Version Control using incremental saving#

With version control you can see the complete history of your files. It is familiar to saving incrementally “_v001, _v002 etc”. You can see who worked on a version, when, and where this version comes from. Your team members can comment and draw on your projects. So you have everything in one place.

Incremental saving vs Git#

Incremental saving provides version control by appending “_v001” at the end of the file name. This is the default way of working with Blender, Cinema 4D, After Effects or any other application.

Git is a version control (or source control) system that allows you to store snapshots of a file, without changing the filename. When you use Unity, Unreal or Godot or when you develop software, that’s the way to do it. Game engines cannot handle increments like “_v001”. They won’t find the files anymore. A version control system allows you to store all older file versions on a central server as snapshots or checkpoints. This way, you can always roll back if something breaks.

Incremental saves#

Anchorpoint recognizes file increments even if they are created by other applications. Once version control is enabled, files are displayed in a stack.

By default, Anchorpoint has no information worth mentioning except for the modification date. When you create new versions from Anchorpoint, the application knows that you are the author of the new version. You can mark each version with a comment by writing a message or drawing on the preview image.

Creating referenced files#

This is also called publishing. You can also create a referenced file from an incremental version stack, which you can then load in other projects. In Cinema 4D, for example, this is an XREF, in Maya a referenced model and in Blender a link.

In Anchorpoint you have to activate this function in the actions first. Go to the Workspace Settings / Actions and activate Create References File. Then you get Create Referenced File as context menu entry.

You can set in the settings (if you click on the gear) if the referenced files should be placed in a special folder and if an appendix (i.e. a _published) should be added to the file name.

After executing the action, a source file attribute is also created, which contains the name of the original file.

Using relative filepaths#

Instead of using absolute filepaths to create your referenced file, you can also use relative ones, starting with a “../”. For example

  • “../” will save your file to the parent folder

  • “../published” will save your file to a folder called “published”, which is in the parent folder

  • “../../” will save your file in the parent folder of the parent folder. This will basically go two folders up.