Drag and Drop replace assets in a PSD?

[polyxo]

Is there some way in a PSD with artboards to drag and drop replace existing assets in the way you can replace graphics in InDesign or XD, by dropping the new one on top of the existing one?

I am familiar with replacing smart objects – but using the file browser each time to navigate to the replacement-file is too slow for the job at hand.

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If this isn't possible – is there a way to create an artboard-document via drag and drop from a series of images you have selected in Bridge or any file-browser?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I know of no such option at current and you might be better off with Indesign. 

But feel free to post a Feature Request. 

[polyxo]

Thanks. I actually just found a way inside PS – by mimicking InDesign. You can drop new images into Image Frames and replace their content. I still need to figure out a way to also inherit the scale from the old object to the new one.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Take a look at the Frame Tool:

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/using/tool-techniques/frame-tool.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/using/place-image-frame-tool.html

[polyxo]

Thanks, Steven. I just found it myself :o) 
Do you maybe know how to force the frame-tool to inherit the aspect ratio used in the previous image?

Our images all have transparent backgrounds and the Frame-command trims content to their bounding box, while placing. Using transform-tools one may however enlarge the image so that it uses the full size of the artboard.

If you now drag to replace the image, this Transform is lost (the second image will get inserted smaller again). Is there maybe an obscure keyboard combo to hold while dragging? I already tried a few Modifier Key-combinations.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

I rarely, if ever use frames.

Perhaps you could provide an example PSD with a layer (not using frames) and a separate image that would be dragged into the PSD to replace the existing layer content.

I'm sure that there are other ways to achieve what you require, however, text only goes so far...

[polyxo]

I'm comparing to InDesign features again. Here, when one replaces content of frames one may chose to respect transforms applied to frames or to insert new element at their native scale.

To be clear, one can easily achieve what I want with just a bit of manual intervention – but I want to shave away every click – I'm looking for a procedure for possibly thousands of images.

If you want you can try out what I mean with these two dots. Both files are 2048 px wide and high. The dot is 1500 px × 1500 px. The psd with an empty frame is 1500 × 1500 px. If you insert one of the dots to empty-frame.psd you'll see that it gets trimmed to its bounding box. As the dot is a Smart Object and you know you have some resolution-headroom, you could go ahead and enlarge the dot to fill the frame better. 

Now  replace that enlarged dot with the other dot. It will get inserted at smaller size again. I'm looking for a way to retain the Transform applied to the dot inserted first.

You can find sample files here.