the files for a production. For example, if your theatre company is producing The Wizard of Oz then you might want to name your production folder wizard. In this folder you will keep your SCS cue file (eg wizard.scs) plus copies of all the audio, video and image files you use in the production. You may also save the color file (scs_colors.scc) to the production folder if you wish. More information on that is given later in this Help topic. If you prepare your cues on your home computer and then want to transfer them to your theatre computer then all you need do is copy the production folder wizard. This could be copied via a USB memory drive (if it has enough capacity for all your audio, video and image files), or across a network, or by burning a CD or DVD of the production folder and copying from that.

Production Folder: Click on the Browse button to either create a new folder wherever you want to, or to select an existing folder.

Copy the current Color File to the Production Folder: If this checkbox is selected then the currently loaded color file will be copied to the Production Folder when you click OK. More information is given later in this Help topic.

After creating or selecting a Production Folder, when you click the OK button, your currently open cue file will be saved to this Production Folder. All the audio, video and image files referenced by this cue file will also be copied to the Production Folder. The currently loaded color file will also be copied if the checkbox mentioned above is selected (ticked).

If, after creating your production folder, you add a new audio or video file that is located in another folder, then SCS will enable the menu option Production / Resync Production Folder. By clicking on this menu item the above window is displayed except that the title and heading are changed to reflect the Resync operation, and the Browse button is not displayed.

OK: When you click the OK button, your currently open cue file will be re-saved to the Production Folder, and any audio, video and image files referenced by this cue file that are not currently in the Production Folder will be copied to the Production Folder.

Whether or not you ever created a Production Folder, SCS regards the folder containing your cue file as its Production Folder, so the Resync Production Folder may be enabled even if you have never created a Production Folder per se.

Cancel: This button may be used to close the Create / Resync Production Folder window without copying the audio, video and image files.

Note: When creating or re-syncing a Production Folder, SCS checks before copying a file into the Production Folder that if a file of the same name already exists in the folder, then the file is of the same length and modification date-time. If the length or modification date-time is different then cues using that new file will still point to the original file (outside the Production Folder) and a warning message will be displayed.

Tip: The following scenario can easily occur if you use a program like Windows Media Player (WMP) to rip tracks from CD's on a computer that is not connected to the Internet. The audio files created will have names like '01 Track 1.wma', '02 Track 2.wma', etc, and if you have ripped tracks from several CD's in this way then you will end up with several files names '01 Track 1.wma', '02 Track 2.wma', etc (in different folders). The way to avoid this happening is to use a computer that is connected to the Internet when ripping tracks from commercial CD's. WMP and most other CD ripping software will check an online CD database, and if the CD is found in that database then the files will be named with the track titles, eg the song title or sound effect title. BTW, the online database is sometimes wrong!

Saving your color schemes: If you are preparing a production on one machine and then transferring the files to another machine (eg to a computer at the theatre) then you may also want to copy your color schemes. One way to do this is just to copy the scs_colors.scc file from "Documents" (or "My Documents") to the corresponding location on the theatre computer. However, if there are other people doing the same thing for other productions using SCS, this could cause some friction if you go and wipe out their favorite color schemes! So what you can do is keep a version of scs_colors.scc in your Production Folder, and you can set up your own color schemes here and they will not affect any other SCS user on the theatre computer, and changes they make will not affect your color schemes. To include scs_colors.scc in your Production Folder, just select the checkbox labelled Copy the current Color File to the Production Folder before you click the OK button.

SCS handles these color files basically as follows:

· When SCS is started, it looks for scs_colors.scc in "Documents" (or "My Documents"). If this file is found, then this color file is loaded into memory. Otherwise, just the built-in color schemes "SCS Default" and "SCS Dark" are available.

· Whenever SCS opens a cue file (a .scs file) it looks in the cue file's folder for scs_colors.scc. If the file is found then this color file is loaded into memory, replacing in memory any previously loaded color schemes.

· Important!: If scs_colors.scc is not found in the cue file's folder, the currently loaded color file remains loaded. If you then resync the (new) Production Folder you have the opportunity to save this color file along with any audio file changes, etc. This provides an easy mechanism for you to 'transfer' you color schemes to another of your Productions, or to use them in a new Production.

· Please note that SCS regards scs_colors.scc in "Documents" as the default color file, not as a Production's color file, even if "Documents" is nominated as the Production Folder. (This only refers to the "Documents" folder itself, not to folders within "Documents".)

· The checkbox for copying the current color file will initially be displayed checked if (a) the currently loaded color file is not the default color file, or (b) the folder selected or displayed against Production Folder currently contains an scs_colors.scc file.