adding a new hard drive - keeping file structures

vincej wrote on 10/21/2007, 10:23 AM
I share with you all a neat discovery: today I completed the addition of a new 500GB hard drive. I had 2 weeks ago asked the question how could move the dozens / hundreds of associated media files of all my existing projects. The answers I received were sparse and a little weak although appreciated.

The answer is that once you move all your project directories over, open your project file (.vf) using file > open.

The project opens and by MAGIC all the associated media files for that project have been found by the application without having to ident any new locations.

You do need to open each project .vf individually for this magic to occure.

How is it done ?? I can only assume using the same concept as "relative paths" as is used within web page directories.

The implications are : keep your file structure identical when you move them and all will be well.

cheers Vincej

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/21/2007, 2:05 PM
I think you also got a little lucky, though i'm glad you did. When i've done the identical thing Vegas hasn't 'magically' found the files. However, it did offer to let me tell it where to look for the first file, and once i pointed it to the right directory it found all the rest on it's own. So my experience was almost magic.
mickbadal wrote on 10/30/2007, 2:23 PM
I too have struggled with this. On the one hand I want to keep certain "shared" files (like music or effect tracks that I use frequently) in a common location, and have all my video projects "reference" the common files. This has a nice "logical" feel of all my common assets being grouped together. Of course, the problem is if I change the location of my projects or of the common files at any point in the future, these references break. You also chance "removing" files in the future that an archived project references, which increases the risk that your projects will be clobbered when you try to restore them.

On the other hand, creating a static copy of everything the project uses (including "common" re-usable assets), and storing it all in the project folder, is by far the safest and cleanest approach for project preservation. But then you've got the issues of eating up HDD space, and the headache of having to locate and update multiple copies of a "common" component in the event you ever want to modify it for all projects that use it.

Ah, the quintessential problem concerning project configuration management... :)