Local Library
The Local Library (under This Machine in the sidebar) is the catalog the desktop app keeps on your computer. It answers from the local agent rather than the server, so it keeps working when you’re offline. When your connection drops, the Cloud Library page switches to it automatically.
What it contains
Section titled “What it contains”The Local Library holds two kinds of items, marked with a badge on each card:
| Badge | What it is |
|---|---|
| Synced | A mirror of a prop in your workspace’s Cloud Library. The mirror updates in the background as the agent syncs; the complete, current inventory is always the Cloud Library. |
| Local only | A file cataloged on this machine, for example one added to a drop folder. Local items get their thumbnails and previews generated on this machine. A local item that has since been uploaded to the workspace also shows a promoted badge. |
The page title shows This machine and a count such as Showing 50 of 1200. If the agent isn’t connected to a workspace, a banner says the mirror cannot sync and links to Settings.
Search, filter and sort
Section titled “Search, filter and sort”Type in the search box. The search is word-aware: it splits names at capital letters, underscores and digits, so barrel finds SM_RustyBarrel01 and static mesh finds the class StaticMesh.
The toolbar also has:
- All, Synced and Local only buttons to choose which items to show.
- A Sort by menu with Newest (or Relevance while you’re searching), Name and Size, plus an ascending/descending toggle.
- The Thumbnail density button, the same as in the Cloud Library.
The filter rail has two sections, Asset class and Format (file extension). Active filters show as chips above the grid.
Card actions
Section titled “Card actions”Each card has up to three buttons. At dense settings they shrink to icons; hover a button for its name.
| Button | Shown on | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Check out | Synced props | Locks the prop for you, downloads its current version, and takes you to Checkouts. Needs a connection. See Check-out and check-in. |
| Show in folder | Local only items | Opens the cataloged file’s folder in File Explorer. |
| Download | Every card | Fetches the file into the app’s local store. The card shows Preparing download…, Downloading…, then Saved to and the path, with a Show in folder link. If it fails, the button changes to Retry download. |
A Synced card’s name opens the prop’s detail page. Local only items have no detail page.
A Local Library Download is different from the Download button in the Cloud Library: it keeps the file in the app’s local store instead of saving a copy to your download folder. A file already in the store is ready immediately, without downloading again. A download that has to fetch the file continues in the background; its message offers View transfers. See Pull and download for the comparison.
Add files
Section titled “Add files”Click Add assets at the top of the page. If you have no drop folders yet, it opens Drop Folders so you can add one. Otherwise it lists your watched folders; pick one to open it in File Explorer and drop files there. Files that settle in a watched folder are cataloged automatically.
To manage folders, open Drop Folders in the sidebar. Enter a path or click Browse…, then Add folder. Each folder shows Watching or Paused, and Stop watching removes it without touching the files.
Local semantic search
Section titled “Local semantic search”Semantic search is an optional feature that lets the Local Library find Local only files by meaning or by an example image, using a vision model that runs entirely on your computer. Nothing is uploaded. It’s off until you turn it on, because it needs a one-time download.
Turn it on
Section titled “Turn it on”-
Open Settings and find the Semantic search card. It reads Off — no data downloaded.
-
Click Set up semantic search…. The dialog shows the exact download size before anything is fetched, about 468 MiB for the vision and text models and the ML runtime. The index itself uses about 3 KB per file.
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Click Download and enable (~468 MiB). The models download in the background; the card shows Downloading models… with a progress bar, then Indexing…, then Ready with the number of files indexed.
Once it’s ready, the Local Library toolbar gains two buttons:
- Semantic search (✦) ranks your search by meaning instead of keyword match. While the models are still preparing the button is disabled and its tooltip points to Settings.
- Search by image finds files on this machine that look like a PNG or JPEG you choose. Click Clear image search to go back.
Semantic search covers Local only items that have a thumbnail or image preview. For searching the Cloud Library by meaning or image, see Search.
Turn it off or remove it
Section titled “Turn it off or remove it”The Semantic search card in Settings always shows how much space it uses (Using … for models and … for the index).
- Turn off stops semantic search but keeps the downloaded models, so Turn back on later is instant and needs no second download.
- Remove completely… turns it off and deletes the models and the index. Confirm with the Remove button, which shows the exact size being freed. When it’s already off, the same action is labeled Remove downloaded data….
If the card says Semantic search isn’t packaged for this platform yet., the feature isn’t available on your machine.