Moving Files in a Vegas Project

Jonathan Neal wrote on 7/13/2006, 2:07 PM
Hello!

Is there a way that I take all the files that I am using in a certain Vegas project and have them copied to a central directory?

Let's say I have a project "birds.veg" and I have three clips that I am using in this project, "C:\Downloads\bluejay.jpg", "C:\Stock Footage\birds.avi", and "C:\Music\The Bird Song.mp3". Can Vegas copy them all into a central directory like "C:\BirdVideo"?

This would be very useful when copying a project onto CD-ROM or a portable hard-drive. Any help?

Comments

jetdv wrote on 7/13/2006, 2:27 PM
File - Save As - select the "copy and trim" option?
TShaw wrote on 7/13/2006, 2:31 PM
Ed hit the nail on the head, and that is how I do it.

Terry
Chienworks wrote on 7/13/2006, 8:16 PM
What i don't like about the copy & trim is that it renames all the files and it separates avi files into separate audio and video files ... and it saves the audio as .w64 which nothing but Sony Media software will open. I can understand that it may have to rename occasional files if you have multiple original files with the same name in different directories. But why does it rename all files? And why can't there be a setting to tell it not to separate the audio, or at least save it as .wav files?

If i were going to tackle this task i'd move all the files myself in Windows Explorer, then next time i open the project in Vegas i'd let it find the files for me.
TeetimeNC wrote on 7/14/2006, 5:46 AM
Chienworks, I find this renaming most frustrating. I am hoping a future version of Vegas will give the use more control over what happens to the media when it copied. Ideally, I would like to be able to collect files to the project folder or an archive location, specifying the following:
1. all or selected files and/or bins
2. global or individual trim options
3. global or individual naming approach, rule for handling duplicate names
4. global or individual audio split
5. folder structure to copy to (flat or subfolders). it might be useful to be able to map bin structure to a folder structure when archiving, and preserve this when unarchiving.

Jerry
johnmeyer wrote on 7/14/2006, 7:40 AM
I agree with Kelly. The trim option logic is fundamentally flawed, for exactly the reasons he gave. The problems in it usage go even deeper, which you will discover if you subsequently have to open and use the archived files. Also, for anything except AVI files, it does not trim the file. Thus, if you use ten seconds from a one hour MPEG file, the whole MPEG file gets archived (because Vegas still doesn't have the ability to do simple, lossless cuts-only editing of MPEG-2 files).
Jonathan Neal wrote on 7/15/2006, 3:21 AM
Wow, thank you all for your answers, but I'm afraid they're a little scary.

I don't want to have my files trimmed, or at least I want the option. I don't want my audio from the video files stripped either. In fact, I think I'll take Chienworks advice and shift them around in Windows Explorer. Or I'll write my own program tonight to do it. If I'm successful I will post my results here.
johnmeyer wrote on 7/15/2006, 10:15 AM
Or I'll write my own program tonight to do it. If I'm successful I will post my results here.

A decent archiver would be worth some money. The right way to do it would be to figure out the VEG format enough to find all the file references. Use that as your guide to tell you what files to copy. That's your input list. Then, have a dialog that specifies an output location for all the files. The simple solution would stop there and simply copy the VEG file. The user would then have to do a search for new files when opening the VEG file (this could be a problem, because if the original files still exist in their original locations, the VEG will use them). However, if he original files have been removed, if the VEG is in the same folder with all the media, it "finds" the media automatically and the next time you save the VEG, it updates its reference.

One small issue is that the user would have to remember to purge the project list before saving the VEG file used as the guidepost, becuase otherwise it would still contain references to all the unused media, which presumably you don't want to archive.

Finally, some users would want to have multiple sub-folders for each type of media, e.g., put the video in one folder, the sound in another, etc.
TeetimeNC wrote on 7/16/2006, 4:37 AM
John, your post provoked additional thoughts here. I believe the first step in archival should be to "collect" the project materials into a project folder structure suitable for archival. But in any video project there are typically three different archive scenarios:
1. Materials that are specific to the project and will be MOVED to the archive
2. Materials that are general in nature and MIGHT be used for some other purpose in the future (e.g., photos in MyPictures) - these will be COPIED to the archive
3. Materials that are intended only for reuse across video projects and will be maintained indefinitely online (e.g., corporate intro logo for DVD) - these should be REFERENCED by their ABSOLUTE ADDRESS rather than copied to each archive.

Given this, an archive process should permit the user to efficiently select on a file-by-file basis which of the three methods to use in collecting for archival, and then update the VEG with the appropriate new locations as the collection process proceeds:
1. For copied or moved materials - use the relative address of the folder within the project folder structure (e.g., "..\Pictures\MyPhotoOfJill.JPG")
2. For referenced materials - use the absolute address of the folder on the PC or network where shared video resources maintained (.e.g., "\\MyVideoPC\SharedVideoResources\DVDIntro3.MPG" ). This would require that shared materials include the version in the file naming convention to guarantee that an unarchived project could access the correct version of its shared materials.

I envision this "efficient" selection process would let me multi-select from a sortable list of the project files, and then I would tag those files with the desired destination, repeating this process until all files are tagged.

If this collection process could be implemented, moving or archiving a project would be trivial - a simple Explorer move of the project folder and its subfolders would work. It would be even better if the whole process could be integrated with Media Manager so MM would know things like:

1. All the projects that used a specific piece of media.
2. The current status of each project (e.g., online, or archived to disk ##)

Jerry