ShotPut Pro Manual

Workflow experts, from acquisition to archive – we’ve got your back(up)!

Version 2022, Indianapolis, Indiana USA

[email protected] www.imagineproducts.com

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Contents

Preface

Legal

License

Welcome

Overview

Preferences

General Preferences

Queue Options

File Verification

Notifications

Reports

Offload History

Advanced Preferences

Offloading

Simple and Preset Modes

Folder Naming Options

Advanced Folder Naming

Begin Offloading

Offload Status and Details

Drive Details

Appendix

Appendix A—Installation

Appendix B—Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions

Technical Support

Index

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Legal

accompanying it are the property of Imagine Products, Incorporated and are

loaned to the user under the terms of a Limited Use License Agreement.

Unauthorized copying or use of this documentation, the software, or any

associated material is contrary to the property rights of Imagine Products

Incorporated and is a violation of state and federal law. This material must be

returned to Imagine Products, Incorporated upon request.

Incorporated.

ShotPut Pro® is a registered federal trademark Reg. No. 5,757,782.

Imagine Products, Inc. ® is a registered federal trademark Reg. No. 4,711,231.

PreRoll Post is a trademark of Imagine Products, Incorporated. Offload with

Confidence! and Imagine: We’ve Got Your Back(up)! are service marks of Imagine

Products, Incorporated.

Portions of this application use certain unmodified FFmpeg libraries under the

LGPLv2.1 licensing. FFmpeg is a trademark of Fabrice Bellard, originator of the

FFmpeg project. Imagine Products, Inc. claims no ownership of FFmpeg or any of

their code that may be downloaded from www.ffmpeg.org.

Imagine Products, Incorporated reserves the right to change functionality and

specifications of products documented herein without notice. All products and

company names mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective

owners.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ILLEGAL COPIES OF THIS SOFTWARE

The software you are using was produced through the efforts of many people:

independent producers, production studios, programmers, distributors, retailers

and other dedicated workers.

The costs of developing and delivering to you this and other software programs

are recovered only through software sales. The unauthorized duplication of

personal computer software raises the cost to all legitimate users.

In addition, the same federal copyright law protects this software as your

organization's video productions. Copying software for any reason other than to

make a backup is a violation of law. Individuals who make unauthorized copies of

software may be subject to civil and criminal penalties.

Imagine Products, Incorporated supports the industry's efforts to fight the illegal

copying of personal computer software.

WARNING! Copyright law and international treaties protect this computer

program. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program, or any

portion of it, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties, and will be

prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law.

License

Please refer to the End User License Agreement (EULA) terms that you agreed to

during download and installation of the application. The EULA is accessible from

the application Help menu and on the website. Imagine Products, Inc. reserves the

right to update the EULA with notification. By using this application you consent

to the EULA terms.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Welcome

We're pleased that you've chosen ShotPut Pro® to securely backup your media

files. We hope getting results is easy without looking at the documentation.

ShotPut Pro works with any camera or audio files regardless of manufacturer

including ARRI, BlackMagic, Canon, GoPro, JVC, Panasonic, RED, Sony and more.

It may also be used to copy from digital disk recorders such as Atomos, AJA or

Codex or entire Solid State Drives, Hard Disks, or just folders or individual files. Use

it with Lexar, SanDisk, Sonnet or any number of HCSD, CF, CFast or P2 card readers.

Regardless of content, as long as the operating system sees and mounts the card

or memory device, ShotPut Pro can securely copy it!

NOTE: Imagine Products also offers a Macintosh version of ShotPut Pro with

similar functionality.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Overview

ShotPut Pro® for Windows is an automated copy utility application for video and

photo files. It makes secure, auto-named copies of a card’s contents, entire hard

disks or selected files to multiple locations simultaneously.

Its simplified user interface offers a color-coded progress status, fast copy speeds,

in-depth folder naming options, pause and resume processing and ‘video aware’

reports with thumbnails and metadata.

Digital Video, Audio and other Media: ShotPut Pro offloads ANY media or file

types.

Entire Cards or Disks: The contents of any mountable volume (card or drive) can

be copied, or individually select just the material you want to backup and verify.

Fast Copying: ShotPut Pro reads the source files once, and uses multi-thread

technology to copy multiple files to multiple destinations simultaneously for the

fastest possible offloading. Add as many output destinations as desired and select

between them. Adjustable optimization options help you get the best

performance from your equipment.

Security: Verify with checksum technology to ensure copies exactly match the

originals. You can also save a checksum or MHL file with offloads to be sure they

still match the originals anytime during your downstream workflow processes.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Offload Reports: Create a printable record of file transfer activity, how the copies

were named, time, date, etc. Save complete details for project organization or just

summaries for billable time. Select from a number of formats including Text, CSV

and PDF. Reports may be custom named and saved individually with offload data,

or combined in a common folder with other reports and created automatically.

Video Thumbnails: Choose from two different PDF report styles for impressive

reports. PDFs may include metadata and extracted frames (sampled towards

beginning, middle and end of clips) from over 20 known camera types.

Personalize Reports: Automatically add your contact information (notes) and

company logo to each offload report. ShotPut Pro also titles reports using the

Offload Identifier you can easily customize.

Automatic or Manual Processes: Setup an output folder auto-naming scheme and

use the auto-begin mode to copy cards upon insertion. Or Drop cards or folders

into the processing queue to be copied according to the Preset settings.

Simple Mode allows FAST Drag-and-Drop copies directly to existing output

locations with the security of verification and reports of all offloads.

Easy Folder Naming: Improve consistency and organization by letting ShotPut Pro

auto-name copy folders. Select from various custom naming conventions such as

card name, time/date information, project name with auto-numbering, etc.

Advanced Folder Naming: Organize offloads by nested (sub) folders, and label

them using concatenated naming conventions such as dates, project names,

locations, etc.

Pause and Resume Copies: ShotPut Pro lets you gracefully ‘Pause’ copy processes

and ‘Resume’ where you left off. This feature is perfect for temporarily stopping a

big offload job on set when you need to relocate.

Status at a Glance: Offload tasks have both progress bars and are color-coded to

indicate status (copying, verifying, finished). They may be named for more clarity,

and individually removed from the task list or paused/resumed. ‘Double-Click’ on

the offload to open the report.

Offload Presets: Multi-camera data wranglers will appreciate being able to easily

switch between folder naming conventions and designated output locations

without re-typing. Simply set up separate custom Presets for each set of naming

choices. Presets can be sorted alphabetically, by status and assigned color code.

Error Checking: ShotPut Pro helps eliminate human errors by preventing

accidental overwriting of existing files and folders. An audible alert warns if a card

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

or hard disk is disconnected during an offload. And ShotPut Pro checks for

available space on the output disks.

Finishing Touches: After offloading is finished, ShotPut Pro can play a notification

sound and automatically eject source cards for your convenience. You can even

have the software text a notification or e-mail the offload report after each offload

completes.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Preferences

This section will help you enable the ShotPut Pro settings to perform in the manner

you want when offloading media cards, drives or just files and folders. If this is

your first time starting the application you will need to check a few default

settings.

The most frequently changed settings are

grouped in ‘Quick Select’ menus at the top

left of the application toolbar.

You can also access the full ‘Preferences’ menu, including ‘Advanced Preferences’,

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

from each of the quick preference menus.

Refer to Offload Presets in the next chapter of these instructions for configuring

presets and using automatic folder creation if you plan to use the ‘Preset Mode’

for offloading (versus ‘Simple Mode’ where files and folders are dropped directly

between mounted drives).

Queue Options

Click on the ‘Queue’ button (top left of the application toolbar) to choose how

offloading will be initiated.

Select ‘Automatically add drives to the Queue’ to immediately begin offloading

when any new removable drive or card is detected. In other words, in this mode

ShotPut Pro will ignore already attached drives and mounted volumes, but when

a new card is sensed it will begin offloading that one (e.g. when a new card is

inserted in a reader).

CAUTION! Do not plug in an external hard disk while in automatic mode unless

you intend to copy its entire contents!

Check the box to immediately ‘Begin offloading upon entry to the Queue’ if you

prefer copying to start without manually pressing the ‘Begin’ button on the main

window.

TIP: To automate Simple Mode add the ‘Offload To’ destination(s) first then drag

in the ‘Offload From’ items.

‘Cancel offload if error occurs’ will immediately terminate the copy processes

should a failure happen. If this option is not enabled you will just be alerted that

an error occurred but copying will continue with the remainder of the offload.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

NOTE: An error during offload will be indicated in the status and the progress will

turn RED. If you’ve chosen not to cancel on errors (unchecked this option) ShotPut

Pro will attempt to fix any copy or verification issues for you. If it’s unable to

correct the problems, the offload will finish what it can and all reports will include

Error Warnings.

Job Sequence

The job sequence options are designed to give you more control over drive use.

‘One at a time’ simply performs the offloads in the queue in the order in which

they were added.

‘All at once’ means any queued offloads are all started at the same time when you

click ‘Begin’. It also means all offloads will likely complete at about the same time.

TIP: Generally the ‘All at once’ option should only be used in situations where both

source and output drives are random access (not spinning media) and the

connection ports have ample bandwidth to handle the data.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Verification Options

Though it’s rare to experience errors, video files are usually highly valued and

therefore copies should be verified. ShotPut Pro offers a number of verification

types to choose from depending on you and your client’s needs.

Checksum type verifications (such as XXHash, MD5 & SHA) use algorithms that

calculate a binary value for the bytes of a file. The idea of checksums is to also

identify any misplaced or changed position bytes in which case a file size may

match but a checksum would not.

TIP: XXHash-64 is a new checksum method that employs near RAM speeds for

processing. It can speed up verification to near read access and significantly

improve throughput for RAW and other media with large quantities of files.

For faster overall offloads ‘File Size Comparison’ offers a less intensive verification

option. This verification relies on the operating system’s report that the files made

it to the output destinations correctly and each match the source file size.

TIP: Enable the option under Reports Preferences to output MHL Reports or

‘Separate file of checksums’ and you’ll be able to determine if the copied files still

match the originals in downstream workflows.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Queue Preferences

Additional options regarding the queue functions are found under expanded

‘Queue Preferences’.

Progress may be displayed as ‘Time elapsed’ estimated or ‘Time remaining’. The

‘Time Remaining’ option will attempt to project how long overall copying and

verification may take and then count down the displayed time.

Date Format

Choose the ‘Date Format’ for Reports and Notifications. The ‘Standard American

Date’ includes hours_minutes_seconds suffix.

There are two American and two suggested European formats, or you can

customize your own. To build a Custom date format, choose the prefix, unit and

suffix. Click the plus (+) button to the right to add more items. The preview is

displayed near the top of the dialog.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

The date format set here is used across the application as the default.

TIP: You may override the date formatting within individual Presets without

affecting this setting.

Upon Completion

You can save time by letting the software ‘Auto eject source cards’ (or disks) from

the Desktop upon completion of the offload.

This simply makes it ready to unplug from your computer.

NOTE: Sources may not eject until Offload Reports are complete.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Notifications

ShotPut Pro features several automated notifications to inform you about offload

progress. Select ‘Notifications’ from the toolbar to open frequently changed

notification options.

For desktop notifications choose ‘Play sound when job completes’ and ‘Play

sound when job errors’. ShotPut Pro can also send job completion status

information via email or SMS text.

To set these up you must first link the application to a Gmail account. If you don’t

have one, create one—they’re free. (This is a ‘send only’ application so it will have

no effect upon your other email communications.)

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Next, choose whether to send notifications by email, text, or both. With email you

may also include offload reports.

Enter the ‘TO’ email address. Note you may send the notifications to yourself if

desired, or a different account. Send Test Mail to ensure it’s working properly.

TIP: You may send to multiple recipients – just separate email addresses by a

comma.

SMS Texting also uses Gmail (instead of your computer’s Mail application). To send

texts, choose the country and carrier and the number to send to. ‘Send

Verification Code’ then enter the received code into the box and click Validate

Code. You MUST validate before using this option.

If the offload session fails or contains errors you’ll receive notice of these as well

as successful completion messages.

NOTE: Texting does not allow attachments due to size constraints. The SMS texting

uses your carrier’s incoming email server, use charges may apply. Some cell

carriers no longer offer this option (text messages via email). Use email instead

if necessary.

CAUTION! Turning the email/text option ON with improper settings may cause

perceived processing delays when offloading, or error messages.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Report Preferences

Offload reports can be an important bookkeeping and even billing record of your

data wrangling activities. Click the ‘Reports’ button to setup.

TIP: You may manually export reports at a later date from the ‘History’ list (see

next section of this manual).

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Verification Files

ShotPut Pro can output two different types of checksum verification files. Select

an industry standard Media Hash List (MHL) type or a simple text list of files and

checksums.

These are called ‘Destination-only reports’ because they must be saved as

‘sidecars’ to the offload material in order for their reference links to function

properly.

MHL files adhere to the organization’s formatting and naming standards

(see www.mediahashlist.org/mhl-specification). MHL lists contain relative paths

to files and their original checksum values. These are always saved with output

copies in the Destination location(s).

Text Checksum Files are named by the verification type

(e.g. md5ChecksumFileSPP.md5).

With either of these type files, you can check the integrity of your video files

throughout your workflow and network.

Standard Reports

ShotPut Pro offers several standard report formats including ‘PDF’, ‘Text’, ’CSV’

and types. The Text type is a simple human readable form, while CSV (comma

separate values) is a format that’s readily compatible with spreadsheets.

PDF is a Portable Document Format used by

Adobe Acrobat readers.

When you select a report type it will automatically be generated without further

prompting after offloading has finished.

Report Formatting

Select how much detail your report will

contain.

‘Detailed’ type reports contain a more thorough listing of each file’s information

including full path names, the name of the folders created, duration of each file’s

transfer, validation results, etc.

The ‘Summary’ type report shows only aggregate information such as number of

files copied, total size and session information.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Report Name

Choose how to name the reports. They may be labeled automatically by the Job

Identifier or you can type in a Custom name.

Report Location

‘Save with job’ places reports in a Report Folder in the root of the offload

destination.

‘Save in reports folder’ allows you to browse to an existing location on your

computer or attached drives to save all your reports together.

TIP: You may choose to save a report in both places—with the job and in a reports

folder.

Notes

You may automatically ‘Add notes to reports’.

For example, this might be contact information, project details, etc. The notes will

appear in each report at the bottom of summary information.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Additional PDF Formatting

ShotPut Pro is ”video aware” and can extract file metadata and thumbnails for

over 20 different camera/video formats including MOV, MXF, MTS, MPEG, AVI and

more.

With PDF report type enabled above, choose whether to include information

about ‘File info for all files’ and ‘Video Metadata’.

Information for All Files means the report will include file system offload details

about all files offloaded, not just video clips.

Video Metadata means camera reported details such as timecode, format type,

frame rate, etc. These may vary from camera type to camera type. The metadata

includes thumbnails. Choose one or four sampled video frames. These are sampled

based on percentage locations within the clip.

NOTE: Frame based image sequence files such as RAW will be treated as if they’re

one continuous clip and sampled accordingly.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Customize Header Image

PDFs may be customized to include your own company logo if desired.

To replace the ShotPut Pro logo with yours, they must be PNG, JPG, TIF, GIF or

BMP and 128x128 pixels. Larger files will be resized appropriately. Non-square

files may be cropped or stretched to fit.

Enable the option and browse to the header image file.

TIP: To remove the header image, simply replace it with another. Or, you can Reset

preferences factory defaults under ‘Advanced Preferences’.

Offload History

ShotPut Pro saves a history of your jobs and any video thumbnails sampled. PDFs

can contain thumbnails only if the preference to collect them was selected during

the offload process.

ShotPut Pro keeps as pool of recent offloads so you can manually generate reports

at a later time. The ‘Job History’ list includes the ‘Offload Identifier’ and date/time

stamp.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

To export a report, select the job in the list, then choose the type report (PDF, CSV,

or TXT) and browse to the location where you’d like to save them. Then click

‘Export’.

TIP: Set the maximum number of saved offloads history to zero if you do not want

to keep any locally.

NOTE: ‘Purge Report History’ has no bearing upon reports that have already been

saved elsewhere. It simply reclaims used storage space on your computer’s hard

disk.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Advanced Preferences

‘Advanced Preferences’ are defaults that generally are not changed frequently.

Reset Preferences

Click the ‘Reset’ button to reset all settings within the application to default values.

CAUTION! ‘Reset’ applies to all Preferences not just Advanced settings. Be sure

to review Queue, Notifications and Reports preferences after using the Reset

function.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Name Collision Resolution

If you’re copying multiple items to the same destination (output location) without

creating unique folders, naming conflicts potentially exist.

You can instruct ShotPut Pro to ‘Resolve any naming conflicts by appending

numbers’. This option retains the same named items and differentiates with an

extension (e.g. -2, -3, -4).

NOTE: With this option OFF you’ll be warned whenever duplicates are found to

resolve manually.

TIP: Avoid the potential for file/folder name collisions altogether by using unique

folder naming schemes in Preset copy mode.

Ignore Hidden Files and Folders

‘Ignore hidden files and folders’ omits hidden files and folders from offloading.

Many camera manufacturers and operating systems create hidden files to assist in

file system regulation. These files typically have no value and no bearing on your

media files.

Often times attempting to offload hidden files, especially those containing file path

information, can create offload errors and should not be included at all. Therefore,

it is advised to always ‘Ignore hidden files and folders’ unless you’re very, very

sure they are needed.

Error on Source Changes

ShotPut Pro copies item contents at the instant they’re placed into the queue.

Unfortunately, some virtual file media disk recorders are known to mount on the

Desktop before their contents are fully indexed by the operating system.

Therefore, should an offload be started too quickly, some files may not be copied!

‘Error when source changes during backup’ feature checks for any source

mutations and alerts you at the end of the offload if any new files are discovered,

or are missing or altered at the source.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Source Integrity Verification

Sometimes media card readers begin to fail, or the cabling to them is intermittent

or faulty, etc. This option instructs ShotPut Pro to read the source a second time

at the end of the backup session to ensure what it was given to copy was correct.

Any hardware failures may be detected in this manner, because a matching

checksum isn’t likely if anything is intermittent or changing.

This option does add a small amount of additional time to read the source again

but is a strong insurance against bad files.

Read-only Files

Some camera files are purposely set as Read-Only to prevent accidental changes

or erasures. This can be cumbersome when working with the file copies.

ShotPut Pro can ‘Remove read-only restriction on copied files’ for your

convenience.

Files containing Shortcuts

Files containing path information such as NLE project files may contain references

to other media files that can cause copy errors.

While it’s unlikely your data will contain such files, you can instruct ShotPut Pro to

‘Copy contents of symbolic links’, meaning follow the links and include the

referenced files in the offload copy.

Drive Name Inclusion

Normally users want to ignore the card or volume name and just copy its contents

to the destination.

However, should you wish to incorporate the card or volume name as part of the

output nested folder structure, enable the preference ‘When copying drives,

create a folder with the drive name’.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Disable Bundling

For best performance ShotPut Pro automatically combines (bundles) all items

dropped into the queue into one offload task.

If you prefer each item to be treated as a separate job, check the option to ‘Disable

bundling of queue items’. For example, with feature enabled two cards dropped

into the Preset queue will result two separate jobs with individual statuses.

File Date Preferences

Files copied from external drives or devices may incorporate the date the file was

created at the output destination rather than original information.

Choose ‘Keep source creation and modification date’ to instruct ShotPut Pro to

override the system copy dates with those gathered from the source files.

NOTE: Not all cameras apply Volume Date information to files or cards! Please

check the card information in Explorer before using this option. Missing creation

dates may cause problems with file operations. You may choose to have ShotPut

Pro ‘Use current date for files with dates older than 1980’.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Offloading

ShotPut Pro has two different offloading views; Simple and Preset modes.

Simple Mode

Use ‘Simple mode’ to easily copy from one location to another without creating

new output folders.

Simply drag files, folders or entire volumes from the left drive list into the top

‘Offload From’ queue area. Likewise drag output destinations into the ‘Offload To’

area. You may queue multiple ‘From’ and ‘To’ items.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Press the ‘Begin’ button (upper right) to start the copy process.

Even though you’re not creating new folders, file copies in this mode are treated

as jobs too. You can type in a ‘Job Identifier’ and save Reports and checksum files

for any items copied in this manner.

Right click on a queued item to ‘Remove’ from Queue.

TIP: To automate starting copies, enable the option in Queue Preferences to

‘Begin offloading upon entry to the Queue’ if you prefer copying to start without

manually pressing the ‘Begin’ button on the main window. In Simple Mode, add

the ‘Offload To’ destination(s) first then drag in the ‘Offload From’ items.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Preset Mode

Preset mode automatically creates and names folder for you in the output

destination(s). Simply drag-and-drop files or entire volumes to be copied into the

queue area and let ShotPut Pro do the rest.

You’ll need to set the locations where you’d like copies to be placed and how you’d

like the folders containing your copies named. In ShotPut Pro these are organized

by Offload Presets.

Create your own presets and turn them ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ by the check box to the left

of the name.

Click the Plus [+] button or ‘Right-

Click’ anywhere in the list the list

to ‘Add New’.

To delete a Preset, select it (or

more than one) and ‘Right-Click’

to ‘Remove’.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Other options available via Right-Click include

Duplicating, Import, Export and activating or

deactivating a preset.

Use the ‘Duplicate’ function to make a copy of the selected preset then just change

settings in it to make it unique.

Presets may be Imported and Exported between computers and users for

convenience and consistency.

Presets may be sorted by ‘Name’, ‘Color’ and

whether they’re Enabled. Click the ‘Sort’ button

below the list.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Edit Preset

To Edit an existing Preset, click the blue pencil button to the right of the name, or

double-click on the preset to open it.

Type in a ‘Preset Name’ that helps you differentiate between them. You may also

use color to help group presets for easy reference.

Click the color box (upper right) to open a color selection dialog.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Naming Scheme

ShotPut Pro automatically creates folders for your copies. (There is no need to

create folders manually ahead of time.)

Choose between ‘Basic Folder Naming’ and ‘Advanced Folder Naming’ schemes.

With Basic Naming, click on the ‘Naming Convention’ to choose one parameter

from common naming options.

Use ‘Custom Value’, ‘Card Name’, ‘Auto Numbering’, ‘Today’s Date’, ‘Date Drive

Created’, ‘Date Drive Modified’ or ‘Job Identifier’.

To type in a name select ‘Custom Value’ and fill in the textbox.

TIP: Choose ‘None’ for the naming convention if you do not want ShotPut Pro to

create a sub-folder at the output location.

NOTE: Invalid path characters are not allowed in folder names (e.g. colon “:”, “/”,

etc.).

ShotPut Pro will not automatically overwrite existing folders so the naming—

whether typed in or automatic—should be unique. If the same name is

accidentally chosen ShotPut Pro will prompt for user action.

Output folder naming based on the date/time information can be useful to ensure

unique labels as well as organizing your cards based on when they were shot

(provided that the card contains this information).

You may override the global date format (set under Queue Preferences) on an

individual Preset basis. Click ‘Change Date Format’ to open the Edit Date Format

dialog.

CAUTION! Not all cards support Drive Date information. Please check the card

information in Explorer before using card date options.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Advanced Folder Naming

The ‘Advanced Folder Naming’ scheme allows you to combine naming

conventions into a single output folder name. You may also designate sub-folders,

each using any of the naming convention types, prefixes and suffixes.

This is a powerful way to further organize media for complex projects.

Notice that the ‘Preview’ shows how the path and folders will be created. Sub-

folders are presented in an indented fashion to help visualize the structure.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Output Destinations

A Preset can offload to more than one location at the same time.

Click the Plus [+] button below the list to Add a root folder or drive where you

would like sub-folders to be created. Click the Minus [-] button to remove paths.

You may add as many destinations as desired and just select (checkmark) those to

use. At least one valid output destination must be active before you will be allowed

to begin the offload using the preset.

At least one valid output destination must be specified and enabled before

beginning an offload using the preset.

TIP: Avoid long path names (those approaching 250 characters or more) as these

may exceed the Operating System limits.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Offloading Using Presets

Once you’ve enabled the desired Preset(s), just drag & drop the items you want to

offload into the queue (center part of the screen).

NOTE: For easy identification, only items names are

shown without their full file paths.

Type in the ‘Job Identifier’ if desired, and then click the ‘Begin’

button on the toolbar to start copying.

If you don’t assign a ‘Job Identifier’, ShotPut Pro will default to the name of the

card or volume in your offload. Or, if multiple items are included in a single offload,

they will be named generically ‘Offload 1’, ‘Offload 2’, and so forth.

ShotPut Pro offers detailed information about offloads in progress or completed.

Offload progress status are reflected by both color and text, and displays the

estimated time remaining (or elapsed, depending upon preference settings).

‘Right-Click’ on the progress bar for more options such as ‘Cancel’, ‘Pause’,

‘Resume’ and ‘Clear’. If you choose to ‘Pause’ a job, the copy process will be

suspended at a logical point (when the current file being copied is finished).

Jobs may ‘Resume’ at a later time as long as the application has not been ‘Quit’.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Click ‘Clear Completed’ to remove all executed offloads from the status list.

Click the folder-info button in the offload status to open Details.

CAUTION! When selecting cards be sure to select the card itself, not a sub-folder,

to ensure all needed files are copied for a given format. For example, P2 cards have

a ‘lastclip.txt’ file outside of the CONTENTS folder.

TIP: If you setup automatic options in ‘Queue Preferences’, just insert a card and

it should show up in the process area then begin offloading automatically.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

ShotPut Pro also offers rich details about any mounted volume. You can ‘Get Info’

about any pending tasks involving the disk or card by right-clicking on the drive in

the Drive List, and choose ‘Drive Details’.

TIP: Drives not currently in use may be Ejected from this Drive Details panel. This

is a handy option for knowing when it’s safe to release cards from a multi-card

reader, etc.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Appendix A – Installation

This section details the initial required steps before using ShotPut Pro. Included in

this section are instructions on installing the program, system requirements and

registration. Skip this section if a registered copy of ShotPut Pro is already installed

on your system.

Installing the Software

Download the ShotPut Pro installer to your computer and double click to run. You

may be asked for the administration password for the computer.

For your convenience, a Desktop launch shortcut will be placed on the Desktop.

‘Double-click’ it to run the application.

The application will periodically check for newer versions, but you can manually

check at any time by clicking the ‘Check for Updates’ link under the ‘Help’ menu.

System Requirements

Windows 10 or 11 is required.

The minimum configuration is:

-4 GB RAM

-16 GB free disk space

Activation

ShotPut Pro activation requires web access to our server to register the software

for use. When you purchased the application, a license seat was added to your

account on our website. Upon first launch, the software will attempt to connect

to our server and prompt for you to activate.

TIP: Activation information is stored on the system level independent of user

preferences, so multiple profiles on the same computer may access the application

as long as you install under the ADMIN user profile for your computer.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Just enter your account email and password for fast, easy activation or enter the

individual serial number.

If you don’t have an Internet connection on the target computer you can perform

a manual activation. Scan the QR code with your smart phone to quickly go to the

appropriate page on our activation site to receive the manual activation code to

type into the application.

ShotPut Pro is a single user license. If you're upgrading to a new computer, or

need to transfer the software, be sure to ‘Deactivate’ from the ShotPut Pro ‘Help’

menu. If you no longer have access to the prior computer you can Deactivate from

the website. Click the edit pencil beside your license on the View Licenses page,

then click Deactivate.

How to Register

If you’ve purchased from our webstore you are already registered in our system.

If you purchased from a reseller or other method, ask the reseller to request

transfer of ownership to you. You must first create an account on our website to

receive the license into it.

Please sign up for our electronic news. Generally, we only notify of new products

and trade shows, commentary and stories of interest from other users just like

you. Let us know what you’re up to (publishing your stories is an inexpensive way

to network within the production community).

On Twitter: @imagineproducts

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Appendix B - Trouble Shooting

Throughout the program, reminders and error checks help to anticipate trouble

spots in the program while preventing inadvertent data loss. If a message appears

that is unclear, check the Help topics or refer to the appropriate section of this

guide for further explanation.

Frequently Asked Questions

I Can’t Activate!

Automatic ShotPut Pro activation requires web access to our server to register

the software for use. When you purchased the application, a ShotPut Pro seat was

added to your account on our website. Upon first launch, the software will attempt

to connect to our server and prompt to activate.

Use your email and account password, or the assigned serial number to activate.

If you don’t have an Internet connection on the target computer perform a manual

activation. Type in the license number, then scan the QR code with your smart

phone to quickly go to the appropriate page on our activation site and receive the

manual activation code to type into the application.

ShotPut Pro is a single user license. If you're upgrading to a new computer, or

need to transfer the software, be sure to ‘Deactivate’ from the ‘Help’ menu.

When transferring the software, always download the most recent version from

the link beside the license then activate normally.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Technical Support

This product was designed to be easy to use and we want you to feel at home as

you navigate through it. This guide should address the most often asked questions

along the way. However, should you need support the specialists at Imagine can

provide answers quickly and in terminology that you can understand.

Contacting Imagine Products

Visit Imagine’s Web site to fill out a problem report

http://www.imagineproducts.com/ for fast, free service.

Updated news and patches will be available on the page, as well as Frequently

Asked Questions under the Support tab on our site.

Alternatively, you may email support @ imagineproducts.com

Check for Updates

From the Help menu, select ‘Check For Updates’ to manually check now for any

updates. Click ‘Configure Updates’ to set how often the application should check

automatically whether a newer version of the software exists.

You may also download updates or purchase an Update Plan from the website

under ACCOUNT>VIEW LICENSES.

Diagnostic Logs

Should you experience crashes or other system problems you may be asked to

supply us with the ‘Diagnostic’ logs. You’ll find them at the Diagnostics location

under the ‘Help’ menu.

ShotPut Pro® for Windows

Index

Activate...................................................... 40

Advanced Folder Naming .......................... 33

Advanced preferences .............................. 23

Backup ......................................................... 4

Begin .......................................................... 35

Check for Updates ..................................... 38

Checksum .................................................. 12

CSV............................................................... 7

Date format ............................................... 13

eject ..................................................... 14, 37

email .......................................................... 15

File Date Preferences ................................ 26

File Size Comparison ................................. 12

Frequently Asked Questions ..................... 40

Get Info ...................................................... 37

Gmail ......................................................... 15

Help ........................................................... 40

hidden files ................................................ 24

Installation ................................................. 38

Job History ................................................. 22

logo ............................................................ 21

MD5 ........................................................... 12

metadata ................................................... 20

MHL ................................................. 6, 12, 18

name collisions .......................................... 24

naming options.......................................... 32

Notes ......................................................... 19

notification options ................................... 15

Offload Identifier ....................................... 35

Offloading .................................................. 27

Output Destinations .................................. 34

Pause ......................................................... 35

PDF .............................................................. 7

Preset mode .............................................. 29

Presets ....................................................... 31

RAW ........................................................... 12

Report Format ......................... 18, 19, 20, 21

Reset Preferences ..................................... 23

Resume ...................................................... 35

Save Reports .............................................. 18

SHA ............................................................ 12

Simple Mode ......................................... 7, 27

single user license ............................... 39, 40

SMS text .................................................... 15

sort presets................................................ 30

Source Integrity Verification ..................... 25

Summary Report ....................................... 18

System Requirements ............................... 38

Technical Support ...................................... 41

time remaining .......................................... 35

transferring ................................................ 40

Trouble Shooting ....................................... 40

Updates ..................................................... 41

verification ................................................ 12

Video Thumbnails ........................................ 7

XXHash ....................................................... 12