Photoshop

The Adobe® Photoshop® connector allows users to manage file directly through the integrated file browser. Browsing by Jobs & Assets or Shows, Shots, and Tasks allows users to circumvent navigating the servers folder structure and use the flow of production to open and save files.

When using NIM’s project structure management, the connectors manage all file naming conventions using task-centric organization of basenames, tags, and versions.

For an in depth look at the NIM Photoshop Connector functionality, check out the video here:

NIM - Photoshop Connector from NIM Labs on Vimeo.

Additional NIM videos can be found here: https://nim-labs.com/videos

Important

Apple M1 users:

The NIM photoshop connector uses the CEP framework. According to Adobe’s M1 native known issues, CEP based extensions are not natively supported and require Photoshop to be run in Rosetta mode. The following known issue can be found on the Adobe website at: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-for-apple-silicon.html

M1 native known issues

To use extensions that rely on CEP, install and run them in Rosetta mode only. Once you launch under Rosetta, you may need to go to Window / Extensions (legacy) to open your CEP panels again. You will not see the “Open in Rosetta” option if you are right-clicking on an “alias”.

Installation

The following procedures describes how to install the integrated Photoshop NIM browser. The connector is available as an extension in the Photoshop > Window > Extensions menu option. Once loaded a new NIM menu will be in the Window Panel. The script and the following installation procedures have been tested with Photoshop CC 2015.0.1 and later.

There are two options to installing the Photoshop connector.

• Automatically managed using adobeexchange.com

• Manual Installation

Automatic Installation

To install the connector automatically using the Adobe® Exchange, click on the following link:

NIM Photoshop Connector - Automatic Installation

Follow the directions on the page to install the extension.

Manual Installation

If you are unable to install the connector via the Creative Cloud App, please follow the Adobe® instructions at the following link for steps on manually installing the connector.

NIM Photoshop Connector - Manual Installation

The above steps will walk you through downloading and installing the connector via an Adobe compatible Extension Install Utility.

Setting Preferences

If you have already installed and launched other NIM Connectors your connection preferences will already be saved in the nim.prefs file.

The NIM preferences are in the following locations:

Windows:	drive:/Users/[USERNAME]/.nim
OSX:	/Users/[USERNAME]/.nim
Linux:	/home/[USERNAME]/.nim

If this is the first time accessing a NIM Connector, when you select a NIM menu option a dialog box will appear to enter the scripts path and the address of the NIM API.

Enter the NIM Scripts path as the full path to the NIM Connector folder [NIM_CONNECTOR_ROOT].

Enter the API URL as follows:

http://[hostname]/nimAPI.php

where [hostname] is the address you have assigned to the NIM server.

API Keys

NIM API keys are an optional security feature that restricts API access with time limited per user keys. Requiring API keys restricts all API access to only those users with an API key.

If Require API Keys is enabled in ADMIN/Security - Options, users will be presented with a dialog box the first time they attempt to use a NIM Connector. API keys are unique to each user. Enter the NIM API key provided to you by your NIM administrator. For more information on enabling NIM API Keys please refer to the API Keys section of the documentation. For information on creating user API keys please refer to the Users Grid section of the Administration documentation.

NIM Menu

The NIM menu is accessed through the Photoshop > Window > Extensions menu. An entry will be labeled NIM. Clicking on this will load the NIM panel. This panel can be docked similar to any other window in the Photoshop UI.

Open / Import

Use OPEN or IMPORT to load an existing NIM version or publish.

NIM will automatically handle path translations for files saved using different operating systems.

• Path translation settings are defined in the Server Administration section of NIM

The following steps outline the workflow to open a file:

1. Job:

   • Files are loaded by first selecting the job from a list of jobs the user is assigned to.

2. Assets / Show Tab:

   • Assets or Shows/Shots are accessed by selecting the appropriate type from the tabs.

3. Asset & Shots:

   • In Assets, a list of assets on the selected job are available.

     • Select the asset from the Asset dropdown

   • In Shows/Shots, two dropdowns are available.

     • Select the show on the job from the Show dropdown.

     • After selecting a show, the available shots will be loaded into the Shot dropdown.

     • Select the desired shot from the Shot dropdown.

4. Filter:

   • Once the Asset or Shot is selected, the files may be filtered by:

   • Published - Displays only published files

   • Work - Displays all working versions

5. Task:

   • Tasks show all tasks that have been made available to the current application.

     This is defined in the Task Types Administrative section of NIM

   • If Published or Work is selected, select the Task Type to load the corresponding basenames.

6. Basenames:

   • The available basenames for the selected task appear in the basename list.

   • Select the desired basename from the list

   • If loading an IMPORT and the Published filter is selected click the IMPORT button to load the published basename.

   • If using the OPEN dialog and the Published filter is selected, selected a basename will display the list of published versions.

7. Versions:

   • If the Work filter is selected, choosing a basename will load all working versions in the versions list.

   • The version list displays the version file name as well as the version comment.

   • Select the working version from the Version list.

   • The version details will be displayed below including:

     • Path - the full path to the file

     • User - the user who saved the version

     • Date - the date the version was logged

     • Comment - the version comment

   • Click the OPEN or IMPORT button to load the working version.

Save As

Use SAVE AS to:

• Start a new basename

• Save a file into an existing basename

  If saving into an existing basename you will be prompted to either:

  • Save the file into the existing basename as the latest version.

  • Start a new basename by adding a tag.

Follow these steps to save a file:

1. Job:

   • Files are loaded by first selecting the job from a list of jobs the user is assigned to.

2. Server:

   • Select the project server to save the file to.

     The project servers are defined in the NIM job under Production / Config

3. Assets / Show Tab:

   • Assets or Shows/Shots are accessed by selecting the appropriate type from the tabs.

4. Asset & Shots:

   • In Assets, a list of assets on the selected job are available.

     • Select the asset from the Asset dropdown

   • In Shows/Shots, two dropdowns are available.

     • Select the show on the job from the Show dropdown.

     • After selecting a show, the available shots will be loaded into the Shot dropdown.

     • Select the desired shot from the Shot dropdown.

5. Task:

   • Tasks show all tasks that have been made available to the current application. This is defined in the Task Types Administrative section of NIM

   • Select the Task type from the Task dropdown.

6. Basenames:

   • A list of available basenames are displayed.

   • To save into an existing basename:

     • Select the basename from the basename list

     • Enter a comment in the Comment field ( 8 )

     • Click SAVE AS

       • The filename will be named automatically and versioned up in the current basename.

       • The version information will be logged into NIM on the corresponding Asset or Shot including:

         • Filename

         • File Path

         • Owner

         • Date

         • Version

         • Note

   • To create a new basename:

     • Enter a Tag ( 7 ) to append to the basename ( OPTIONAL )

     • Enter a comment in the Comment field ( 8 )

     • Click SAVE AS

       • A new folder with the Task Folder name will be created under the NIM ASSET_ROOT or SHOT_ROOT as appropriate

         Task Folder names are defined in the Task Types Administrative section of NIM

       • A new folder will be created for the basename under the Task Folder with the basename as the name

       • All versions of this basename will be saved to the basename folder

       • The file will be named according to the following convention

         • File naming is defined as:

           • Asset: assetname_taskShortName_version

           • Shot: shotname_taskShortName_version

         • Adding a tag to a basename will append the tag in the following convention:

           • Asset: assetname_taskShortName_tag_version

           • Shot: shotname_taskShortName_tag_version

       • The version information will be logged into NIM on the corresponding Asset or Shot including:

         • Filename

         • File Path

         • Owner

         • Date

         • Version

         • Note

7. Optionally choose whether or not to export additional elements

8. Click the Save As button to save the file

Version Up

• To version up a file that is already part of a NIM version stream, choose VERSION UP from the NIM menu.

• A dialog box will appear with an entry to add a note.

Follow these steps to version up a file:

1. Enter the comment that will be saved with the version

2. Select the file type

3. Optionally choose whether or not to export additional elements

4. Click the Version Up button to save the file

   • The file will be saved to the appropriate location.

   • The filename will be automatically versioned up.

   • The version information will be logged into NIM on the corresponding Asset or Shot including:

     • Filename

     • File Path

     • Owner

     • Date

     • Version

     • Note

Publish

Publishing a version saves the working file, creates a published file, and generates a versionless version of the basename version stream:

Follow these steps to publish a file:

Note

To publish a file you must be in an existing version stream

1. Enter the comment that will be saved with the version and published files

2. Select the file type

3. Optionally choose whether or not to export additional elements

4. Click Publish:

   • First this will save the current working version as a new version

   • A new file with a _PUB tag appended to the name will be saved and flagged as the current published file.

     • These _PUB “published” files are not considered a “working” file and filtered out of the version stream when loading working files

     • Creating a separate publish file aids in the prevention of modifying a publish by accident

   • A “versionless” version of the basename will be linked at the root level of the Task folder.

     • eg. CAR_TEX_v01.psd will be linked as CAR_TEX.psd

When a published file is saved the _PUB file is the currently loaded file. NIM will ask you if you wish to revert the scene to the current working version.

Export Elements

The NIM Photoshop connector gives you the option to save additional export elements with each save option including Save As, Version Up, and Publish.

Exported elements are logged as elements on the associated asset or shot and saved with a e01 tag after version number, where 01 in this example is the number of the element.

• ie. CAR_TEX_wheel_v04_e01.png

From the Save As, Version Up, or Publish windows you can select when to export additional elements.

The options are:

• Never

• Always

• Only on Publish

To add an Export Element, click the Export Elements tab, select the file type you wish to export from the dropdown and click the Add Element button. You can add multiple exports by selecting another file type and clicking the Add Element button.

To modify the element settings select the item you wish to adjust in the list and then click the Edit Element button.

In the edit dialog choose the NIM element type to associate with this element.

In addition to the file format settings you can specify optional resolution (Full, 1/2, and 1/4 resolution) as well as bit depth options.