Sometimes you would like Image objects created using Altia PhotoProto or Altia Design to point to images at a different location, in order to create an "images" or "img" sub-folder which holds all of your images. This is easily done, and described below.
Image objects externally reference the images via their _image_name animation. If the image file location changes, but the Image object _image_name file reference remains the same, it will no longer find those images. If you change the location of the image files, you must also change the reference to the images within the Images objects of the dsn, or your Image objects are "pointing to nowhere".
These are two quick ways to do this is:
Method 1: PhotoProto file only
1) Open the PhotoProto-generated .xml file in any text editor, like Notepad.
2) Find and replace this:
_image_name' type='String' value='
with this:
_image_name' type='String' value='images/
(NOTE: images/ might not be your preferred folder name. You can use anything there, like img/ or /graphics)
Method 2: PhotoProto and Altia Design image file references.
1) Import the PhotoProto-generated .xml output if it's not already part of your Altia Design .dsn file, then save this Altia Design file as wherever you want your project folder to be on your hard drive.
2) After the import/save is complete from step 1, click "File->Export->Configuration Files->Skin File". The default options are fine, so just click ok. Choose a file name, like "phpr_skin.txt" or whatever you want. You will now have a text file at the same location as your dsn, named whatever you called it when you saved it during this step.
3) Navigate to that folder with Windows Explorer (for a shortcut to this folder, click Code Generation->Open Project Folder"), then open the Skin file to edit the file references. Remember, the Skin file is just the text file you created above in Step 2.
4) Use Find/Replace in your favorite text editor -- even Notepad is fine -- to edit the Skin file to point to the same images, but at a different location. To do so, replace E=" with E="images/ and then save the txt file. (I chose "images/" to put the images one folder level down from my dsn location in a folder called "images"). For clarity E=" is the end of IMAGE=", but it is always enough to only need to type E=" for the replace procedure. NOTE: If you have not yet copied/moved all your png images into the sub-folder specified in this step, do so now.
5) Back in Altia Design, click the Insert ribbon, then expand the Model Gallery by clicking the tiny arrow icon at the bottom-right. Choose Skin from the "Special Functions" category, then drag in a skin object.
6) With the Skin object selected, using the Properties pane, fill in the following:
Skin File: "phpr_skin.txt" (or whatever you called the file when you saved it in step 2)
Image Path: LEAVE THIS BLANK
Load Skin File Now! (Set to yes/1 after supplying the Skin File name above).
7) Re-save your dsn file. The Image objects are now pointing to the new file location. While this may seem to be a process, it is quite rapid once you do it a couple times, and leaves the capability for full custom path changes up to you.
8) It's optional, but you can now delete the Skin object from your dsn file after completing steps 1-7 above.
RELATED: Here is a quick knowledge base video on using the Skin object:
https://altia.zendesk.com/entries/23581826--Video-5-min-Apply-a-GUI-Skin-or-Theme