Stunner: SaveAs+CopyTrim only saves active take

RichMacDonald wrote on 4/9/2005, 11:45 AM
Had a rude shock today. Started with a series of clips including audio and video. Each clip has an equivalent deshaker clip added as a take. The deshaker clips are the active take. (Takes allow me to trim, add fx, and keep everything together.) Got ready to render, but first I do a SaveAs+CopyTrim (using the copy trimmed option rather than copyng the original files) to move everything to a new folder for archiving. Afterwards I'll render, then trash all the deshaker clips (since they're redundant and can be regenerated) and archive the remaining files.

Vegas only saved the active clips! IOW, it saved the deshaker clips and the audio from the original clips. The original video of the clips (inactive takes) were not copied to the new folder.

Need I state the obvious that this absolutely sucks? Why would anyone SaveAs+CopyTrim without the inactive takes? IMHO, if this is the standard behavior, then the SaveAs+CopyTrim needs an additional option to save all takes or save only the active takes.

My only workaround is to (1) make all the original clips the active take, before doing the SaveAs+CopyTrim. Doable but dumb.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 4/9/2005, 12:06 PM
Submit this as a suggestion to Sony. I didn't know this, and I can see the justfication for having it work the way it does, but I also agree that a checkbox or preference would be a jolly good idea.

Click on the Support button at the top of this screen and scroll down to Product Suggestion.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/9/2005, 1:58 PM
I'd say a checkbox. When I do the "copy & trim media" checkbox I don't want anything that isn't on the timeline.

I'd say it's prefectly fine the way it is (have you used that option before? I looked it up before i used it the first time to see what it does).
RichMacDonald wrote on 4/9/2005, 4:56 PM
>Submit this as a suggestion to Sony.

Done. I think its a good capability to have.

> When I do the "copy & trim media" checkbox I don't want anything that isn't on the timeline.

An inactive take is on the timeline ;-)

>I'd say it's prefectly fine the way it is (have you used that option before? I looked it up before i used it the first time to see what it does).

I've used the option all the time. First project with takes so first time I had the problem. Can't agree with you, though. IMHO, the implementation fails the "principle of least surprise", i.e., as a gui designer, when faced with a choice, choose the option that is least surprising to the user. A "copy" that causes a destructive change is surprising. If I wanted to copy the project and drop all the inactive takes, I'd expect to have to first drop all the inactive takes then do the copy. That makes more sense than doing it behind my back and a) taking the risk I'd not notice b) making it impossible for me to recover from. And after all, if the SaveAs+CopyTrim is going to copy all the clips that are still in my MediaPool but have 0 use counts (used once and now deleted from the project), the least it could do is copy my inactive takes (ok, that was me being an assh*le. Next you know I'll start asking why SaveAs+CopyTrim re-copies my clips even if they're already in the folder I'm copying to :->)
vicmilt wrote on 4/9/2005, 6:08 PM
I'll tell you what I do...
I use an individual hard drive for every different job or project that I do.
With HD space now at $.50 a GIG or less - why not?

I use a firewire connector to mount the drives and then I put not only the media, but the VEG files, the artwork, ACID loops (used) plus edits, voice-overs, etc... everything... even the scripts, budgets and correspondance.

By doing this:
A. I'm never missing anything
B. In reviewing the job, six months or a year later - everything is exactly where I left it.

I used to archive (consolidate) everything, years ago on my AVID MC, and then stream the consolidated media, etc. to a tape drive, but when we'd go to bring it back, invariably SOMETHING was missing.

Consider what I'm saying - you can get an 80 Gig drive these days for $40 bucks - if it's worth saving at all - this is worth doing.

v.