Paint Engine Presets: Where are they?

[GOLDCOIN]

[split out from another thread - DannyR]

...Where does one place these settings, you have given ??? That long string of numbers, e.g.,

Setting70=riverwild;1,1,0,0,2,4,9,27,34,0,100,176,54,87,36,-22,-54,-1,359,358

[catia]

Goldcoin,

If you have Paint Engine installed, there should be an fmachine.ini file on your machine (it is at the top level WINNT folder on NT installations). Anyway, open it in Notepad and copy any new strings into it. Just make sure you do not have duplicate ID numbers (these are the Setting### entries). If you do, just change one (doesn't matter which) to a unique number. The new entry will appear in the presets the next time you open Paint Engine.

Here is an example:

Setting70=riverwild;1,1,0,0,2,4,9,27,34,0,100,176,54,87,36,-22,-54,-1,359,358

Have fun......

Catia

[Trimoon]

Custom presets (downloaded as a .txt file or copy/pasted) are appended to file fmachines.ini.

1. Select (highlight) and copy the preset string (like the one below).
2. Right-click on file name fmachines.ini and chose EDIT. This will invoke Notepad (or Wordpad).
3. Paste the preset(s) at the end of the file.

If you want to share custom presets you've created:
1. Open fmachines.ini
2. Delete all the presets you do NOT want to share
3. File > Save As... the remaining settings as a .txt file, which can be e-mailed or uploaded to a site -or- copy/paste the settings into a thread such as one at RetouchPRO.

Let's say that I have a setting that I wish to share. I save that setting in Paint Engine and assign a name to it such as Sketch No 2. Then I open the fmachine.ini file. At the end of the file you will see an entry that looks something like:

Setting23=Sketch No 2;1,1,0,0,1,3,4294967146,99,2,0,43,322,106,21,-18,-35,12,49,56,110

The number after setting has no meaning to PE, but it must be two digits and cannot be repeated among other settings, otherwise it will be ignored.

You can have 99 settings in the fmachines.ini file, numbered 00-99.

[Trimoon]

Catia:

In the past, I used to go to sites that were dedicated just for the PE presets. People were trading these things as though they were baseball cards. Mostly, what people did was to keep a word file with lines and lines of presets. The numbers were unimportant. What we did basically was save the last 9 numbers for inserting our presets and assign the preset we inserted with one of those numbers. There was no typing -- just copy and paste. I have been using PE for so many years that I don't use the presets any more. After a while, you get used to the controls and you can look at an image or, if you have a concept that you wish to execute, you know what to do from experience. I have to say that Paint Engines is one of the few plug ins out there that I recommend. Most of the other plug ins you can use through the custom filter setting, once you learn the numbers and what they do.



Steve

[Dotty]

Well, I have just recently discovered Paint Engine and as a newbie I am totally confused by the posts above. I have NO CLUE as to how one saves settings in there. I am pretty happy with most of the results but when I make a selection from the drop down menu, then evaluate the results the drop down menu then reverts to "none" so I lose the name of the chosen effect. Is there a PE for Dummies tutorial anywhere?

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Dotty

Is there a PE for Dummies tutorial anywhere?

Not that I've ever seen. That's one of the drawbacks to a free plugin, I guess.

...as a newbie I am totally confused by the posts above.

The posts above apply to a differernt issue: No presets displayed from the dropdown menu.

...when I make a selection from the drop down menu, then evaluate the results the drop down menu then reverts to "none" so I lose the name of the chosen effect.

That's just how it works. Now that you know that, you'll just need to get into the habit of noting the preset name before trying it.

The <none> in the dropdown menu a little misleading. When you use PE for the first time <none> really applies. After applying a preset it should really say <last used> (which it is), but again it's just the way it works.

If you try a preset and make custom changes to it, you want to preserve, invoke PE again and engage the Save dialog.

Hope this helps...

~Danny~