ConsolidateDb Utility

The ConsolidateDb command line utility allows you to reduce the amount of drawings in your scene by merging the elements that have the same drawings together.

ConsolidateDb works by going through the target scene's elements to detect any pair of elements that contain the same drawings, which typically occurs when importing a template several times or when duplicating layers. If it finds two elements that have the same drawings, it will merge both elements together into a single element.

Merging elements is done by keeping the original element, deleting the drawings in the duplicate element, and linking the column that was originally linked to the duplicate element to the original element. If the duplicate element has any extra drawings that are not in the original element, those drawings are moved to the original element so that they do not get removed from the scene.

By default, ConsolidateDb will not merge two elements that appear to match if they have at least one drawing with the same name, but different artwork, as it would require renaming one of the drawings to keep both of them in the same element. With the -renameTiming option, ConsolidateDb will merge e#lements even if it has to rename some drawings to keep all of the drawings in both elements. It will also update the Xsheet columns with the new names of the renamed drawings to avoid affecting the rendered image.

NOTE:
  • This utility only works on one scene at a time. Shell scripts must be used to run ConsolidateDb on an entire job, environment or database.
  • ConsolidateDb can also be used on Harmony Stand Alone scenes.
IMPORTANT:
  • It is possible to add palettes to individual elements, which makes it possible to make two elements with the same drawings use different colours. If two elements have the same drawings but have different palettes, ConsolidateDb will merge them together regardless, which will cause them to use the same palette and may affect the colours of the merged element in the rendered image.
  • ConsolidateDb will delete files permanently from the target scene. Although it is designed to avoid affecting the rendered image and to only remove files that are unnecessary, it is highly recommended to make a backup of a scene before running ConsolidateDb on it.

Syntax

When using Harmony Server:

ConsolidateDb [options] -env <environment> -job <job> -scene <scene> -user <username>

When using Harmony Stand Alone:

ConsolidateDb [options] <path to scene folder>

Examples

ConsolidateDb -renameTiming -removeEmptyElements -env myProject -job S03E05 -scene SC0015 -user jdoe

ConsolidateDb -verbose 2 C:\Users\jdoe\Documents\MyScene

Parameters

Parameter

Description

Database Scene Location

-env <environment>

The environment in which the target scene is located.

-job <job> The job in which the target scene is located.
-scene <scene> The name of the target scene.
-user <username> The Harmony user who will perform the consolidation.

Consolidation Options

-renameTiming

By default, ConsolidateDb will not merge two elements if they contain drawings with the same name, but not the same artwork. With this option enabled, ConsolidateDb will merge elements as long as they have at least one drawing in common.

When two drawings have the same name but not the same artwork, one of the drawings is renamed before it is moved to the merged element. This allows ConsolidateDb to keep all the drawings in the both elements without causing any naming conflict.

The Xsheet columns will be updated to preserve the exposure of drawings getting renamed. Hence, the rendered image will not be affected.

-removeEmptyElements By default, ConsolidateDb leaves the empty element folder behind after it has deleted all the drawings in a duplicate element. With this parameter, ConsolidateDb will delete an element after it emptied it.

-verbose 1

-verbose 2

Increases the amount of information reported to the terminal while the scene is being consolidated.

Verbose mode 1 will output the following information:

  • The origin of each drawing in duplicate elements followed by their destination in the original element.
  • Each drawing file it deletes.

Verbose mode 2 will output the following information:

  • The origin and destination of each drawing in both the original element and its duplicate elements.
  • Each drawing it removes from or adds to each column.
  • Each drawing files it deletes.

Miscellaneous

-?

-h

-help

--help

Displays the usage information in the terminal.

-v

-version

--version

Displays the version information in the terminal.