Cumulus can catalog any digital asset. If Catalog Unknown Formats (below the list of asset formats) is activated and Cumulus encounters an asset for which no specific filter is available, then it uses its Generic Filter. You can expand the Cumulus Generic Filter’s capabilities to create your “own formats.” For assets that don’t have specific format provided by Cumulus, you can define a thumbnail for the asset format by using the Generic Filter.
If you use formats that you’ve created on your own, check the list available on the Canto Website from time to time to see if a filter has been developed that supports this format and you could use.
To set up a new format:
1. Select Cumulus / Edit > Preferences and then click Asset Handling Sets.
2. Click the Modules tab and then on the Filter icon to see the list of installed filters.
3. Select the Generic Filter in the list and click Properties. The window to set up the properties for the new format appears.
4. Enter your format’s file name extension in the File Extension field. Do not enter the period.
5. Type a name for the format in the File Format field. If your system is aware of the asset type, its name may be entered for you.
6. Enter the Mac OS file type in the Mac OS File Type field. The file type will always be 4 characters in length.
7. Enter the file format identifier (typically the mime type) in the File Format Identifier field.
8. Choose the kind of thumbnail you want to be displayed for the assets. You can use either the asset’s Finder / Windows Explorer icon, a thumbnail generated by an external application, or an image that you specify.
If you want to specify a thumbnail image to be used for the assets of the specified format, activate the Static Thumbnail option, which enables the Browse button. Then click Browse to select an image. You can use any JPEG file as a static thumbnail. The image is resized, if necessary, and pasted into the thumbnail image area. Each asset cataloged with this format will use this image as its thumbnail.
If you want a thumbnail image generated by an external application, activate the Call External Application option, which enables the Configure button. Then click Configure to specify the external application. For details on the parameters, see below.
9. Click OK to save your new format.
SPECIAL TECH INFO: Generic Filter External Tool Parameters
The Generic Filter has got an additional option to generate the thumbnail and the preview by calling an external application, in the same way the Generic Processor works. The parameters are nearly the same: command lines for each platform. For this module the variables which have to be used are: – $INPUT – will be replaced by the quoted path of the cataloged asset – $PREVIEW - will be replaced the quoted path of a temporary file. The called application has to generate a picture in JPEG or PNG format.
Examples Generate a PNG image from EPS assets using GhostScript on Windows "C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.61\bin\gswin32.exe" -sDEVICE=pngalpha -dEPSCrop -dBATCH
-dNOPAUSE -dNOPROMPT -dQUIET -sOutputFile=$PREVIEW.png $INPUT If your workflow already generates a JPEG preview for an asset and saves it beside the asset named <assetfilename>_preview.jpgthen you can access this preview using the following command line and make a copy for Cumulus: cmd /C copy $INPUT_preview.jpg $PREVIEW
To have the new format available for Asset Handling Sets you have to add it to the Asset Formats list:
1. Click the Asset Formats tab and click Add.The Add Format dialog opens.
2. Expand the Generic Filter entry by clicking on the plus sign on its left. The formats available are displayed.
3. Select the format you want to add and click OK.
New formats are placed at the end of the list by default. Use the arrow buttons to the right of the list to move the format, if necessary.
TIP: Cataloging & Files Extensions
If anything goes wrong while cataloging, check the file extension!
Cumulus / 
Edit > Preferences and then click Asset Handling Sets. 
If your system is aware of the asset type, its name may be entered for you.
Finder / 
Windows Explorer icon, a thumbnail generated by an external application, or an image that you specify.
If anything goes wrong while cataloging, check the file extension!