Global Lock

Harmony Server has a lock system, referred to as Global Lock, for the different scenes and scene assets. Because all the data on the server can be accessed directly and modified from any client machine by default, the scenes are locked. You must obtain the rights to modify scenes in order to save your work on the server.

Only one user at a time can modify a scene. Once a scene is opened on a client machine, other users can only open the scene in read-only mode; they will not be able to save any modifications.

If you work in standalone mode, you automatically have the rights to modify all drawings and palettes.

Global Lock offers three levels which are available from the Database Selector when you log in to Harmony. From there, you can select a scene and obtain the rights to modify it by selecting the desired lock option.

A Harmony project can be locked at various levels. Its timing, drawings, version and palettes can be locked. Locking means that you have the rights to modify a scene or its assets. Other users cannot modify locked items. If someone tries to open a locked scene, it will be displayed as read-only.

Here are the different lock possibilities:

Lock Description
Scene or Version Lock Controls the Xsheet timing, layers, nodes but not the drawing, palettes, palette-lists or templates.
Drawing Lock Only one user can edit and save a locked drawing.
Palette Lock Only one user can edit and save a locked palette.
Palette-list Lock Only one user can edit and save a locked palette-list.
Library Folder lock Only one user can edit and save into that folder in the Library.

There are several different ways to obtain the rights to modify the scenes. It can be done when the user loads a scene from Harmony, inside the application once the scene is loaded, or when an environment, job or scene is created using the Control Center node.

Acquiring Rights to a Scene Once it is Loaded

If you opened a scene in read-only mode, but realize that you need to modify it, you can easily acquire the necessary rights without closing and reloading the scene.

Note that it is not possible to acquire the rights to modify the scene assets once the scene is loaded. This process is done during the initial loading of the scene. To learn more about enabling the rights to modify while creating environments, jobs and scenes, refer to the Control Center Guide.