deleting from Capture Scratch
 

Hi there

I recently started a new project on FCP and need to free up space.

It seems that deleting old files completely renders future editing of an old project impossible, so how should I save/where should I save my old project in a way that would make future editing possible/easy?

On a related note, I actually played around with deleting some old scratch files that I didn't think were linked to my old project and it totally messed it up. When I then removed them from the trash, most of my clips on my timeline still showed the red "offline" icon. It plays ok and they look fine in the browser, but I can't get the pictures of my clips to re-appear on the timeline.
Is there any way to get my project to look like it did before I messed it up?

Thanks,

Patricia

Hi Patricia! See Volume 4, Part 1 of the FCP Users Manual, Media and Project Management" for detailed answers to all this. The media manager can be pretty confusing however, I'm always scared I'll mess something up! So take your time and be careful.

As far as the missing files, when you start FCP you should get a warning message about them and be offered a chance to re-connect. Choose this option and browse to find the files that FCP wants.

Wow. That was quick! Thanks for the reply Boyd.

I actually did get the "reconnect" message and I think that brought everything back on-line, but the icons on the timeline did not correct themselves -- although I can view everything on the timeline, the icons are still red/black ---???

I guess I can live with it if I have to!

You can also pull up the 'Render Manager' in the Tools menu and this will allow you to delete just the render files from a given project. If you apply an effect, render, then apply another effect, render, and so on, you'll have all these intermediate render files eating up space on your drive. Deleting these will not hurt the original media, you'll just have to re-render the project in the future to work with it again. Depending on your editing style, this could free up lots of disk space.

As Boyd alluded to, in the Media Manager under the File menu, you can move, copy, make a lo-res offline version etc. But here's the kicker. The two bars show you original space and space after your actions to show how much you would free up. When you copy the project, it will get rid of excess media outside the IN/OUT points. A good way to back up the project if you're done editing with it.

When it comes to your FCP files, always let Media Manager do the moving, copying, deleting cause it will as the name implies, 'manage' your files for you so that you don't end up with missing media offline that you can't recover because you trashed it.

-gb-

You can just go to the first frame of each clip and do a 'create poster frame'. That will give you a thumbnail icon to look at.