PreRendered files question

BobMoyer wrote on 1/3/2016, 12:42 PM

I was having a problem with a "Selectively prerender" file crash. After looking through the 'Tools' menu, I saw where I could delete all prerendered files as an option. After selecting it, my crash problem was resolved. However, I then decided to look in the directory I had been saving to (on the Options/Preferences/General menu) and I noticed quite a number of prerendered files dating back to August 2015. I then selected to delete ALL prerendered files again in VegasPro 13 but they are still there and taking up a lot of space. Is it safe to delete these files that I no longer need using Windows explorer or might that mess up Vegas somehow?

Thanks,
Bob

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 1/3/2016, 1:14 PM

If any of them appear in project media in any of your .veg files then Vegas will complain about not being able to find them next time you open that project. If any of them are actually used in those projects then you'll end up with blank spots on the timeline and your project will be incomplete. You may be in for a long session of reviewing each file and deciding how important it is and what project may still need it.

If on the other hand they were created simply to see how well the final output would look and not used on the timeline then it's safe to purge them, though they may indeed still be listed in project media and cause the 'file not found' errors the next time the project is opened. Simply telling Vegas to ignore them before resaving the .veg file will correct that.

I'd suggest in the future that if you're going to use pre-renders, set up each project to store the files in the same folder as the rest of the project's media for easier, simpler, and neater housekeeping. Unfortunately this is global setting rather than a project setting so if you work on multiple projects simultaneously it can be a pain switching it all the time. In that case you might very well leave them to be created in the default directory and then dragging them to the project's on folder INSIDE Vegas' explorer window. When you move them there Vegas keeps track of the change of location and updates the project for you.

BobMoyer wrote on 1/3/2016, 1:35 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. I usually only do selective prerenders to check the final output. After doing this, nothing additional appears in my project media tab. I do not understand your comment:

"If any of them appear in project media in any of your .veg files then Vegas will complain about not being able to find them next time you open that project. If any of them are actually used in those projects then you'll end up with blank spots on the timeline and your project will be incomplete. You may be in for a long session of reviewing each file and deciding how important it is and what project may still need it."

Can you prerender an event and then add that to the timeline? If so, then I have never done that. These have always been only to judge the final output.

Bob

Chienworks wrote on 1/3/2016, 1:42 PM

A lot of people will use prerenders to replace sections on the timeline that were heavy with effects so that all future previews and renders run much faster. Vegas even has this as a built in function to automatically place the prerendered file on a new video track. Apparently you're not doing this, so don't worry about it.

Personally, for what you're doing, i usually just do RAM prerenders so that nothing is ever saved to the disk.

BobMoyer wrote on 1/3/2016, 2:02 PM

OK. Thank you for the clarification. I have never tried a RAM prerender. That would do what I need. I have never used the prerender to a new track option. Due to some early crashes with VegasPro, I set the Dynamic Ram amount to Zero so that option has always been greyed out. So, these prerendered files could be deleted in your opinion?

Thanks again,
Bob

Chienworks wrote on 1/3/2016, 2:58 PM

From your description i would seem so.

BobMoyer wrote on 1/3/2016, 5:21 PM

For what its worth, I deleted all of the files including the ones for my current project (it is small and can be easily rebuilt). Everything works as before except I had to redo the prerender for the current project. So thanks to your encouragement, I managed to clean up hundreds of files and regain a number of gigs of space.

Bob

PeterDuke wrote on 1/3/2016, 7:10 PM

Before you embark on a ruthless cleanup, it would be wise to do a backup first. The backup is good to have in any case, and is a lifesaver if you deleted something you shouldn't have.

BobMoyer wrote on 1/3/2016, 7:46 PM

Thank you for that advice. After using Vegas since version 3.0, I still consider myself a novice/amateur with the software and that is with every version up to and including 13. Along the way, I have managed to learn a few things. Most important among them is the concept of 'backup'. I did backup the directory prior to deleting those prerendered files...just in case. I have learned a great deal from my past mistakes. Thanks again.

Bob