Digital assets Lock, unlock, and edit digital assets

The process of setting up a new digital asset can involve multiple stages of testing and editing. Often you will create an asset with no interface, and then build up the interface bit by bit.

When you first create an asset, the node instance is “unlocked” for editing (the name of unlocked nodes is red in the network editor).

You can go into the node and edit the nodes inside, or press on the unlocked node and choose Type Properties to see the asset’s options.

Clicking Accept in the type properties window , or pressing on the node and choosing Save Operator Type saves any changes you've made into the asset definition in the library file, and keeps the node unlocked for editing.

Pressing on the node and choosing Match Current Definition discards any unsaved changes and locks the node to the definition saved in the library file.

To...	Do this
Unlock an asset to allow changes	Press on a node instance of the asset and choose Allow Editing of Contents. Assets that are unlocked have their name printed in red. In a production setting, generally only technical directors or supervisors should open up digital assets for editing.
Lock a digital asset	Press on a node instance of the asset and choose Match Current Definition. Assets that are locked to match the library definition have their name printed in blue.
Open an asset’s type properties window	Press on a node instance of the asset type and choose Type Properties. In the operator type manager, press on a library asset and choose Type Properties.
Save changes in the type properties window to the asset definition	In the type properties window, click Apply

Prevent users from editing asset definitions

Choose Tools > Operator Type Manager to open the operator type manager window .
On the Configuration tab, turn on the Safeguard Operator definitions option.

If users have this option on, the Allow Editing of Contents option is disabled.

Allow users to safely edit assets in a take

Normally you want to lock digital assets after you've finished creating and editing them, to prevent users from editing them.

However, if the artists using an asset really need to edit the assets they use, you can let them edit the contents of assets in takes . This is a safer alternative to leaving digital assets editable, because any changes the user makes to the asset will be contained in the take, instead of directly modifying the asset.

Choose Settings > Main Preferences to open the main preferences window .
Open the pop-up menu at the top of the window and choose Takes.
Turn on Allow auto-take mode for locked assets.

Now when artists are in auto-take mode they can go inside assets and edit their parameters, as if the asset was unlocked, but the changes are safely contained in a take.