Getting started

This page takes you from your first sign-in to finding your first task: you sign in, open a project, organize your windows into tabs and find what is assigned to you. The views are described in detail on the Interface page; here you will find the path to follow.

Bernard's interface is in English: labels are quoted as they appear, in italics.

Signing in

Before you start. A studio administrator must have created your account and authorized it (see User management). You then receive a welcome email with a temporary password.

The sign-in window asks for four pieces of information:

Click Login.

What can get in the way. An empty or incorrect field is flagged in red for two seconds (for example "This Email is invalid." or "Your password is incorrect."). An account that is not authorized cannot sign in. A computer that is not authorized shows "Unauthorized Computer" and Bernard closes: ask your administrator to authorize your workstation (see Security).

First sign-in with a temporary password. Bernard opens the Password Edition window. Choose Save new password to set your own (at least 12 characters, with uppercase letters, lowercase letters and digits), or Keep auto generated password to keep the password you received.

Forgotten password. On the sign-in window, fill in Company, DataBase Name and Email, then click Forgot Password ?. After confirmation, a new temporary password is sent to you by email.

The welcome screen

After signing in, Bernard may open a welcome screen. It offers:

• Getting Started: the Manual, API Manual, Bernard Website, Release Notes and Community links;
• Recent Projects: the projects you opened recently (four at most). One click opens the project. The Create new project button only appears if your role has the permission to create projects.

The Always show at startup box decides whether this screen is displayed at every startup. To reopen it, use Bernard › Show Splashscreen. The Show splashscreen setting in Local Settings does the same thing.

The main window

The main window is made up, from top to bottom, of:

1. the project bar (see The project bar);
2. the menu bar: Bernard, Windows, Navigate, Help;
3. view windows (tree, spreadsheet, Properties panel, node view…), which you dock or leave floating.

Bernard restores your windows at startup. The Windows menu opens a type of view; the complete list is in Interface.

The selection is shared. If you pick a shot in the spreadsheet, the Properties panel and the node view show that shot. So keep these three views open together: it is the most common working layout.

Useful navigation shortcuts are in Keyboard shortcuts (for example Ctrl+Home to go to the root and Home to select the parent).

What can get in the way. Without the Can override View Presets (tab parameters) with custom filters permission, the entries of the Windows menu are greyed out: you work in the views imposed by the studio.

Opening a project

The whole studio forms a single tree. The top is called Root; projects are stored in its Projects folder. When you work, one project is active: it is the one the project bar displays.

There are four ways to open a project.

1. From the welcome screen: click the project in Recent Projects.
2. From the project bar: to the right of the title, Recent Projects : lists the projects you opened recently (six buttons at most). Click one of them. The first button, when you are in a project, is the root one: it takes you back to Root.
3. From the root: go to the root (Navigate › Go To Root), open the Tree View, expand Projects and double-click the project.
4. By right-click: right-click the project in the tree › Go To Project.

The list only shows the projects you are a member of (the Project Users property of the project). Administrators see all projects. If a project is missing, ask production to add you to it (see Roles, permissions and assignment).

At the root, a studio may have prepared saved view tabs, for example a list of active projects, the list of your tasks across all projects or the day's deliveries. Their names depend on the studio.

Window tabs

Each view has a tab bar, like in a browser. A tab is a saved view: its scope, its columns, its filters, its sorting, its color and its icon. There are two kinds of tabs:

• personal tabs, which only you see;
• shared tabs (the studio's), which all users of the project who have access can see. Their bar has a different color from the one of personal tabs. A role can have these tabs imposed on it.

Creating a tab

1. Right-click in the tab bar of the desired area (personal or shared) › Add new.
2. In the Tab Settings window, give a name, a color and an icon, then confirm.
3. The new tab takes the settings of the view you had open: then change them to your liking (scope, filters, columns, type of view).
4. Right-click the tab › Save this tab changes (or Save all tabs changes).

As long as a tab has unsaved changes, an asterisk ("*") appears in its title. You can switch tabs and come back without losing them, but if you close Bernard before saving, they are lost.

The other entries of a tab's menu are Edit Tab, Reload, Copy Tab / Paste Tab, Copy Tab Settings / Paste Tab Settings, Access rights (Read, Edit view); Delete and Clear saved settings appear when you hold the Ctrl key.

What can get in the way. Creating or modifying a shared tab requires the Can create and modify global View Presets (tab parameters) permission. Without it, you only have your personal tabs. A tab you do not have read permission for does not appear.

View presets

The View Presets view (Windows › View Presets) gathers the studio's saved views and your own. One click on a preset applies it. Its menu is the same as the tabs' one, and its access permissions say who sees it and who can modify it. The details are in View presets.

The project bar

The project bar, at the top of the window, shows you where you are at all times. From left to right:

• the project's cover image;
• the project name and its icon;
• Recent Projects : and the buttons of your recent projects, to switch from one to another;
• your avatar: one click opens your own sheet in a Properties panel window;
• the notification bell, with the number of unread notifications. The list offers Mark All As Read and Show Only Not Read. See Notifications and emails.

The bar takes the colors of the project. At the root, it takes those of the root.

Customizing a project's bar

1. Cover image: drag an image onto the cover. On a workstation where drag and drop is not possible (Citrix for example), right-click the cover › Load image (browse).... A window lets you frame the image. Save image as... saves it; Delete picture removes it.
2. Colors: select the project and open the Properties panel. The Color (text) and Background Color (background) properties set the bar's colors.
3. Project icon: it is the project's thumbnail (Thumbnail); drag an image onto it, as with any thumbnail.

Only the roles that can modify the project's properties see these changes saved (see Roles, permissions and assignment).

Finding your tasks

In a spreadsheet, the tab's Filters menu offers ready-to-use filters, arranged in two sections:

Tick My Tasks in a spreadsheet placed on your project: you now see only your tasks. Save the tab (Save this tab changes) to get this filter back every time: it is your "My tasks" view. Do the same from the root to see your tasks across all projects.

Other ways to find your work:

• the notification bell warns you of a correction (Retake) on one of your tasks;
• some content creation software plugins (Houdini, Blender, 3ds Max) have a My Tasks window that lists your tasks without leaving the software (see DCC integrations);
• searching with a header filter in the spreadsheet (see Filtering).

Going further