@CubeAce Thanks for explaining that, but actually, I'm not confused at all about what objects are.

Here is more background: When I drag external video files into my current project, VPX asks if I want to copy them to the project folder, and I always agree. That works very well.

However, when I copy objects from the timeline in another VPX project, and then paste them into the current project, no such requester dialog appears. That is, I am not given any opportunity to copy the underlying files to the current project folder. So I end up having imported objects that are linked to files that are outside of the current project folder. That's what I don't like, because at some point in the future, I might end up archiving the other project, which will break the links in the current project.

The reason why I copy objects from another project's timeline is to preserve their relative position and length. That's very convenient. What's not convenient is that the underlying media files are not imported into the current project folder.

I realize there are workarounds, but they are cumbersome or require too much storage space. So I'd like to find a more efficient procedure.

@Galaxy

Hi.

You can manually copy and paste the files into the new project folder. Then when the original set of files disappear off the system, point the program to the remaining project folder. The program will use the files in the new location once you save the project again. You can leave copying the files until such times you want to archive the original project.

Ray.

@Galaxy

Hi,

Well I'll be... I never tried saving any object that was in the PTF, so I didn't know about the takes. The reason that it does this is that the entry in the PTF can be a trimmed clip with effects, and the take will remember this.

I never use the copy to project folder feature, except if I am going to archive the project and I want all objects along with it.

Instead of doing the project with copy everything to the project folder, wait until you have finished. Then, File, Backup copy, then Copy Project and Media into folder. You should end up with what you want - all objects in the project folder.

I didn't try it, but you can - just do the above even with the copy to folder set to see if everything else goes there that is on the timeline but did not get copied to the project folder. If so, great!

Alternatively, here is one solution you can try, I think, but it's much more labourious:

1. Create a link to your project folder.
2. In the Media Pool, Navigate to the folder that contains the files from the other project.
3. Once you have copied the objects from the other project, that is, the one opened in another Movie, to the timeline of your main movie, delete that Movie as you no longer need it.
4. Save.
5. Do a clean up of the PTF (Optional as you may have objects that you want to keep there that have not yet been put on the timeline.
6. In the Media Pool, Import, you should see all of the objects that have been imported and used in your project. Select the ones with the red light, right-click, copy.
7. Navigate to your project folder - should already be linked, so, easy to do.
8. Right-click on this folder - Paste.

You should now have the objects copied from their original location and pasted to the new location.

One more thing, even if the object on the timeline says that the file is in another location, if you open the project and everything is in the same folder as the project, the project will find everything there and ignore the other location, I believe.

EDIT: one more thing, about the objects not going to the PTF, when you have selected the objects on the timeline and copied them to the clipboard, right-click, insert into PTF. Alternatively, when you copy/paste to the project file, if the objects are still highlighted, right-click, insert into PTF. These ones should have the new path.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John

Could this be done with nested projects, which is your area of expertise, I do not use them.

John EB

@Galaxy

I never tried saving any object that was in the PTF

...

Alternatively, here is one solution you can try, I think, but it's much more labourious:

1. Create a link to your project folder.

...

1. One more thing, even if the object on the timeline says that the file is in another location, if you open the project and everything is in the same folder as the project, the project will find everything there and ignore the other location, I believe.

EDIT: one more thing, about the objects not going to the PTF, when you have selected the objects on the timeline and copied them to the clipboard, right-click, insert into PTF. Alternatively, when you copy/paste to the project file, if the objects are still highlighted, right-click, insert into PTF. These ones should have the new path.

John CB

@browj2

Thanks for your reply. I have two questions:

1. What does "PTF" mean?
2. What do you mean by "create a link"? What kind of link? And how?

Also, in your final edit, I think you are describing a procedure that I've already tried, as explained in my original post:

Another approach I have tried – without success - is to right click on each imported object, and then select Insert Objects into Project Folder. The source media then appear in the Project Folder window on the right side of my screen. However, if I right-click the media there, and then click Properties, I can see that the media are still located in the previous project folder. To fix this, I tried the following procedure:

Right-click on each media file, and then click Save

Navigate to the current project folder, and save each item there.

But this is also a tedious, repetitive task. Furthermore, VPX saves each file with a TK2 extension. So then I have to find each file in Windows File Manager, and change the extension - to jpg or png, in my case.

Is this the same procedure as the one you are suggesting?

Thanks.

@Galaxy

Hi,

1. PTF = Project Temp Folder (see above and the fourth image). This is the name that Magix uses in the manual, but the name of the window is Project Folder. This is not the same as your project folder. The PTF is a bin within the project that has many uses, it is not a folder on your hard drive. So to keep this straight, use PTF to indicate the Project Folder window in the program. Confusing? I suggest that you read the chapter about the Project folder PTF in the manual as there is a lot that you can do with it.
2. In the Import tab, if you are using the Folder Tree View where you see all drives and folders, navigate to your project folder, switch to the linked folder view (my name for that) as in the image below. Click on the parameter button, Create link for folder. In the image, if I click on Create link for folder, a folder will be added to the bottom with the name Summer. You can see my other linked folders. This way, I can quickly go to the folders of the various video/audio/photo files and more that I am working with. Note the other possibilities on the menus as they may come in handy.

In the image below, it's done and you can see that there are 2 images that are in my project - the red light is on. I've selected both, right-click to get the menu, Copy (Ctrl+Ins).

Now I can navigate to another folder - easy to do if I have already created a link - and paste (right-click Paste or Shift+Ins the two photos. In your case, this would be to your project file. They would now be in there and you don't have to worry about them again, even if the links in the project are to the other folder.

Just remember that anything that you do here is live - you are still in Windows Explorer - so copy/paste/delete will actually do that in the folders. To remove a link to a folder, right-click on the folder in the list to get the menu, Delete link. This will remove the link, not the folder. Do not just delete the folder - only the link.

If you also want these to be in the PTF, then you would have to select them and drag and drop from the project folder to the PTF or or right-click, import into project folder. Remember, files on a timeline do not also have to be in the PTF. And files in the PTF do not have to be on a timeline. The goal is to get all files that are in your project into your project folder and there are multiple ways to do this.

Below, I have pasted the 2 photos to another folder and then imported them to the PTF, so they are now in both places. Also, you can see the 3 selected images on the timeline that I copied from the other movie to the current timeline.

There is a trick here. Unless the first image to be copied is at 0, then you have to note the start location first, then select the images to be copied, copy, go to main movie, put the playback marker at the same start location, paste. First you should have made sure that nothing is in the way. If there is, then first select the destination track in the header on a track where there is nothing else, set the location of the playback marker, paste. Now your objects will be at the same point of the timeline, but the wrong track. Move them straight up (Shift drag).

No, this is not the procedure in which you created takes. Again, the best way is to create the backup copy at the end to your project folder.

There is another way to do this. In your template file, save the PTF. Then in the new project, open the template project and open its associated PTF file .XBI. Now you'll have all elements from the template project in the new project. There are pitfalls, but I'll leave it at that. Also, this won't get the files into your project folder.

@johnebaker

Hi John EB,

Could this be done with nested projects, which is your area of expertise, I do not use them.

Yes and no.

No, because @Galaxy wants to use only parts of the imported project, if I understand correctly, and the objects are not necessarily one after the other. Say, select objects 2, 6 and 10. In this case, nesting wouldn't work because the nested movie is one object containing its completed timeline. Also, it wouldn't necessarily solve the problem of getting the files into the OP's project folder.

Yes, if everything is needed. However, if there are any gaps, they will be black. Any other objects that are needed to fill in the gaps would be overlays.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John

Thanks for the clarification on nesting.

@Galaxy

Hi

My method of doing what you want is different from those of @CubeAce and John CB, it does rely on the video, images, audio being maintained in their current folder(s) for future projects - see my Project folder structure below.

In the project you want to copy the objects from:-

1. Select all the objects you want to copy into (an)other project(s) and copy them
    
2. Click the + icon next to the current timeline tab to create a new empty timeline, paste the copied objects, I would suggest you Group them, it makes handling easier later on.
   
   
    
3. Select File, Manage Project, Export movie, Export movie file, Magix movie file (*.mvd) and save with a meaningful name.
    
4. You can now delete the second timeline in the project if required and close it.
    
5. Open an existing project, or create a new project, to which you want to insert the MVD file containing the objects to be pasted.
    
6. Select File, Manage Project, Import movie, Import movie file, Magix movie file (*.mvd)
    
7. Locate the saved MVD file and add it to the project, it will now be on a second timeline
    
8. For an exising project:
   Copy and paste the object from the 2nd timeline in to the 1st timeline, they will be inserted at the position of the Timeline Cursor - if insert between existing objects ensure the Mouse Mode is set to 'All tracks' (keyboard shortcut 7)
   
   For a new project - delete the empty timeline and continue working in the 'imported' timeline.

I find this method useful for where I have a common Intro/Outro eg for tutorials.

For my projects, each one is 'self contained' - makes for easier backup. The structure is as shown in the image below. The 'Blank' master folder is copied and pasted to start a new project.

HTH

John EB

@Galaxy

Hi,

I went back and reread your first post. Should have done that before.

I guess one solution is to use File / Backup Copy / Copy Project and Media Into Folder. However, my project is quite large, and I am short of hard drive space. So I would prefer another solution.

Yes, that is the solution if you intend to remove some or all of the projects object files at some point in the future. For "short of hard drive space" the obvious solution is to get another hard drive - and another one for the backup.

I suppose I could manually copy and paste each media file from the previous project folder into the current project folder, but that would be tedious and time-consuming. 

Yes, that is the alternative, put each project file (.mvp) in its own folder and copy the files from your template folder to there. Don't worry about the properties of these files in your movie pointing to a location that no longer exists, the program will first search the project's folder (I think, give it a try). This way, you won't have all of your files duplicated when you don't need that.

Here is another thought. In your template project, if the files are from various locations, do a backup of the project as per your first suggestion to get all of the files into one folder. Then copy/paste those or only those required to your new project folder for safekeeping.

Another approach I have tried – without success - is to right click on each imported object, and then select Insert Objects into Project Folder. The source media then appear in the Project Folder window on the right side of my screen.

As I pointed out, this Project Folder (PTF) is a virtual bin that exists only in the project, it is not your project folder on the hard drive. Your files still have to exist somewhere on your system.

In any event, you will have to find a solution that best suits what you are doing.

Back to the PTF and somewhat as an aside but pertinent for getting objects in a template file to the same location in another project.

Open the PTF full screen in details view. Note the various columns. Media Start shows 00 because the object was added to the PTF at the same time as you added it to the timeline. If you Insert an object from the timeline, say, one of your video clips that has been trimmed, is not at the beginning of the timeline, and is already in the PTF. It will be added again with _001...002...003... appended depending on the number of times this object is added. Note the Media start of this entry - it's no longer at 00. So, you can have the same file added to the timeline more than once, trimmed various ways, with effects but get only one entry in the PTF - the first one. If you Insert Objects into Project Folder each and every one of those objects from the timeline, each will have _xxx appended, will have start, end and duration information. You can rename the objects and add descriptions without affecting anything. If you select one of these entries and drag it to the timeline, it will be placed there, trimmed with all of its effects.

You can even group several objects (meaning Grouped, not just a multiple selection) and insert that to the PTF. It will show up with the filename of the first object. If you drag that entry to the timeline, you will get all objects of the group with all effects.

Knowing all of this is important if you want to use the PTF.

In my template project, I created a subfolder in the PTF and dragged all objects into this subfolder. Then I saved the PTF (TemplateX.XBI). Then in a new project, I imported the TemplateX project/movie. This gave me the objects but only the subfolder of TemplateX with no entries. In the PTF, I clicked on the Load project folder button and loaded TemplateX.XBI. My subfolder was now filled with the objects from the template movie. Looking at the details, I can see where each object was placed in the template movie, so I can go to the timeline at the same location and drag in or insert the object from the PTF to the timeline at the same location as in the template movie.

In the above image, you can see that I only have two objects from my template project on the timeline of the new project. I can see where they are supposed to go on the timeline if I want them in the same location.

I now have the option of copying from the template movie to the main movie or from the PTF. I don't even need to load the template project, just the XBI file. Of course, dragging multiple clips from the PTF to the timeline would not place them at the same relative location as in the template movie, but this is an alternative. It won't solve your problem of securing the files. At least you know you have some options.

@johnebaker

Hi John EB,

The PTF bug in VPX15 has not been resolved and this is extremely annoying. Could you please remind Magix? I will do the same. Anything put in the PTF ends up being 1s long. I can't even use the XBI file in another project properly as all entries go onto the timeline 1s long, even though they show in the PTF as being longer.

This has gone on far too long.

John CB

Hi

@browj2

I consider that the only way to REALLY pressure the Magix technical team to speed up the correction versions is to create the "bugs pending correction" topic here on this forum, containing an anniversary date and a padlock closed by the mediator. It will take work to add and remove from the list, but it should work because "You only learn by correcting your mistakes"
This 1s media bug transferred from the timeline to the folder, I also covered Magix days ago when I incorporated it and others in response to the "Customer satisfaction survey" I received from them.

@browj2 and @johnebaker Thanks for your suggestions. I'm a bit overwhelmed with the procedural complexity, so I'll probably just continue to use File / Backup Copy / Copy Project and Media Into Folder.

Sorry for the late reply; I was away.