Docs / Reference / Where your files live
Where your files live
Every path the plugin writes to, what is in it, and why it sits where it does.
| Path | What is in it | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
%APPDATA%\animatica\shared.json | The account-level settings: the server URL and whether you are on Cloud. | It is one account against one server, so every Animatica host on the machine reads the same file. |
%APPDATA%\animatica\auth.json | Your sign-in session. | Likewise shared — signing in once covers every host. |
%APPDATA%\animatica\max\settings.json | Everything else: modes, window state and the two layout switches, generation options, the Debug group. | Per-host on purpose, so two applications cannot overwrite each other's interface state. |
%APPDATA%\animatica\max\last_run.json | The crash breadcrumb — the phase and status of the last run. | So a run that never came back can still say how far it got. Safe to delete. |
%LOCALAPPDATA%\animatica\max\ | Regenerable data only. | Kept apart from the settings so you can delete it without losing them, and so it does not roam. |
Documents\3ds-max\Animatica_Debug\ | Debug captures — one folder per generation run, when Debug: save request / response JSON is on. | This host's own pile, named after it; a Debug folder you type in Settings wins over the default. Safe to delete. |
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\3dsMax\<year> - 64bit\<LOCALE>\scripts\startup\animatica_to_max_startup.py | The launcher written by the installer. | Max loads it at startup. Removed by install.py --uninstall. |
Your .max scene | Prompts and pins, and the rig's stamps: bind pose, hip height, name prefix, and the identity that ties its prompts and pins to it. | They belong to the scene, so they travel with the scene file. The identity is why renaming a rig does not orphan its prompts. |
#Why the folder is named max
The per-host folder is keyed on the host key the plugin registers itself under —
max here, and a different key for every other host on the machine. That key
names the folder, which is why the split exists at all: one settings file shared
between two applications would have each overwriting the other's window state
and modes.
#Two habits worth knowing
Settings files are written atomically — a half-written settings file would be worse than a missing one. And the account-level keys are split out of the per-host file automatically, so a server URL you set in one application is the one every application uses.
Off Windows the same tree hangs off ~/animatica instead of %APPDATA%.