What’s Next for the Studio|chris Brush Installer?

UPDATE: The Studio|chris Brush Installer has been discontinued and is now the Studio|chris Brush Manager. This post exists only as an archive. The integrated installer and download links for the Brush Installer have been changed. To install the new, free Brush Manager software, visit the Brush Manager’s main page.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been working on the next version of the Studio|chris Brush Installer. The 0.6 beta branch will bring a lot of changes and increased functionality. A release date hasn’t been set, but here’s what to look forward to!

A New Interface

The first thing you’ll probably notice is a new interface that is customized especially for the application. Things are still as simple as the original as far as installing brushes – simply drag and drop your brush ZIP file on your OS box and the installer takes care of the rest.

The new interface is standardized over all operating systems, so Windows and OS X users will see the exact same interface. The screenshot below isn’t complete, but is a working prototype of the new interface.

A New Name

With the next release, the Studio|chris Brush Installer will become the Studio|chris Brush Manager. The Brush Installer name is going away in the next version for two very good reasons:

1. Documentation Confusion: “Have you installed the installer correctly using the install button on the website?” Yeah, I’m scratching my head too and I wrote the thing! The new Brush Manager name will help avoid this type of confusion.
2. New Features: The new feature set for the application really expands the application to be more than just an installer, so the new name encompasses those new features and also future improvements.

The new name is set in stone for the foreseen future of the application.

A New Feature Set

I mentioned some new features in the previous section. Here are some of them:

• Settings panel accessed by clicking the new Settings button (wrench icon) in the title bar. That messy Vista UAC checkbox is going in there with a lot of other options.
• Install brushes to Painter 7 through Painter X.1, even if you’ve customized the location of the Painter Brushes folder (ie. “I install all of my applications to D drive instead of C drive.”). This will also bring support to Windows Vista 64-bit. Thanks Les and Sue.
• Automated updates, not to be confused with automatic updates. Updates will no longer require visiting the website to install the new version. For updates to 0.6 and beyond, just open the settings panel and click the update tab to check for and install updates.
• The new Manage Brushes tab (will not be active in 0.6) contains functions to backup, delete, deactivate and reactivate brush categories. The Manage Brushes tab will become active in version 0.7 for users who wish to purchase an upgrade package. The Install Brushes tab will always remain free.
• In the background, and included as part of the new settings, you may choose to activate “logging” to log where files are being placed while using the Install Brushes tab. This will be useful in troubleshooting.