v0.145.4Internal beta docs
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Beta documentation · eXLib v0.145.4. Public release is pending.

Saving, Exporting & Association

Once a rig exists in Pseudo Effect Authoring, there are three separate things you can do with it — save it into your library, export it as a standalone preset, or link it to one or more library expressions so their controls stay derived from it. They're independent actions, and it's worth knowing which one you actually want.

Save to library

Save to library persists the rig as a library entry — creating a new one, or updating an existing one in place if you're editing a rig you'd already saved. If the rig is associated with one or more library expressions, saving also re-derives those expressions' controls from the newly-saved rig automatically, so they stay in sync without a separate step.

Export .ffx

Export .ffx writes the rig to a standalone preset file on disk, independent of the library entirely. Use this when you want a .ffx you can hand to someone, or apply directly in After Effects without going through eXLib at all.

Associating with expressions

Click the association row under the authoring screen's header (see Pseudo Effect Authoring) to open a floating expression picker. Rows toggle in a multiselect, with a check mark showing which expressions are currently linked. Done commits your selection; Esc cancels, leaving the association exactly as it was before you opened the picker. An associated rig's controls get re-derived every time you save the rig, so the two stay in lockstep.

Where rigs live

Saved rigs live in their own root in the Library's left column — All Pseudo Rigs — sitting alongside the expression tree and sharing the same row grammar for creating, renaming, and deleting folders. On disk, a saved rig is always a .pseudo.json + .ffx pair, and the two files always move together, whether you drag the rig in the panel or move the files yourself outside After Effects. See The Library Is a Real Folder for the full story on how the library maps onto disk.

A rig row's actions follow the same fixed order every row in the Library uses, minus whatever doesn't apply to a rig: Apply, open in Pseudo Effect Authoring, rename, Tag, Move to folder, Duplicate, Export, and Delete. There's no Audition action on a rig — Audition previews a single expression's value, and a rig isn't one.

Moving and deleting rigs

Drag a rig row onto any folder in the pseudo tree to move it — its saved pair relocates together, exactly like moving an expression. Deleting a rig folder behaves differently from deleting an expression folder, on purpose. Every managed rig inside the folder (and its subfolders) moves up to the parent folder. The leftover tree, including files eXLib does not manage, moves separately to _meta/trash/. The delete confirm discloses both, and the store refuses if the target set changes while that confirm is open. See Deleting safely — and why the two roots differ for the comparison, and Library Recovery before restoring anything.