Solved - Struggling to get SP 1.5.7 to see shelf items, brushes etc.

[teknoart.gb]

Hi, for the life of me I cannot see where/how to setup the directories to get SP to access its library of items.
Unfortunately this will need some explanation.
I was running v1.3 with Win 10 and naturally there were issues. Updated to 1.5.7 and each time it boots up I have a huge list of unrecognised preset tools and there is nothing in the brushes, particles, tools, or smart materials shelf items.
Looking at the PC hard disk there are heaps of .sppr files in C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic\presets\brushes. Same for tools etc..
The smart materials .spsm, seem to be in C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic\smart materials, so I don't see why it won't see, or display them.
I have set the default directory in SP to C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic. So I don't see why it can't see the items.

Normally I wouldn't like to have "user" files in the program directory structure.. and previously I did think it was actually set under users folders..
I cleaned all previous SP items from the PC, did a registry clean and afaik total fresh install of SP1.5.7. It has put the resources under the program files directory, there is no other "user" based directory setup anywhere on the PC that I can see.
Also, there is an issue loading the HAN project, if I double click it using File Explorer, when in the folder C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\samples, it loads and works. (still no brushes though.)
If I have SP open and try to open the file, I get the error message - [Project management] The selected location 'C:/Program Files/Allegorithmic/Substance Painter/resources/samples/Hans.spp' isn't valid!
Why, it's the same darn file!!

It's driving me bloody mental.
Any help would be appreciated.
Gary B.

[Fabian F.]

Hey teknoart.gb,

the default Shelf location should be in 'users/documents/Substance Painter/...'
All custom files go there, too. Not in the Program Files directory.

It sounds really strange that Substance Painter does not create the documents/ shelf.
Can you confirm that in Edit -> Settings -> Shelf there is the Program Files directory set in the default shelf, or did you create your own path to it?


Best Regards

[teknoart.gb]

Thanks for the reply Fabian.
Yeah, the behaviour has got me stumped...
However, to answer as best as I can;
"Can you confirm that in Edit -> Settings -> Shelf there is the Program Files directory set in the default shelf, or did you create your own path to it?"
It depends... I believe that at this stage I had cleaned out all the previous settings... but I was trying to add a second shelf location to the settings, which was ...c:/program files.... but I thought I had removed it and was relying on the SP installer to do a completely fresh install. The reason here was that I could see where a "std" installation put the files. But it may have been that I did not remove the setting, (you can't remove the default location, if it's the only path in the settings area.).
This would mean that there is something still left in the registry that contains the previous setup. (I did use CCleaner to reg edit.)
Before I had a lot of these problems the location was users/..name../documents/substance painter (I think).
What I'll do now, is to change the setting if I can and uninstall SP, clean and reinstall.
What I do to clean is std uninstall from control panel programs etc, remove the files from appdata/local../allegorithmic, which I think is the log files only.. do a CClean registry edit and restart.

[teknoart.gb]

Ok, here is a step by step description, as I do it on the PC.
SP open, settings, removed the shelf location ... C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic. (It did have a default, c:/users/..name.. /documents) which I have set to the default and removed the previous path of c:/program files..... ) refer pic, you can seen that it's the correct path, but there are no materials, brushes or anything except one alpha...
Close SP and uninstall.
Delete appdata local files under allegorithmic. I leave the license key...
open CCleaner and do a reg clean. Only a few app path errors show up.
Close everything and reboot the PC.
Install SP 1.5.7 (again)
DID NOT launch SP after install.
Using file explorer, there are no subdirectories under user/name/allegorithmic... etc.
The ONLY place that has shelf (sppr etc) files is....C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic.
Open SP.
The settings path is c:users/...name../documents.
There is no folders there. There is an additional subdirectory c:/users/name/documents/allegorithmic, but there are no sppr files there either.
With SP open, if I try to load hans.spp it fails.
SP seems to be working, but there are no brushes, materials, tools or anything to use.
Close SP.
Uninstall again... but NO cleaning.
REinstall WITH run as administrator.
It does NOT install any folders directories under Users at all. everything the under the subdirectory "resources" in the program files directory.
Made a new directory under users/documents as "Substance Painter"
Moved shelf AND Samples from program files area to this location so that the path would be,
"C:\Users\Ewol Drive\Documents\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\shelf\allegorithmic"
Set this path in the settings in SP.
Removed the original path users/documents/ as it seemed to be causing some conflict.
SP ran the path, threw the errors as per log file above invalid preset artistic1 etc....
The shelf shows the alphas, procedurals generators etc... but NO brushes, particles or tools. No smart materials either, even though they DO exist in;
C:\Users\Ewol Drive\Documents\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\shelf\allegorithmic\smart-materials.

I just don't get it...
:-(

I don't know what else I can do I'm pretty sure this is not how it should work.

[teknoart.gb]

OK, last ditch attempt.
Uninstall SP... clean out all the user (me) transferred files.
Reinstall Substance_Painter-1.1.0.548-msvc11-x64-standard-full. That's the earliest exe I have that I feel may be ok to use. (I WILL NOT start SP as I'm sure these will fail under Win10, but just to build up a pre existing shelf structure..)
NO files are put under users, it's all in program files.
Reinstall Substance_Painter-1.5.5.851-msvc11-x64-standard-full.
STILL everything is under resources in the program files directory.
There was no way to change the directory to the shelf here..
Reinstall Substance_Painter-1.5.7.866-msvc11-x64-standard-full
Still, it does not create any directories for shelf items outside of program files resources.

When I set the path to C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic, it sees a lot of the sppr files, alphas, generators etc.. but it does not see (even though they do exist under C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\resources\shelf\allegorithmic\presets) the tools brushes or smart materials.

It's just totally baffling.

[Froyok]

It's not the installer that create the folder in your "my documents" folder, but Substance Painter itself. So if you don't launch Substance Painter at least once, it will not create the shelf folder.

[teknoart.gb]

Maybe, but in the post above..
"...SP ran the path, threw the errors as per log file above invalid preset artistic1 etc....
The shelf shows the alphas, procedurals generators etc... but NO brushes, particles or tools. No smart materials either, even though they DO exist in;
C:\Users\Ewol Drive\Documents\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\shelf\allegorithmic\smart-materials..."
At this stage I have started Sp1.5.7 and it's running as I can see the alpha's etc.. but there is no brushes...AND this is with items in the program files area, not in documents.
Also whilst I don't state it. In the post ...last ditch attempt...
I have SP running as again, I see the the alpha's generators etc, as mentioned, but they are in program files not documents..
Now just to offer some more..
I have SP 1.3.1 installed on my surface pro that is running Win10. It sees everything, that is alpha's, generators, brushes, tools, particles, smart materials, all shelf items! and these are located in the users/ documents/substance painter/shelf/allegorithmic, OK, it crashes a bit, but why does the shelf work? Unfortunately 1.3.1 does not have an ability to see the directory path in settings, so can't confirm what's happening there via SP on the surface pro.
What I've done now is recreated the EXACT same directory layout that exists under the surface pro with SP1.3.1 moved the files into these. that is the shelf directory is ;
C:\Users\Ewol Drive\Documents\Substance Painter\shelf\allegorithmic. It still will not show up the brushes, particles, tools, smart materials. Even though with the surface pro,  SP at ver 1.3.1 the same directory structure will.
Personally I think there is some lingering version identifier somewhere that is telling 1.5.7 that the data in the shelf...//presets is wrong and it throws those errors and does not display the items.  As at this stage, the ONLY way those items in the presets exist is via the downloaded installer.  Whilst I have moved them, as discussed above, they have not been copied from an external disk or other older source.

[teknoart.gb]

Ooookay, finally!
Not totally sure what I did, but I got sick of thinking there's something lingering.
Bit the bullet and did a manual Regedit looking for any key "substance painter" and "shelf"
Had to be very careful and it took a long while (bit tired) that's why I can't remember exactly.. but..
I deleted my license key, deleted everything SP, in regedit I did find a block that seemed to be dealing with paths and the program files /../shelf key Deleted it all. (ensuring that it pertained to SP not SD.)

Re booted the PC and reinstalled SP 1.5.7 only. It spat at it being unlicensed, (fine) I did a validate with Allegorithmic account. Whilst it was showing that license popup I could see ALL the brushes, tools etc.. So after validation, voila! All good... finally :-)
Sorry I can't identify in the registry exactly, but it is getting late.. Maybe later I'll see if I can identify it..
Anyway I'm mostly happy that SP is working again.

[teknoart.gb]

A bit of additional info for reference.
It seems that the problem was due to permissions for the folder that the SP brushes etc are installed in. (Not necessarially the registry as I thought before).
Users/.../documents/substance painter/shelf had not been set to allow access/write rights for general users only system/admin. Why, I don't know.
But after changing the substance painter directory to allow all users full control, it is working.
SP boots up, shows all the content in the substance painter directory and seems to work fine.

[Froyok]

Thanks for the info, we will look into those permissions issues.

[chrisxvasquez]

Running into this same issue and found this thread while googling a solution. I wanted to try out one brush so I'll just wait for the next update instead of reinstalling.

[Froyok]

Running into this same issue and found this thread while googling a solution. I wanted to try out one brush so I'll just wait for the next update instead of reinstalling.

Can you describe your hardware/operating system ?
We weren't able to replicate the issue yet.