Installing, Synching & Sharing Materials

As noted elsewhere on my blog, when you install the Japanese apps they are in a separate folder from your English-language installation. They also maintain two separate "local" Materials folders and two separate "global" Materials folders. Exactly where they are will depend on your platform and which versions of the CLIP STUDIO apps you have installed.

LOCAL FOLDERS (current user)

~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/ (Japanese apps)

~/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/ (English apps)

Note: Japanese version 1.6+ will move the folder above out of "Documents" and into the User "Library" folder (which is hidden on "Mavericks" and later) and creates an alias to it in "Documents" but I have no idea why.

GLOBAL FOLDERS (all users)

Mac OS (main volume):

/Library/Application Support/CELSYS/CLIPStudio/Common/Material/ (Japanese apps)

/Library/Application Support/CELSYS_EN/ClipStudio/Common/Material/ (English apps)

Windows (C: drive):

\Program Data\CELSYS\CLIPStudio\Common\Material\ (Japanese apps)

\Program Data\CELSYS_EN\CLIPStudio\Common\Material\ (English apps)

Note: "Program Data" is a hidden folder!

Materials you download from the Celsys assets "cloud" website are copied into the LOCAL FOLDER of the user who downloaded it. That material will not automatically become available to other users on the same computer. The only assets downloaded from the "cloud" site that go into the GLOBAL FOLDER are the default official materials.

Why are there LOCAL and GLOBAL Folders?

Typically only someone with "Administrator" privileges would be able to alter the contents of the Global Folder, but regular User Accounts could not. A regular User Account would only be able to alter the contents of the Local Folder. An Administrator could, of course, alter the contents of both locations.

It is very purposely set up this way! The system's Administrator gets to decide what Materials are in the Global Folder, which acts as sort of a "Master Library" of materials made available to all users on the system. It may seem heavy-handed or like overkill if you're the only person who uses your computer or it is a home computer. However, if you think about it this makes total sense if you were in a production environment and were using licensed materials or materials that required some kind of sign-off before they could be used. An Administrator would have to make sure no materials were available in that "Master Library" that hadn't been licensed or otherwise approved.

Individual users, though, may not have any use for some of those materials and therefore can customize their working list by deleting materials they don't use from the Materials Panel without affecting their availability to other users. In fact, if the User deleted the material accidentally a simple "Reset" operation under Materials Maintenance will restore it from the Global Folder.

However, if an Administrator deletes a material from the Global Folder it will no longer be available in that "Master Library" or to ANY users on the system. The next time any user opens Clip Studio Paint it would go through the "first run" initialization process again - during which it rectifies differences between the contents of the two locations and automatically removes materials from the User's "Local Folder" if they are no longer available in the "Global Folder." This allows an Administrator to authorize and revoke materials and enforces those decisions on all User Accounts.
I discovered that this was how it worked when I first tried placing a custom material I created in the LOCAL "Install" sub-folder and it triggered an "initialization" when I started PAINT that automatically deleted my custom material! However, when I placed it in the GLOBAL "Install" sub-folder it wouldn't be automatically deleted. If I deleted it form my Materials Panel in PAINT it would disappear from my LOCAL folder, but not the GLOBAL one, from which another "Reset" operation would restore it.

This is ONLY true, however, for materials that are in the "Install" or "Install2" sub-folders! The GLOBAL folder can only have the installed materials in it. The LOCAL folder can have copies of the installed materials PLUS user-specific materials (those created and "registered" by the user or downloaded from the "Assets" site).

For more details on how materials file system is arranged see "Material Folder Structure" below.

MATERIALS MAINTENACE

"Install Materials" was used to install the 1.7GB ZIP package of additional default materials you used to have to download separately. It would close PAINT and open a small utility just for installing such packages, but it would ONLY work with official packages from Celsys (you couldn't use it to bundle, install, or share your own – if you want to know how to do that see my tutorial on creating Custom Materials Packs [http://offworldgirl.blogspot.com/p/custom-clip-studio-paint-materials-packs.html]).

"Organize Materials" just looks for changes in the Materials folders and updates the database entries.

"Reset Installed Materials" would rebuild the database tables and entries and (I think) copies any missing files from the GLOBAL "Install" folder into the LOCAL "Install" folder.

Up through version 1.5 the Materials Maintenance options were found under the main menu in CLIP STUDIO PAINT:

In version 1.6 and later the Maintenance options have been moved out of PAINT and into the CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app:

With the addition to the English version of being able to download materials from the Assets website there are some new maintenance options…

"Reset Materials Installed from Cloud" goes and re-downloads all those default extra materials from the Clip Assets site. Useful if you, for example, accidentally deleted some of them and need to get them back. It takes a while though, because its a LOT of files.

"Sync All Materials Installed from Cloud" I'm not entirely sure, but I think it only downloads materials you'd previously downloaded if they're missing (tends to be much faster than a "Reset" from cloud.

The old "Organize" and "Reset" of Materials that aren't from their Cloud is found under the "Maintenance Menu" fly-out sub-menu. They work exactly like they used to. They are joined by a new option:

"Organize Material Folders" will try to repair the names of the "folders" and the individual item "tags" in the Materials panel, which are now stored in a separate database (see below).

When To Do Maintenance?

Anytime you add materials you should run an "Organize Materials" operation to update the database entries. Your newly added materials may not appear in the Materials Panel until you do so.

Really, anytime you think things aren't displaying correctly in your Materials Panel run an Organize to see if it fixes the problem.

If the material still isn't showing after an "Organize" then try the more thorough "Reset" option (though this has more to do with the "Install" materials, it can also fix custom materials too.

If neither of those is working you'll need to deal with the database file directly...

MATERIALS DATABASE

~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/MaterialDB/CatalogMaterial.cmdb (Japanese app)

~/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/MaterialDB/CatalogMaterial.cmdb (English app)

In versions 1.6 and later there will be an additional file named "MaterialFolderTag.mfta" which now contains the Materials "folder" names and the tag cloud for the individual items. This used to be part of the main CatalogMaterial file but is now handled separately.

Both files are SQLite format. I do not recommend manually editing them. If your database(s) get corrupted and maintenance operations aren't fixing it, just TRASH the database file(s) and make the apps recreate them for you from scratch.

Will this destroy my installation!?

Probably not. I have done extensive hacking and testing of these and many other files and I never got my system so screwed up I couldn't restore it back to normal working order. In fact I have not had to re-install anything, and have only installed updates to existing installations. If I couldn't "destroy" my installations you probably aren't going to. But if all else fails reinstalling the apps isn't that difficult.

MATERIAL FOLDER STRUCTURE

Normally you would not have to worry about this, but if you want to manually move materials between the Japanese and English installations you have to know how to find them and where to copy them.

Manually copying the files and keeping the Japanese and English versions isolated from each other is the safest way to do this as it eliminates the risk of the two installations corrupting each other's data.

Manually Copying Materials (LOCAL FOLDER)

When you create and register a new material it will be added to your LOCAL FOLDER. So let's assume you just made a custom 3D character in COORDINATE, registered it as a new material, and (after running an "Organize" operation) you can see it in the Japanese installation of PAINT. How do you get your material into the English version of PAINT? First you have to FIND IT!

First open up your file browser and go look inside the Japanese LOCAL FOLDER:

~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/

Inside you'll see a bunch of folders with numbers for names. Sort the contents of the "Material" folder in the order items were added. The material you registered will be one of the most recently added folders (but not necessarily the most recently added). Look inside each folder, and there will be a subfolder (also with a number for a name) and yet another sub-folder with a VERY LONG random name, then inside of that will be folder named "thumbnail" and inside of that a PNG image file which should show you what that material is, so it might look like this:

Material/
     |→ 28/
        |→ 64/
           |→ 8e011ebf33-c240-d3be-a8ab-efb9910847/
                 | → thumbnail/
                            |→ thumbnail.png

Once you find the material you're looking for you could copy that top-level folder (in this example it's "28" but it might be any number) and all of its contents to the English installation LOCAL FOLDER:

~/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/

If there was already a folder there with the same number you can just change the folder name to some other number that isn't already in use.

Run a "Organize Materials" operation on the English installation and your material should now appear in the Material Panel of your English version of PAINT too.

Manually Copying Materials (GLOBAL FOLDER)

If you have more than one user account on your computer you could just copy your material into each user's LOCAL FOLDER and then they'd all have it. But a cleaner solution is to make it a GLOBAL material available to all users. You still start in the same place, the LOCAL FOLDER of the user account that registered the material. But instead of copying it across to another LOCAL FOLDER you copy it into the GLOBAL FOLDER:

FROM:

~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/

TO:

Mac OS (system volume):

/Library/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudio/Common/Material/Install/

Windows (C: drive):

/Program Data/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudio/Common/Material/Install/

Notice that they MUST go inside the "Install" folder! Assuming there isn't already a folder with the same name you can just drop it in there. However, it probably won't show up in the Materials Panel of PAINT yet. Each user would have to run a "Reset Installed Materials" operation to copy it from the GLOBAL folder to their LOCAL FOLDER's "Install" sub-folder. Now, even if an individual user decides he or she doesn't need the material, it remains available for everyone else – and anyone who deleted it can easily get it back with just a "Reset" operation to copy it over again.

The numbered folders, though, are kind of a pain because they don't really tell you what they are and what if you want to bundle a whole bunch of related custom materials you created? What if you want to share them with other PAINT users on the internet? Refer to my tutorial on making Custom Materials Packs (http://offworldgirl.blogspot.com/p/custom-clip-studio-paint-materials-packs.html) for details on how you do that.

SHARING MATERIALS FOLDERS

Manually copying materials between installations and LOCAL FOLDERS is strongly recommended because it isolates the two installations and means you'll never have to worry about them corrupting each other's files.

However, in version 1.6 and later it is now possible for two (or more) installations to SHARE the same set of Materials! The full ramifications of doing this aren't yet known, but so far I haven't had any issues with it and both "Reset" and "Sync" from the Cloud worked as expected as well. You're also going to want to do this BEFORE you create a bunch of custom materials in the Japanese version.

 IMPORTANT VERSION 1.6.7 WARNING! 

Version 1.6.7 apparently has a "unified" installer for all language versions.  It will no longer install the apps into folders with a language code on the end (like the "CLIP STUDIO 1.5 EN" or "CELSYS_EN" folders).  It will install the apps into the "CLIP STUDIO 1.5" application folder and apparently wants to use the /Documents/CELSYS/ folder for Materials.

This is obviously a big problem if you already have the Japanese version installed in "CLIP STUDIO 1.5" because installing 1.6.7 will overwrite it!  If you followed my method below to share materials between English and Japanese installations you will also likely end up with Brushes and Materials in Japanese in your English installation.  Here's how to avoid these problems:

1. Change the name of the "CLIP STUDIO 1.5" folder to "CLIP STUDIO 1.5 JP" so it won't get overwritten.

2. BACK UP the "Material" folder in "Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/ somewhere!

3. Open the English Assets app (in the "CLIP STUDIO 1.5 EN" folder) and go to the Gear menu and check that "Location of Materials" is NOT pointing to the same location as the Japanese version (I recommend pointing it back to the original location: ~/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/).

4. NOW you can install version 1.6.7.  It will create a new "CLIP STUDIO 1.5" folder where it lives.  It will point to the ~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/ location for Materials.  Make sure you let the Assets app go through the big download of materials from the Cloud.

5. If everything worked, you should have version 1.6.7 installed, with English brushes and Materials from the cloud.  But all your local/custom Materials will be missing!

Option 1: old English version and new English version will not share materials.

6. Go to ~/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/ and copy all of the NUMBERED folders (do not copy the ones with names like "Install, Install2, Alias, etc.).

7. Paste the copies of the numbered folders into ~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/

Option 2: All apps will share the same materials

6. Go to ~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/ and rename "Documents" to "Documents1" (or something) and "Materials" to "Materials1" (or something).

7. Open the Clip Studio Assets app in the "CLIP STUDIO 1.5 EN" folder.  Under the Gear go to "Location of Materials."  CHANGE it to point to ~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon and confirm the move.

8. Now in the Clip Studio Assets app use Gear--Synch All Materials Installed form Cloud and then Gear--Maintenance Menu--Organize Materials.  You will have to run both these operations from every version of the Clip Studio Assets app or Clip Studio Paint app that is pointing to that same materials location.

STEP 1: Synchronize Installed Versions

Make sure you have the SAME 1.6+ versions of PAINT in both the English and Japanese installations. I make no guarantees if they are different versions. To keep the versions the same, though, you may have to forego updates to your English installation unless and until translations become available for the updated Japanese apps (this normally isn't going to be too much of a problem because the current Japanese versions are typically a release ahead of the English-language one so it's more likely you'll be forced to not use the current Japanese version than the English one).

NOTE: that you can redirect an older version to use the same location as a newer version, but cannot redirect a newer version to use the same location as an older version.  And once you have an older version pointing to a location it will prevent you from redirecting the newer one anywhere else!  So, in order to redirect the newer version, you'd need to first redirect the older version somewhere else.

STEP 2: Prep for Sharing

I recommend that you share the Japanese installation's materials with the English one, not the other way around. I assume the whole reason you're here reading this is you want to use the the other apps in the CLIP STUDIO suite to create your own native format materials. If you share it this way you will be able to create and register materials in MODELER or COORDINATE and have them available in your English version of PAINT without having to dig through folders finding thumbnails and copying and renaming folders to other locations.

Once that's set up the most you'll need to do is an "Organize Materials" when you add new items. Ok, so go to the Japanese installation's LOCAL FOLDER (make sure none of the apps in the suite are running):

~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/

BACK UP THIS "CLIPStudioCommon" FOLDER SOMEWHERE! That way if you need to get things back to square one you can just drag, drop, and overwrite to restore it. All set? Let's continue…

Inside that folder rename or delete the "Document" and "Material" folders.

STEP 3: Point to Share

Open up the English version of the CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app. Under the "gear" icon in the upper right select from the drop-down menu "Location of Materials" and on the next screen browse to the folder path in STEP 2 above (you want to point it to the "CLIPStudioCommon" folder, NOT the "CELSYS" folder above it!).

Click "Save Changes" and it will display a dialog asking to confirm moving everything. "OK" that and wait for the progress bar to finish. It will display a confirmation when it is done.

STEP 4: Organize Materials

The English-language version will have run an "Organize" as part of moving the materials location. However the Japanese installation has no clue what you just did! So close the English version of the CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app and now open the Japanese version. Go back under the "gear" icon and select "Organize Materials" from the "Maintenance Menu" fly-out and let it complete. Now go back to that "Maintenance Menu" and run the "Organize Materials Folders" and let that complete.

STEP 5: Check You're Sync'd!

You've still got the Japanese CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app open, so click on the "Material" button at the top and you should see Materials Folders and the Tag cloud are now in English, and see all the materials from your English installation!

Now for the cool part. Go open MODELER or COORDINATE and import a model of something and when you're happy with it go to the "File" menu and select "Register as a new material."

Make sure the Japanese version of the CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app is closed, open the English version of PAINT and see if your newly registered material is appearing in the Materials Panel. Odds are it probably isn't, so open the English version of the CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app and run a quick "Organize Materials" operation. Now your material created and registered in the Japanese app should appear and be available in the English version of PAINT.

Conversely if you created any custom patterns or layouts, etc., in the English version of PAINT and registered them as materials you'd need to run an "Organize Materials" from the Japanese app the next time you ran one of them to synchronize things.

STEP 6: Keep It Organized!

Just remember that anytime you Add, Edit, or Delete Materials in one installation you'll need to run an "Organize Materials" in the other installation to keep things synched up and running smoothly.

SHARING LIMITATIONS

This will ONLY share the Materials, Materials Panel Folder Names, Tags, Recent Documents, and some Preferences. Each installation will still have it's own unique Brushes, Color Sets, Actions, WorkSpace settings, and other preferences as those are not stored in the "CLIPStudioCommon" folder.

Can I Share Materials Between Installs on DIFFERENT Computers?

I've been told the answer to that is "Yes."  I know it is possible to synchronize materials between multiple installations (of the same or different languages) on the same computer, so there shouldn't be any reason you can't do it on different computers by pointing them all to the same cloud drive.

PROBLEMS

I ran into an issue with trying to point the Japanese version anywhere else because I also have the Japanese "Legacy" environment installed. If I try to change the location for materials it gives me an error saying (my translation):

Cannot change location because it contains an older version of the application. Please update to the latest version first.

Which application? I don't know. My "Legacy" English installation of PAINT 1.4.4 doesn't balk, it loads the same materials as the current version – including ones I've downloaded from the "Assets" site.

The English 1.6.3 CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app didn't have any issues with setting the Materials location to the existing Japanese installation. So if you run into the same thing I recommend you do it that way around, point the English one at the Japanese one, not vice versa.

If you're dead set against doing that you can try manually editing the Configuration Database file (you'll need something that can open and edit SQLite files, obviously). The files for each installation would be located in:

~/Documents/CELSYS/CLIPStudioCommon/Preference/Config.sqlite (Japanese version)

~/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/Preference/Config.sqlite (English version)

Under the "CategoryFolderPath" block there are four sections:

_PW_ID, DataFolderPath, OldDataFolderPath, KindlePreviewerPath

When you change the English install to point at the Japanese one the "DataFolderPath" will have the path to the Japanese "CELSYS" folder and the "OldDataFolderPath" will point to the "CELSYS_EN" folder. Which implies that the CLIP STUDIO "Assets" app in the English install is still checking this configuration file, because the same file in the Japanese "CLIPStudioCommon/Preference" folder was not changed.

I'd seriously think twice before editing these files, but if nothing else works it may be the only way to point the Materials location somewhere else.

After changing the location it will also create 2 new files in "CLIPStudioCommon/MaterialDB":

kRunCopyFileUserAlias (appears to be an empty database)

LocalCatalogList.dat (is an encrypted database file so I can't open it)

The first one's name give us a clue that it's somehow related to running file copy with a user alias. The second one is obviously a catalog list of materials stored locally.