Workspaces

Mimiq Workspaces allows you to quickly remount any folder as a drive that Media Composer can use for Bin Locking. This is especially useful when collaborating with Avid on a SAN (e.g. Quantum StorNext), or when working with cloud storage like LucidLink or Suite Studios.

While Workspaces can be used with NAS systems, shares accessed over SMB, AFP, or NFS are automatically detected for Bin Locking. As a best practice, export multiple shares using your NAS management software.

Adding a Workspace

Click the Mimiq icon in the Menu Bar (macOS) or System Tray (Windows), then + Add Workspace.

Select a folder to create a Workspace, then click Select (macOS) or Select Folder (Windows).
Your Workspace will appear in Mimiq with a green 🟢 status, then mount in Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows).

You can access your Workspace through Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows) or double-click a Workspace listed in Mimiq to open it in a new window.

Ideally, Media Composer will not be running while you creating Workspaces, as this can cause unexpected behaviour.

Local vs. Shared Workspaces

Mimiq supports both local and shared Workspace configurations.

The local Workspace configuration applies to you, as an individual user, and is stored in a JSON on your computer at one of these locations:

macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Mimiq/Workspaces/MimiqWorkspaces.json

Win C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mimiq\Workspaces.json This is used to remember your Workspace list and to auto-mount chosen Workspaces on app start.

Shared Workspaces extend this concept by storing a centralized JSON on the root level of the parent volume. This allows everybody in a team to use the same Workspace definitions.

On the parent volume you'll find the Mimiq Enabled JSON here: /Mimiq Settings/MimiqEnabled.json

Workspaces on Cloud Drives

Remote workflows utilizing cloud drives like LucidLink and Suite Studios can also use Workspaces. However, keep in mind that Media Composer won't work well if it sees your storage twice. If you use a Workspace on a folder somewhere on your cloud drive, be sure to disable the main volume in Mimiq.

Search, Sort and Filter

Search, sort, and filter helps teams quickly find the right lockable network share or Workspace. Type to search, then hit escape to clear. Sort and filter are available via the pop-out menu.

This only needs to be done once by one team member.

To share a Workspace with your team:

Ensure you have top-level write access to the storage volume.
Add the Workspace using Mimiq.
Click Share, then Enable for Everyone.

Workspace Groups

Workspace Groups make it easy to locate and mount the Workspaces associated with a particular project or job. Grouping is especially useful when your team has a large number of Workspaces.

Click the context menu for the Workspace you wish to group.
Click Add to Group then New Group... or choose an existing group.

Choose a name for the new group.
Assign more Workspaces to the group, as required.
Optional: share the group to your team.

Administrator notes:

Workspaces can be a member of one group at once.
Groups can span multiple parent volumes.
Group membership emerges from the presence of the group key in all visible config files.
Removing a group will not affect or delete Workspaces associated with it.

Config Files

Mimiq saves all information about Shared Workspaces in a JSON file on your storage, in a folder in the root of your drive. This folder is named Mimiq Settings , and contains a file named MimiqEnabled.json .

If there are no write permissions for the root of your drive, Mimiq won't be able to Share Workspaces. You can manually create the Mimiq Settings folder to enable Shared Workspaces on your storage.

This JSON file is human-readable and can be manually edited by experienced users (e.g. System Administrators or Post Supervisors), though it's usually managed automatically by Mimiq.

The example below shows two Workspaces. One is disabled, the other is not. Both are members of the same group.

{
  "version": "26.2.0",
  "ignore": false,
  "workspaces": [
    {
      "path": "workspace1",
      "group": "example group",
      "disabled": true
    },
    {
      "path": "workspace2",
      "group": "example group",
      "disabled": false
    }
  ]
}

The table below explains the usage of each key:

Name

Required

Description

version

Yes

The version string of Mimiq used to write the workspace config.

ignore

Yes

Boolean, defines if the root of the volume should be ignored by Mimiq. This is useful when working with LucidLink Classic.

workspaces

Yes

The list of workspace objects.

path

Yes

The relative path to the workspace, not including the volume name.

group

Used to specify the workspace group.

name

If defined, this value will be used for the name of the Workspace. If undefined, the last component of the path is used (i.e. the folder name). This key is supported on macOS only.

Practical Limits

Workspaces are powerful, but should be used sparingly. On macOS, each active Workspace introduces a small overhead to your system's bandwidth. On Windows, you're limited by the number of free drive letters.

The usable amount of simultaneously active Workspaces depends on your system resources.

As Workspaces on macOS rely on macFUSE as an intermediate, there's a limitation to how many Workspaces can be used simultaneously. Our tests have shown a maximum of 8 Workspaces is practical. However, as this number is dependent on your hardware and system load, it's possible to increase or decrease this amount.

Using Terminal.app, set the maximum number of Workspaces that can be enabled simultaneously:

Override the default Workspaces limit

defaults write video.hedge.Mimiq.Mac workspacelimit -int 8

Then, load the new setting by relaunching Mimiq.

Use this command to check the current Workspaces limit:

defaults read video.hedge.Mimiq.Mac workspacelimit

It's just as easy to reset the amount back to the default value of 8:

defaults delete video.hedge.Mimiq.Mac workspacelimit

On Windows, Workspaces utilize available drive letters for mounting. Due to the limited number of drive letters in Windows, there's a constraint on how many Workspaces can be mounted simultaneously.

By default, Mimiq attempts to mount the first Workspace using the drive letter M:. Subsequent Workspaces are assigned the next available letters in alphabetical order.

If M: is already in use on your system, you can modify the starting drive letter. This can be useful if you want to reserve certain drive letters for other purposes or if you prefer a different range of letters for your Workspace(s).

Using PowerShell, define a different starting drive letter:

Change the starting drive letter

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Mimiq" -Name "WorkspaceStartDriveLetter" -Value "[DRIVELETTER]" -PropertyType STRING -Force

Then, commit the new setting by starting Mimiq. If Mimiq is already active (i.e. its icon shows in the menu bar), quit and restart Mimiq.

Resetting the default drive letter is just as straightforward:

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Mimiq" -Name "WorkspaceStartDriveLetter"

Disabling a Workspace

Sometimes, you don't want Media Composer to interact with every Lockable Volume. In that case, you can Disable a Workspace. Here, it's in the context of a Workspace, but Disable is available for all lockable volumes.

Click the Mimiq icon in the menu bar (macOS) or System Tray (Windows), mouse over the Workspace you wish to disable, then click (⋯) > Disable.

Your Workspace will appear in Mimiq with a grey ⚪️ status.

Disabling a Workspace temporarily renders it unavailable in Media Composer without removing it from altogether. You may want to disable a Workspace to simplify media management by reducing the number of volumes Media Composer can read from or write to.

Removing a Workspace

Click the Mimiq icon in the menu bar (macOS) or System Tray (Windows), mouse over the Workspace you wish to remove, then click (⋯) > Remove Workspace.

Once you remove a Workspace, it's ejected from your computer and no longer available in Media Composer until you add it again.

Workspace Discovery

From the hamburger menu, click Scan for workspaces... then locate the volume or folder you wish to scan. Mimiq will treat any parent folder containing Avid MediaFiles as a Workspace candidate. When the scan completes, select the Workspaces you want to add.

SANFusion Detection

Workspace Discovery is trained to automatically detect SFWS bundles. You can easily spot a SANFusion bundle by the pink icon displayed on the right-hand side.

Last updated 1 month ago