To embed or not to embed.. multiple assets and example hip file.

Example hip files are a great way to show off your assets, demonstrate usage and workflow. The hip file is uploaded after the main asset otl file has been uploaded and processed by the website. One of the current limitations is that the hip file can contain only single asset. The asset can have multiple subassets inside of it, but at the top level there's only a single one.



This can be problematic if the asset is part of a bigger workflow and represents a single step in a chain of steps that you'd like to explain. Here is where asset embedding comes in. Ordinarily asset definitions live in an otl file. But, it is possible to save the definition into the hip file itself. By bringing up Type Properties on the asset node and replacing 'Save To Library' file path with keyword 'Embedded', the definition of the asset will be saved into the hip file itself. This will allow you to include extra assets into the example hip file, even though they're not part of main one.

One caveat to note with embedding assets in this manner, is that they must be unprotected. Embedding a copy protected asset while technically possible, wouldn't work as the user would be missing the needed license. If a case like this presents itself, another approach is recommended. The easiest way to deal with it is to save nodes with needed data by locking them. Instead of saving the asset definitions you're saving the data needed for the main asset to function. While it's not optimal since the actual geometry gets saved into the hip file potentially increasing size; it would still allow the asset to use these nodes to show off it's functionality.