Projects on disk

A Polyform project is an ordinary folder on your disk, with the drawing, its history and its images inside. Move, copy or back it up as a whole folder, and send others a copy made for sharing.

What’s in the folder

A project is a folder, named after the project, holding a few files and folders that belong together. For a project called Studio:

Studio\
  Studio.poly       the project file: double-click it to open the project
  scene\            the pages and layers
  history.sqlite    every edit, for undo and Version History
  assets\           the images you placed
  thumbnail.png     the picture on the start screen
  .polyform.lock    only while the project is open

Some projects have more:

• comments\, once someone comments on the design: one file for each thread.
• exports\, where an agent saves the pictures it exports.
• shaders\, for the shaders a layer uses.

An image you delete from the design stays in assets\, so that undo can bring it back.

To open a project, double-click its .poly file, pick it in File → Open Project… (Ctrl+O), or click it on the start screen. Your first file covers making one.

Move, copy and back up

Close the project first, then move or copy the whole folder. The drawing is in scene\ and the images in assets\, so Studio.poly on its own is not the project.

• To back up, copy the folder. A cloud folder or a backup drive works, as long as the project is closed while it copies.
• A renamed folder still opens, as long as it holds one .poly file.
• To keep working on a copy, choose File → Save As… (Ctrl+Shift+S). Polyform copies the whole project, history included, to a folder you choose, and carries on in the copy; the original stays as it was.

One window at a time

Only one Polyform window can have a project open at a time. While it is open, the folder holds .polyform.lock, which says which program has it. If you open the project again elsewhere, Polyform says “This project is already open for editing in another Polyform process”, and to close it there first.

Close it in the other window, then open it again. The lock goes when you close the project. If Polyform stopped without closing it, the next one to open the project notices and takes it over.

A project in a shared folder that is open on another computer says which computer has it. If that computer is no longer running Polyform, delete .polyform.lock inside the project folder.

Share a copy

To send a project to someone, choose File → Save a Copy for Sharing…. Polyform shows what goes in the copy and what stays out, before it writes anything.

Open the full-size picture

• In the copy: the pages and layers, the images they use, the names of the fonts, and the shaders.
• Comments go in too, unless you untick Include comments.
• Left out: the history, since its undo steps hold what you deleted or retyped; what your agents changed, which is part of it; the exports\ folder; and any other files in the folder.

Click Choose where…, then pick a name and a place. The copy is a project of its own, ready to send as a folder or a zip. The original keeps everything and stays open.

Saved safely

Polyform saves as you work, and never leaves a file half written. Each save writes a new file beside the old one and then swaps them, so a crash or a power cut leaves the last good save, not a broken one. Every edit is also recorded in history.sqlite as you make it, so undo and Version History survive closing the app.

A file from a newer Polyform

A project saved by a newer Polyform may not open in an older one. Polyform then says “This project needs a newer Polyform”, and tells you how to update: Help → Check for Updates. Nothing on disk is changed, so the project opens as it was once you have updated.

On a Mac, Open Project is ⌘O and Save As is ⇧⌘S.