I'm just asking if i can "bounce" these effects so they don't use resources anymore. for instance when a fade is used, it stays live and editable, therefor using system resources. is there a way to convert the fade so its embedded instead of live. I apologize for not knowing the correct terms, like i said i come from the audio world where these things are possible.

Sure. Highlight that section and render to a new file. Delete that section from the timeline and replace it with the new file you've created.

Alternatively, don't delete that section from the timeline. Instead, drag the new file to a new video track on top of all the other tracks. When the cursor gets to this clip Vegas will see that it's not transparent, so it won't look at any of the tracks beneath it. This way you get the advantage of it being 'frozen', and you can remove it to go back to the editable version if you wish to make changes.

There are also prerenders in Vegas that can handle all of this transparently for you. However, they're kinda flaky and easy to lose as you do other editing, so i haven't found them very useful.

Yes - Kelly (Chienworks) tells how - the reason I wondered what format video you were using was that unless you're applying heavy effects & colour correction, Vegas can usually handle playing "live" without any need to render or pre-render.

If effects do cause preview to be a bit slow, you can also see how it looks at full frame rate by using Ram Render - drag to highlight the desired area and hit Shift B.

Yes, coming from a background working with SONAR, I found Pre-renders to be the most similar to bouncing tracks in the DAW world. But there is the option to render to another track as well, as Chienworks mentioned.

TB

Thanks guys, I knew I could count on you for answers. :)

It is the final file I was worried about because it comes out WAAAY bigger than the original file. I figured all the fades and effects must be adding to that file size.

Edwin, the final rendered file should be the same as the original, assuming you're rendering to the same format - e.g. DV, HDV ~13Gb per hour, or much smaller if you're compressing ready for DVD.
What are you starting with, and what are you finishing with?

I started with a one gig file. 640X480 xvid compression, 128k mp3 sound, 29 fps, data rate of 163kbps, 24 bit video sample size. . I cropped out a quarter of the video. (the rest will be a separate video).
i tried to match the render options to the same. but thats where im sure i errored. I am new to video editing so sure its something i overlooked,

...xvid compression...

That's why your final file is so much larger.
XVid is a very heavily compressed format so, when you render it to a standard format such as DV-AVI or MPEG-2, the size will jump - a lot.

Mike

You don't mention the bitrate of the video. That's what determines the output file size. 640x480 24 bit and 29fps doesn't mean a thing.