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Beta Beat: All your projects are belong to Flow

by Brett Terpstra Feb 19th 2009 at 12:00PM


The public beta of Gridiron Flow for Mac has been released, and I have to say I'm blown away. I love Curio for project management and brainstorming, but for the nitty gritty of version management, file collection and project source file relationships I'd just as soon have something magically do the job for me. Flow does it quite nicely, at least with Adobe, iWork, Office files and the like. As all-seeing as this software is, it inflicts a remarkably small hit on system resources. Mike Rose filmed a great preview last year, so have a look at that, and at Gridiron's FAQ for Flow, for a better idea of what it does than I could convey here.

The beta is available for download, and currently has no restrictions. I expect Flow to be a costly bit of software, but I haven't been able to track down any price predictions yet (Update, as pointed out by Nicholas in the comments, it's listed -- fairly obviously -- for $249 right now. About what I expected, really ). For now, have a look and dig into automatic versioning, tag-based organization and project visualization that just takes care of itself. It's especially geared toward designers, and will be of the most interest to those who spend their time with InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Personally, I'm hoping I don't get too hooked on it only to find out it's outrageously expensive. Here's hoping for some pocketbook sympathy!



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The public beta of Gridiron Flow for Mac has been released, and I have to say I'm blown away. I love Curio for project management and...
 

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oldskool

I installed this, and after restarting, it was scanning my drives for an entire day. I eventually decided to stop the process because it seemed like everything was running very slow due to the scanning. I decided to uninstall it. Ever since, my Spotlight does not work well at all - can't find folders that are there. I use spotlight all day long, and this has proven to be quite a nuisance. Install with caution...

February 25 2009 at 9:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to oldskool's comment
Steve Forde

You actually don't even need to scan at all. We have it off by default - as it really is just trying to find links to projects wherever they may be.

If you open any file in flow that has NOT been scanned - it will do a scan on the fly. However, the most detailed information is tracked when you create files since Flow was installed. Copy/Paste, drag and drop etc. None of that will be picked up in a scan - so you may wish to just pause the scan.

There is actually no interaction between Spotlight and Flow so it shouldn't be causing a problem. If you are seeing a problem and suspect Flow -we would love to double check. Please let us know at support@gridironsoftware.com - we can have a look to make sure.

Steve
GridIron Software Inc.

February 25 2009 at 12:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jake Coventry

This is awesome! I think this is perfect for agencies. I have not worked out whether it works on a network as yet, and prices for volume licenses. As for the cost - this is not for somebody who does the odd photoshop file, or indesign doc.. this is for pros who work on a large amount of files day in day out.. The price is in direct relation to the savings it will give you by not having to rebuild old indesign files 6 months down the line (when you had a brainwave to rename, or delete that strange file..)

February 20 2009 at 10:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Imagine Engine

The cost is definitely lower than Alienbrain and it's a good start at offering asset management for Artists. It's unfortunate that it doesn't offer integrated messaging for times when collaborating with other Artists whether internal staff or external freelancers. Reference http://www.alienbrain.com/

February 19 2009 at 9:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
radzinex

This will rock for FInal Cut project management. Another great prezo here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=25379882&id=145112402

February 19 2009 at 5:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Schell

249.00?

application-gridiron flow-delete. (actually, uninstall)

Done.

February 19 2009 at 1:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Schell's comment
David Robison

You get what you pay for. If this saves you two hours of headache,
which I imagine it would do your first month, it's worth the money.

Good software costs good money. That's how it works.

I have two concerns though, since it operates at such a core level to the OS, what's the danger?

My other concern? Oh, yeah, it's Canadian. Part of the conspiracy of the Northlanders to take over! ;-)

February 19 2009 at 6:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
pianomansam

Confirmed. $249. See this screenshot.

http://twurl.nl/gh0o3z

February 19 2009 at 1:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Petar Smilajkov

I love anything with a word Beta in it :)

February 19 2009 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Petar Smilajkov's comment
Patriks7

Yeah, me too. It makes me think of Google :)

February 20 2009 at 9:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nicholas Ptacek

The pricing is listed on their site at: http://www.gridironsoftware.com/account/buy.html

It looks like you can pre-order it for $249, and the regular price is $299.

February 19 2009 at 12:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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