Windows UNC Network Paths don't work in TVP Topic is solved

[JoshMorgan]

Here at LMU, we use full Network Paths in order to maximize cross-platform compatibility in our mixed Windows & OS X environment, so we do not map UNC network paths to drive letters in Windows, which is preventing our students from saving TVPaint projects to our network.

Whenever a student opens a .tvpp project file from the network and then tries to Save Project, they get an error like this:

2014-12-05_TVPaint_UNC_Path_Save_Error.PNG (2.35 KiB) Viewed 22990 times

In this specific error, the UNC path is:
\\medusa\anim_classes\tvp_save_test.tvpp

But as you can see from the error, the first backslash is missing from the path to the temp file:
\medusa\anim_classes\tvp_save_test.tvpp.tmp

If the student tries to Save Project As... instead, the 'Save Project' window takes a very long time to display anything (similar to what another user reported in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7960&p=70308), and once the 'Save Project' window finally stops thinking, it is never in the network directory where the .tvpp file was was saved, and ifthe student copies and pastes the UNC path into the 'File' field of the 'Save Project' window, nothing happens when they click OK, so the student has to manually browse the Network to find the file, and when they find the file or give it a new name/path, is gives the same sort of "Can't create file" error.

I see in another thread that a user replied (viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7017&p=63493" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;):

Have you tried to "map network drive" from the Windows Explorer [assuming that you use Windows]
TVPaint needs to have a "Drive" name like "Z:" in windows in order to use a correct path.

I discovered on my own a while back that mapping a network drive is a workaround, but like I said, it is not our preferred workflow and it is frustrating that TVP is the only application that we use that does not support Windows UNC network paths. Is there any chance that UNC paths will be supported in TVP 11?

[Fabrice]

Hi Josh, welcome.

I think we were in touch via email

Indeed, we can't manage such paths at the moment : \\medusa\anim_classes\tvp_save_test.tvpp

We will check what is doable with Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths and come back to you.
I want this issue fixed as I encountered it a couple of times.

[JoshMorgan]

Thanks, Fabrice.

Yes, I've emailed you directly in the past about other stuff, but I figured I should start using the forum for support since other users might find the thread helpful.

I should note that if I change the File requester setting (in the 'Interface tab in Preferences) from the default 'TVP Animation 10 Pro' option to 'System', I am indeed able to copy-and-paste UNC paths into the Windows file dialog during file operations (which I cannot do with the TVP File Requester), but I am still not able to actually Save files with full UNC network paths even if I use the System File Requester.

Cheers,
Josh

[Fabrice]

Yes, I've emailed you directly in the past about other stuff, but I figured I should start using the forum for support since other users might find the thread helpful.

Yes, that very good to do so

I have kept track of the bug/problem (well explained btw, thanks !).
It won't be done as soon as we release TVPaint Animation 11.0.0, but probably in one of the minor updates which use to be done in the weeks just after the official release, if not too difficult or too long.

[JoshMorgan]

Hi Fabrice,

Any chance that TVP 11 will support UNC paths anytime soon?

Cheers,
Josh

[Fabrice]

Hi Josh,

It's still in our plans.
We have recently noticed an issue about it : it's only working on Microsoft OS, but not all of them, for some unknown reasons.
So we wrote to Microsoft tech support, but we don't have any answer at the moment. And they are slowww to answer ...

one other big change that will occur soon is the ability to put all the licenses on only one dongle ( for people using several licenses at the same time on a network, it should be handy ).

[JoshMorgan]

Thanks for the update, Fabrice.

We are currently running Windows 7 and we don't have plans to upgrade to Windows 10 anytime soon.

And that is good to know about putting the licenses on a single dongle because our current license server is old and needs to be replaced, but I've been told that the new server will not have as many available USB ports.

Cheers,
Josh

[Fabrice]

same problem (I should say linked problem) as an other topic regarding smaller dongles.

should be done in end 2016 2017.

[Fabrice]

Will be fixed in the next coming v11.0.7 to be released soon (we are currently with the v11.0.6).
Stay tuned.

[JoshMorgan]

Yay! That's for the heads-up, Fabrice. Looking forward to the update!