--- title: "Using Anima on a Network" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/ANIMA/124389121/Using%20Anima%20on%20a%20Network" format: markdown --- This page provides information on how to use Anima on a network. ## **Centralized Asset Management** --- Using **Anima** you can **download** the models from the library directly from **inside** the Anima application. If you are going to use Anima on multiple machines connected to the same network, we recommend setting up your “**Purchases**” folder in a **shared location** to make sure that all the machines are using the same updated resources. Sharing the downloaded models in the same network location is a good idea to use it as a sort of ***download cache****,* to avoid downloading multiple times the same models. You are not forced to do it because Anima will automatically download any of the assets you may need, but sharing the same Purchases folder with your colleagues will save you time and bandwidth (keep in mind that the new 4D models have a considerable size). However, the Render Node installations of Anima don’t need access to the “Purchases” folder, only to the Anima project folder, because all the resources used in a project are stored inside the subfolder named “resource cache”, placed inside each project folder. We use that “resource cache” subfolder to store all the resources used by that particular project in the most efficient way. This way, we ensure that any device having access to the **Anima project folder** will be able to **load** and **render** the scene without issues, and you won’t need to manage the contents of the “Purchases” folder manually. > ℹ️ You can check more details about the ***Resource Cache*** in the following article: [https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/125076229](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/125076229) Therefore, as you do when you render using any DCC application like **3ds Max** or **Cinema 4D** either locally or using a Render Manager like **Backburner, Pulze, Batch Render**, **Team Render** or **Deadline**, you only need to put the Anima project folder in a shared network and then import it into your scene. After that, the Anima plugin will be able to find and load that scene from your local network, and will render the Anima content without issues. ## **The Purchases Folder** --- --- --- --- Whenever you set “**Purchases**” to any location, a few .xml files and 3 subfolders (“**models**“, “**clips**” and “**streams**“) will be automatically created there. For example, if your “**Purchases**” path is set to “*Z:/_AXYZ_/purchases*“, then the Anima actors (all the *.y files) will be placed inside the subfolder “*Z:/_AXYZ_/purchases/models*“. ## **Blocked Purchase Folder** --- ## **Invisible Mapped Drives** --- If you have problems to have access to your **mapped drives from Anima,** it means that the main Anima process “*anima.exe*” is running in a user environment that does not have those mapped drives mounted yet or in which the access to those drives has been marked as unavailable by Windows (this could happen if the NAS or Server that hosts the network drives was not reachable for a while). Sometimes you can even open a Windows File Manager and an Anima File Browser in the same user session, but see the mapped drives on one of the windows only. This counter-intuitive behavior is a known issue in Windows systems and is described in full detail in these articles: - [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3035277/mapped-drives-are-not-available-from-an-elevated-prompt-when-uac-is-co](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3035277/mapped-drives-are-not-available-from-an-elevated-prompt-when-uac-is-co) - [http://woshub.com/how-to-access-mapped-network-drives-from-the-elevated-apps/](http://woshub.com/how-to-access-mapped-network-drives-from-the-elevated-apps/) This usually happens when Anima is launched from the installer because the installer is always executed with “admin” privileges and the processes that are launched from there are inheriting the same windows environment. If this happens, the problem can be easily solved by closing Anima and starting it again from the ***Windows Start*** menu. If that does not solve the problem, there are two alternative solutions that can also be used to solve this situation: - Make sure that the user that is running the Anima process has actually access to those drives and that the drive mapping is also set up on that account. You can see the users related to each process in the **Windows Task Manager**, at the **Details Tab**. - Use the extended **UNC paths** instead of the **mapped drives**. For example, let’s say that the path “Z*:\ANIMA_Assets”* has a “Z:” mapped drive that corresponds to the UNC path “*\\You_server\your_shared_folder*“. Then you can replace that part to get the full path: “*\\You_server\your_shared_folder\ANIMA_Assets”* ## **“Read from disk” vs “Keep in RAM” (File Error)** --- ### **Related Topics** - [Understanding the Resource Cache](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/125076229) - [Installation process](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/124291598) - [Legacy Batch Installations (CLI)](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/125141521)