Easier file structure in Vegas 8?

[Roger Shealy]

Its Christmas morning and I've just put the gifts out for the kids. Can someone on the forum give me a great Christmas present this year by helping me solve a Vegas issue?

Is there an easy way to set a default that tells Vegas to put all files supporting a project to certain location and leave them there forevermore until notified differently? A master pointer, if you will. Here's what I'm going through now to keep my files tidy:

This is a password protected video on Vimeo PW is "vegas"

I usually spend several minutes on each Vegas project creating a folder on a HDD, then pointing audio files, video files, project files, render files, import files.... to that folder. I like to keep them all in one place. I also find that after I render a file, and on other several mysterious situations that I can't fully explain, Vegas forgets where I designated to send certain files and scatters parts and pieces of the project to the four winds (most infamously to a hidden Vegas folder on my host drive) . I then have to search drives to reassemble the pieces.

By the way, Merry Christmas to all you guys who keep this forum so interesting!

[Edward Troxel]

First go to File - Properties and set the file locations on each tab. Make sure you check the "start all new projects with these settings" box and those file locations will then be used on all new projects.

Next go to Options - Preferences and change any file locations listed there.

Finally, when you open/render/anything else that brings up a file dialog, THAT is typically where it will reopen the next time you open any file dialog. So if you open in one location and then tell it to render, you'll typically see the location where you last opened and need to browse to where you really want it rendered.

It's possible that some of this could be resolved for you via scripting if you're using the pro version. For example, if you only rendered via a script and the script knew where you wanted all renders saved then it could automatically go to that location.

[Roger Shealy]

Thanks Edward. I am using 8 Pro. I don't want every file to go to the same place, just files for an individual project. Maybe I'm overlooking an easier solution. Currently I have a folder on my HDD for each project and every project goes to a different folder. If I use the feature you specified, then every project would go into the same folder and I'd have an unmanageable mass of files from different projects.

I'm hoping there is some way to easily designate a single drive location and Vegas sends everything to that folder for the project instead of having to go through all the sub menu's for each data type.

[Mike Calla]

Originally Posted by Roger Shealy

Is there an easy way to set a default that tells Vegas to put all files supporting a project to certain location and leave them there forevermore

Is this what you mean Roger:(see pic?)
When you save a veg to a folder - you copy all media to the folder as well??.... you can trim media or keep the original media..

For short form projects i usually do this as soon as I start - everything in one place, neat and tidy:) For long form or episodic projects not so much.

Sony Acid does this as well (since many versions ago). But another "save as" option in Acid that is extremely useful is you can save the project as an "embedded media" project file where the whole project is saved in one file! Any media that was used is in that file. Love it!

[Mike Calla]

Just something to add:

In Vegas anytime you want to add any new media to a project folder, you must actually use "save as" then make sure the "copy media box" is checked.

I know if you use Sony Acid you only have to do this once - Afterward Acid automatically copy's any new media you have added any time you save.

...and a Merry Xmas to all you too!

[Roger Shealy]

Mike,

I don't think this addresses it. Here's a quick vid of what I do to keep my project files organized (also added to first post):

This is a password protected video on Vimeo PW is "vegas" (note small case "v")

Perhaps I'm just taking the long route to keep things tidy. I don't want to dump every project into the same master folder. I can't imagine keeping hundreds of projects organized effectively that way. If you know a better way, please share!

[Edward Troxel]

There are no project specific folder locations.

[Roger Shealy]

Mike,

I've never used the "Copy Media" function before, but that is extremely helpful for a number of uses. I can trim down my file space by quite a bit using this feature.

Thanks!

[Marcus Martell]

@ Roger hope u'll find the answer,i'm here jus 2 tell you that your video"Jim's new turbine" was very cool!lol
Merry xmas

[Roger Shealy]

Thanks Marcus. I need to update it. Since then he's added the turbine, an oil pump and an oil cooler.

[Mike Calla]

Ya, the copy media option is definitely not the end all and be all of file management but it does help. I will say that at the end of a project I most always use it as a way of archiving.

However while working on projects:
I won’t use it for long projects. But I will for smaller projects (and by “smaller” I mean fewer clips - and not necessarily short projects) I don’t mind having all of my clips in one folder, sans any sub folders. It’s not difficult to locate media using XP’s simple-everyday: name, type, size, modified, created etc tabs to search and navigate for something specific.

But for projects with LOTS of media, then I automatically use a folder template that I created: Basically a main folder with subfolders divided into different media types/reels/takes/graphics etc!

For any project that I’m working on I always save a shortcut to my desktop, that way when any open/save prompt pops up I can quickly hit the desktop button and my folders are there. It doesn’t always work, but for me it works well enough!

I’m thinking the file management in Vegas is not as advanced as the Avid’s or FCPs file management systems, or any system with shared media and multiple users. They must have standard procedure for files; file locations etc… maybe… I don’t really know…

[Randy Stewart]

Roger,

I take a slightly different, set-up as you go, approach that works for me. I set Vegas to open without going to the last project (unclick the properties box) so it opens with a new file. Once a new file is opened, I do a file save-as to the new location and folder. If I need to capture, I set up the "capture to" location as a subfolder in the same master folder at that time (identify the save to folder when I start the capture). When I render, I render to a new sub folder in the same master file folder, and do the same for DVDA projects and burns. After I've completed the show and want all of the media files in one location (including things I've used from my hard drive and sourced from that other location), I use the save with trimmed media function to the same location or to an archive location. Before I finish, I go to that newly archived .veg file with trimmed source media and open it to see if there are any missing files. If so, I locate them at that time and save it again or physically copy them to the archived folder to make sure.

By the way, I don't use the full date label system for file naming as each file has the date in the details of the file names. I use clear text file structure folder names so the files are easily recognizeable from a details list in file manager. For example, my family vacations projects are on H:/Family/Vacations/2003 Cruise. Another is H:/Work/Holiday Party/2007. I do group my archived projects up in master folders like Family, Work, Weddings, etc., so I can get there quickly without searching dozens of projects. I use one "working" master file folder on my internal working hard drive with much the same file structure if I'm working on several projects at once (which is rare). I also tend to delete the "working" sub folder and defrag my internal working hard drive after archiving the project on a different, usually external, hard drive to free up space on my internal hard drive.

Since I'm always using source files that are already on my hard drvies (music, backdrops, photos, etc.) in a show, there's no way around using the save project with trimmed (or whole) media and coping the folders outside of your .veg file (renders, burns, etc.) to make sure you get it all into one location that I know of, sans writing a script as mentioned by Ed. The above method is kind of build as you go but works for my process. Hope this helps you a little.

Happy Holidays,

Randy

[Jason Robinson]

I have found that Vegas drives me absolutely bonkers with its stupid file storage & directory remembering problems. You will find I'm not alone. Storage locations for Vegas change depending on where you last saved a similar file (render, veg, etc).

My solution is essentially "watch vegas like a hawk" because I can never tell where it is going to save something.

[Seth Bloombaum]

To me, this thread is kind of a funny thing. I never liked working with ProTools & AVID because they had their own ideas about where media goes, how directories should be structured, etc. I always thought this was a terrible "feature" - why should an NLE behave differently than any other windows app?

This is one of the things I liked about my early experiences with Vegas - I could organize my projects as I wished. Vegas conformed to the windows gui conventions much better than any other NLE I'd seen, and this was a relief because I wanted to organize projects my way.

Apparently, what you're seeing as a bug I see as a feature. Ain't life funny.

[Roger Shealy]

Seth, you are so right. I love the flexibility, I just wish I could structure a global default. It's not a big deal, I just find occasionally Vegas puts a piece of a file where I didn't mean for it to go, say if I open an old file and do a little work then go back to a newer file. If I'm not careful it will put pieces in the older file's location.

What I really like, is I can designate source files on one drive, temp files on another, and render to a third. Helps speed things up a bit. I've also found that putting too many things on a single drive can crash Vegas.