Here is my tip for the beginners. This is how I start my projects which make it soooo much easier if I need to move it to another computer or to another hard drive. I have had my computer act-up on me in the middle of the project so I just move the folder to another hard drive and format my computer with no worries.

When I prepare my project, the first thing I do is create a master folder, ( well actually, I change the icon to a Box I con instead of folder, it make more sense to me that way).

Then I make 5 Folders in it. Render, Temporary, Video, Audio, Import -(General Purpose).

Then In Vegas:
File>Properties - I set my pretender video to temp folder and Audio recorded files to the audio folder.

Then in Options>Preferences - I set the temporary files to temp folder in general tab.

When I am ready to capture, I go to Options>Preferences and change my capture folder in Disk Management tab.

And the last thing I do is – Save my empty project to the Master Folder (Box)

Now the most important thing that you need to do, and if you don’t it will defeat the purpose of doing all that is: For instance I am importing photos from camera…I first import them to the appropriate folder in my master Box, and then bring it to my project. Any thing that is going into my project goes to my organized box and from the Box to Vegas.

And there you have it, if you do that you will only move one folder or Box in my case. Too bad Vegas does not do that automatically like Premier. But for those that are starting out or just never organized the project like that, it is a good habit to organize everything and have it all together.

If anyone is interested how I organize my bins just email me at: wafalcon@hotmail.com

Good Luck, and Enjoy your Editing!

Ohooo, this might be a bit more complicated than I thought. Let me rephrase my objectives.

My .veg for a project is retained in the folder of rendered objects for that project. The media (which is typically shared by many projects) is stored in other folder(s). This separation is intentional.

For instance, I have 3 separate projects that use the same elephant footage from a local zoo. The zoo footage is on C:\Elephants, but the rendered and .veg of each project that taps into this common footage is on D:\PROJECT1, & D:\PROJECT2, & D:\PROJECT3.

Space limits require me to move C:\Elephants to E:\Elephants, and D:\PROJECT1 has to be moved to F:\PROJECT1

Essentially, this means the .veg will suddenly have to learn where the previously-applied-to-the-timeline footage is located (which really means finding the .sfk file generated when the footage was dropped on the timeline, yes?)

Can't I just have the .veg search when it loads into Vegas and it notices the media is no longer where it expected it to be (suddenly reported to be "offline")?

Also, is it possible for each project (remember, now on dockable external SATA drives, kinda like zip drives) to *contain* it's own media library so that any project's library only contains references to media used by that project? And can that particular library only become available when I pop in the drive? It seems to me I could accomplish this with the "New Media Library" option.

My objective is to build a common-source drive of shared footage, as well as unique-source drives of project-unique footage, project-unique .veg and project-unique .sfk files.

I'd think that the .sfk files for each project need to be backed up with the project .veg and retained with the project-unique files, especially if multiple projects will generate their own .sfk files *against commonly-used .avi/.m2t files*.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like the best thing to do is get the .veg and .sfk files together - *those* are the project parameters, after all. The source files (video and audio) only need to be stored on one location rather than making copies for each project.

I'm not able to find out how to reach my objective, even after reading the Vegas help.

If you move media, and vegas cannot find it when you open the project, you will be given a list of options: search for missing media, leave offline, specify a new location, etc.

If I know where I moved the media too, I'll usually just tell vegas that I'll tell it. If a lot of related media got moved together, Vegas will notice this and if it finds other missing clips at the same location, it will ask if you want to use those as well.

--Scott