How to work on PP file efficiently from two seperate workplaces

[Walter Soyka]

Do both drives have the same volume name?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Emmanuelle Antolin]

Hi Walter,

They don’t have the same name and also have different info on the drives besides the folder for the film which has the same name and internal file structure.

Thank you !

Emmanuelle Antolin
Film & Video Director / Editor
☎ 415.786.0804

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[Walter Soyka]

It’s ok if there are other things on the drives (outside of your project’s folder; keeping that clean lets you sync media more easily across systems if you must).

However, if the volume names are different, nothing will automatically relink. I’d suggest you rename one volume to match the other and see if that addresses your issue.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Greg Janza]

if both drives had the same name and file paths then the re-linking would be simple and quick.

If that’s not possible there’s another way to avoid manual re-linking but it’s a bit of a pain. I stumbled onto this solution on another forum.

Here’s what was posted:

I had to deal with the same issue before and did the following. If you open the project file in a text editor (e.g. notepad), you’ll notice that it’s nothing but an XML file with hardcoded file paths for your media. I simply run a “search and replace all” text command to replace the old file paths with new file paths.

For example:

If currently you have assets on M:\Assets, the project file will have entries such as M:\Assets\Clip1.avi and M:\Assets\CLip2.avi, etc.
If after you move to another computer your assets are on X:\Assets, you can run a search and replace all command to replace “M:\Assets” with “X:\Assets”.

I would probably first backup the project file in case you mess up something. This search and replace is especially useful if you have tons of project files on a backup drive and few years later you plug it in to work on the project and the external drive now shows up under different drive letter. You can then use a third party tool (not sure if windows does it, I use Utlraedit) to do the “search and replace all” command in all project files on the harddrive.

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[Walter Soyka]

An extra step is required for newer .prproj files. For the last several major versions, .prproj files are gzipped XML files, so they must be decompressed before editing and recompressed afterwards.

I actually wrote a utility a while back that handled mass file relinking, but the idea of manipulating the project file directly was a bit too scary for me to consider releasing it. I was always worried that I’d wreck something that wouldn’t be immediately noticeable.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Greg Janza]

[Walter Soyka] “An extra step is required for newer .prproj files. For the last several major versions, .prproj files are gzipped XML files, so they must be decompressed before editing and recompressed afterwards.”

thanks walter, I forgot about that essential step.

I Hate Television. I Hate It As Much As Peanuts. But I Can’t Stop Eating Peanuts.
– Orson Welles