Launcher

This page explains the basic usage of AYON Launcher, including the Tray Menu and how to use different actions.

Last updated 3 months ago

Introduction

The AYON Launcher allows users to log in, launch applications, and access a variety of AYON tools. It also manages updates to ensure everything runs smoothly. For more details, please refer to Getting Started with AYON Pipeline.

Once you launch the AYON Launcher, the AYON icon should appear in your system tray.

Launcher Icon Color Code

The AYON icon can appear in different colors, indicating the pipeline mode in which AYON was launched.

  • ⬤ : AYON is in Production mode.

  • ⬤ : AYON is in Staging mode.

Please refer to your admin to set up the launcher in staging mode for you.

Tray Menu

When you click the AYON icon in your tray, the AYON Tray Menu appears. It provides a set of tools:

Launcher

The AYON Launcher is designed to display actions for selected entities, such as application actions.

Application actions allow you to launch Digital Content Creation (DCC) applications within a specified AYON context: project, folder path, and task.

Application actions automatically configure the studio environment based on your administrator's settings in Applications and Tools, which significantly reduces the need for manual adjustments of local user preferences.

By default, the last workfile is opened when starting an application. However, administrators can modify this behavior through the workfile settings in Core Addon Settings. Additionally, users have the option to right-click the application and choose to skip opening the last workfile or select a specific workfile to open from the workfiles list in the Launcher UI.

Launcher UI

  1. Select a Project. If no project is selected, use the project filter at the top.

  2. Refresh View

  3. Actions Pane

  4. Select Folder. Use the folder filter at the top.

  5. Select Task

  6. Select Workfile

  7. Show tasks assigned to you only.

Action Pane

Available actions follow your studio's configuration for application and tool settings specified in Applications and Tools.

  • Left-click an action to trigger it and open a list of available application variants. By default, it opens the last available workfile; otherwise, it starts a new scene.

  • Right-click an action to change its configuration, which is useful for specifying how to launch applications. For example, enable skip last workfile to always start a new scene.

If admins have enabled the Templated Build Workfile feature for the selected app, AYON will automatically initialize your scenes for any new ones created.

Common Actions

Action Icon

Action Name

Action Description

Launch Applications

Denoted by the DCC app icon.

Explore Here

Opens the location for the selected folder or task in the file explorer.

Show in AYON

Opens the location for the selected folder or task on the AYON server.

Terminal

Allows you to open the terminal initialized with the selected application's environment.

Useful for admins and TDs.

Publisher

This is only available if your admin added the tray publisher addon to the pipeline bundle.

When clicked, it launches the standalone publisher. For more info, see Working with AYON Tray Publisher. It's the same as our Creator / Publisher tool but standalone.

Browser

Explore Published Products. It's the same as the Loader tool but used for browsing and checking published products.

  1. Select a Project

  2. Refresh UI

  3. Select a Folder

  4. Available Published Product Types

  5. Available Published Products

  6. Thumbnail of the Selected Product or Folder

  7. Version Info of the Selected Product

  8. Available Representation for the Selected Product Version

Admin (Utilities)​

Useful AYON utilities for Admins and TDs.

Console

It's like any other script editor in DCCs where you can interact directly with AYON.

  1. Script Output Pane

  2. Script Input Pane

  3. Add Tab...

  4. Execute

Publish Report Viewer

This tool is used to examine exported publish reports.

  1. Publish Reports Pane: Drag and drop publish reports to add them. Click the trash icon to remove them.

  2. Report Viewer: Displays what the publisher looked like when the report was exported.

Login

Log in to AYON using the credentials provided by your studio. You can log in directly using the input fields on the login window or click Login with AYON Server to log in using the browser.

Login window.

Once logged in, the login window will show the current user.

Launcher Info​

This button is labeled with the AYON launcher version. When clicked, it shows additional information about your installed AYON launcher, local site ID, and environment variables.

See Environment Variables for more information about environment variables set during startup.

  • * Local Site ID: A unique ID assigned to your machine when installing AYON Launcher. For further details, check Site ID.

Exit

Exit and close the AYON Launcher desktop app.