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Load Project or Template at Startup
Version: 2.1 Sign up to be notified by email when a new version of this script is posted
This script gives you a menu to load projects or templates from a designated folder. Â If this script is installed in the Scripts->Startup folder it will run every time After Effects starts up.
For example, if you have a certain folder/file structure or camera rig, etc that you like to keep for your AE projects, you can setup a virgin project the way you like it and save it as a template by giving it a .aet extension. Â Now every time you launch AE your custom setup will be automatically loaded.
You can convert any after effects project to be a template by changing the file extension from .aep to .aet
If you only have one project or template in the designated folder that project will be automatically opened. Â If you have more than one project in the folder then you will get a menu prompt that will allow you to choose the project to load. Â This can be handy if you have different project setups for different tasks.
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- loadProject UI
Version History
- 2.1 Fixed issue with BG Renderer and aerender – Dec 2011
- 2.0 Added multiple project/template folder option, unified into one script – Dec 2010
- 1.0 Initial release – Sep 2008
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Hey Llyod Great stuff here! Thanks a lot for all the scripts.
However the loadProject script wont work, it just keeps crashing AE CS3
Any thoughts?
thanks
Jon
After following up with Jon we realized that the crash was due to the fact that he did not have permissions set properly for the Scripts folder.
I had to change my permissions owner from “system” to “admin” to be able to add a new folder in my scripts folder. This caused the loadProject script to not work properly.
So if you have to change your permissions to add a new folder to your scripts folder make sure you set it back before restarting AE.
Hey Llyod, I ran into and issue while loading this script. I just keep getting the message telling me to loadprojectsetup over and over again, even after I run the script. Any Suggestions?
On a side note is there a way to make it load this template every time i hit new project?
It was a permissions issue with admin vs user rights.
Very good work!
It would be really nice (if possible) to have a choise to open a template when AE starts (as if it was a project recently opened) and select it from there or from recently opened projects.
Again thanks for all your scripts!
Nice work Lloyd, once again.
I am not shure, but I thought I read a long time ago in Marc Christiansens AE Studio techniques how to setup an autoload without scripting, but I cant find it again… Was I dreaming, or does somebody agree with that?
illd I have his 2005 AE book, he says why to set up a template but not how to save it as a official template, just a project.
Hi there,
The script that u have given is amazing
Can we have the same for opening a new project while we r exiting the initial one
Thanks
i am running cs4. on window xp as an Adim, but however i’m still getting a Error.
ModName: scripting.aex
ModVer: 9.0.0.346
Offest:00006068
if all that helps.
i applied the script to cs2 and it worked find,
when it crashes AFX still runs fin, if i click the ” don’t send” button.
Upgrade to 9.0.2. Adobe fixed the crashing bug. http://bit.ly/AE902Update
WOuld love to hear your main project structure you use.
I’m trying to get some organization into all my projects!
Thank you for the script!
Great script! I’m in a department of 15 designers, and we already use an AE template file but you have to open it, save a new version, etc. People often forget or save over the template so this will be really useful for consistency, thank you.
I do have to echo Lendl’s request though- I’ve been digging high and low to see if there’s a way to recognize the template when you select File>New Project but can’t find anything. Is there even a way to override the existing New Project command, or do you always have to manually run a script?
Unfortunately there is not way to modify the menus through scripting. The best I’ve been able to come up with is to run a script at startup as this script does.
Ah too bad. Thanks anyway Lloyd!
Hi Lloyd, great script! I noticed the script launces even if you open a specific AE file from finder. Not like it’s that big of a deal to press cancel as the project loads, but do you think there is a way around it?
I don’t think I understand your problem. The whole point of the script is to open specific AE files. If you would like to stop the auto-loading of projects, remove the script from the Startup folder.
But if you open a specific AE file from finder (without having AE running), you don’t want to load a folder setup, you want to load that project file only. So basically if you double click a file in finder, you have to press cancel as the script runs anyway.
But then again, not a big problem. Really like this script.
I understand now. And yes, the script will launch the template when AE first opens. However, once AE is running you should be able to double click a project file and have it open without having to cancel the template.
Hi Lloyd,
I just wanted to report a prob I am having with the script.
On initial launch when it asks for the location of the template folder, I get maybe half a dozen or more prompts appearing – it actually depends on the number of CPUs assigned in the multiprocessor preferences. If I select the folder with the template and then cancel out the other prompts the next time I launch AE everything appears to be fine.
However, with multi-processing toggled on, I get aeselflinks crashing out whenever I do a RAM preview and occasionally the message “Unable to connect to background renderer”, and usually one aeselflink will bloat up until the system comes to a crawl.
Remove the Load Project script and everything is hunky dory again.
My template is simply 16bit Linearized sRGB colorspace, nothing else changed from the defaults.
The scenario I am testing is simply standard def footage with a fractal noise filter evolving over time with an expression.
I am running CS5 with all updates on OS X 10.6.6 with all updates. My machine is a 2009 Mac Pro 8 x 2.26 with 32GB of RAM. My preferences are set to MP toggled on, 3GB reserved for other apps, 8 cpu’s reserved for other apps, 8 cpu’s for AE with 3GB per cpu.
I am monitoring the crashes and messages with Activity Monitor and the Console.
While trying to figure out what was causing the crashes I tried fresh restarts, deleted prefs, permission repairs, but those did not find anything that helped.
I decided to do a fresh install of everything on a new SSD drive. Installed new OS, new AE, new plugs, scripts etc. same issue as when it was on the regular hard drive. The only thing that seems to work is to remove the script.
Very odd.
See anything like this before?
Thanks for your great scripts. Your class at fxphd was awesome too.
I am unable to reproduce this here. Having MP on or off makes no difference which leads me to think that it might be something related to your project. What additional prompts are you getting? Does this happen with any project or just this particular project template?
The additional prompts are multiple requests asking for the location of the template source folder. This only happens on the initial launch of having the script installed.
The behavior is occurring in all projects, however for testing purposes I isolated one project to eliminate other variables. But yes if I open other projects the same oddity occurs.
That is definitely strange. My only suggestion is to try deleting your preferences to see if there is something corrupt in there but that’s a shot in the dark since I can’t repro it here to know for sure what might be causing this.
Yea very odd.
Okay I tried a few more things.
It only occurs if there is only template in the folder, if there’s more then one then everything works properly.
That should read “if there is only ONE template in the folder”
I was actually having the exact same problem as Eric on a 64bit Windows machine running CS 5.5 . Puting multiple template files in the folder did infact resolve the issues. Thanks Eric!
That’s great to hear. Thanks for sharing your solutions.
Lloyd,
I am having a similar issue to some above. When I have the .jsx file in startup, it opens the dialogue and everything begins to work. Then after it’s about 75% done loading, it crashes. I’ve tried it with several projects to no avail. It gives me the error, Ae crash occurred while evoking so and so effect. Any ideas? I really love the concept of the effect, very cool.
The obvious question is does the project open fine if you simply double click to open it?
Yes. And it only seems to happen if I have third party effects used within the project. So if I have just on board stuff all is well. But if I have trapcode or VCP or anything else third party it crashes.
Lioyd,
Any news on this? I just upgraded to 5.5 and it is still crashing. Is anyone else having this problem?