import Vegas edl into FCP – ?

[John Rofrano]

> and yes, the project was pretty much all edited in vegas

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for you and a quick Google search turned up lots of posts about FCP blowing up on EDL import with no resolution, but before you drive yourself crazy getting this to work, I thought I would point a few things out. The EDL Export in Vegas only supports the first Video track and Audio track. So if your Vegas project has more than one video and audio track this isn’t going give you what you expect. Also it only supports cuts and cross fades (dissolves). No FX or transitions of any kind will be exported so any color correcting or other processing will be lost.

I just wanted to be sure you knew this so that you don’t spend a lot of time getting it to work only to find that is not what you expected. Good luck.

~jr

https://www.johnrofrano.com/

[Elvir Surkovic]

I had to solve the same problem for my company. The problem is in the EDL file generated by Vegas, which does not fit FCP EDL file expected.
So I developed vb script to correct the EDL file generated by Vegas to fit expected FCP EDL format.
First, export edl as you did, then start this script to make necessary corrections (Tools->Scripting->Run Script).

Save this script text to text file, which must have an .vb extension:

———————————————Script Start———————————————-

Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports System
Imports Sony.Vegas
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Array

Public Module MainModule
Sub Main
        Const fileTag As String = "_BHRT.EDL"           'Change original EDL filename to indicate sucessfull script operation
        Dim openFileDialog1 As New OpenFileDialog()
        Dim inFile As String
        Dim outFile As String

        openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\"
        openFileDialog1.Filter = "edl files (*.edl)|*.edl"
        openFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2
        openFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = True

        'MessageBox.Show("hello world")
        'openFileDialog1.ShowDialog()
        If openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK Then
            inFile = openFileDialog1.FileName
            If Not (inFile Is Nothing) Then
                ' Insert code to read the stream here.
                outFile = inFile.Remove(inFile.Length - 4) + fileTag
                Dim files As FileClass = New FileClass(inFile, outFile, "")
                files.pullLines()
                files.pullClips()
                files.closeFiles()
                My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile(inFile)
            End If
        Else
            Application.Exit()
        End If




End Sub



Public Class FileClass

        Const EDL_Identifier As String = "* FROM CLIP NAME:"    'Do not change this constant
        Const EDL_IdentifierCorrection As String = "  "         'Do not change this constant
        Const EDL_FilesExtension As String = ".MOV"             'Change this constant to your video files extension (.avi,...)
        Const EDL_ReelOld As String = "UNKNOWN"                 'Do not change this constant
        Const EDL_ReelPrefix As String = "FC"                   'Prefix to reel names in EDL list (You can change this constant as you wish)

        Private f1Stream As FileStream      ' file: originalni EDL
        Private f1Reader As StreamReader    ' 
        Private f1Name As String
        Private f2Stream As FileStream      ' file: novi EDL
        Private f2Reader As StreamWriter    '        
        Private f2Name As String
        Private f3Stream As FileStream      ' file: log 
        Private f3Reader As StreamWriter    '        
        Private f3Name As String

        Private linesListArr As String()
        Private linesList_TagArr As String()
        Private linesIndex As Integer = 0
        Private linesEnd As Boolean = False
        Private clipsTmpArr As String()
        Private clipsListArr As String()

        Private linesEDLArr As String()




        Public Sub New(ByVal p1FileName As String, ByVal p2FileName As String, ByVal p3FileName As String)
            f1Name = p1FileName
            f2Name = p2FileName
            f3Name = p3FileName

            Try
                If (p1FileName IsNot Nothing) And (p1FileName <> "") Then
                    f1Stream = New FileStream(f1Name, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
                    f1Reader = New StreamReader(f1Stream)
                End If

                If (p2FileName IsNot Nothing) And (p2FileName <> "") Then
                    f2Stream = New FileStream(f2Name, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write)
                    f2Reader = New StreamWriter(f2Stream)
                End If

                If (p3FileName IsNot Nothing) And (p3FileName <> "") Then
                    f3Stream = New FileStream(f3Name, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write)
                    f3Reader = New StreamWriter(f3Stream)
                End If
            Catch ex As Exception
                MsgBox("File does not exist", MsgBoxStyle.Critical, "Sony Vegas Script")
            End Try



        End Sub

        Public Sub closeFiles()
            f1Reader.Close()
            f1Stream.Close()
            f2Reader.Close()
            f2Stream.Close()
            'f3Reader.Close()
            'f3Stream.Close()
        End Sub

        Public Sub pullLines()
            Dim index As Integer = 0
            ReDim Preserve linesListArr(2000)

            Do Until f1Reader.EndOfStream
                linesListArr(index) = f1Reader.ReadLine()
                index = index + 1
            Loop

            ReDim Preserve linesListArr(index - 1)
            ReDim Preserve linesList_TagArr(index - 1)
            ReDim Preserve linesEDLArr(index - 1)
        End Sub

        Public Sub pullClips()
            Dim i As Integer
            Dim j As Integer = 0
            Dim sPom As String = ""


            ReDim Preserve clipsListArr(0)
            ReDim clipsTmpArr(linesListArr.Length - 1)

            For i = 0 To linesListArr.Length - 1
                If linesListArr(i).Length > 17 Then
                    sPom = linesListArr(i).Substring(0, 17)
                End If

                linesList_TagArr(i) = ""

                If sPom = EDL_Identifier Then
                    clipsTmpArr(j) = linesListArr(i).Substring(18, linesListArr(i).Length - 18)
                    linesList_TagArr(i) = clipsTmpArr(j)
                    j = j + 1
                End If
            Next

            ReDim Preserve clipsTmpArr(j - 1)
            Array.Sort(clipsTmpArr)

            ReDim Preserve clipsListArr(j - 1)
            j = 0
            clipsListArr(0) = clipsTmpArr(0)

            For i = 0 To clipsTmpArr.Length - 1
                If clipsListArr(j) <> clipsTmpArr(i) Then
                    j = j + 1
                    clipsListArr(j) = clipsTmpArr(i)
                End If
            Next
            ReDim Preserve clipsListArr(j)

            createLines_EDL()
            For i = 0 To linesEDLArr.Length - 1
                insLine_EDL(linesEDLArr(i))
            Next

        End Sub

        Public Sub createLines_EDL()
            Dim i As Integer

            linesEDLArr(0) = linesListArr(0)
            linesEDLArr(1) = linesListArr(1)

            For i = 2 To linesListArr.Length - 2 Step 2
                linesEDLArr(i) = linesListArr(i)
                linesEDLArr(i) = linesListArr(i).Replace(EDL_ReelOld, EDL_ReelPrefix + findReel(i + 1))
            Next
            For i = 3 To linesListArr.Length - 1 Step 2
                linesEDLArr(i) = EDL_Identifier + EDL_IdentifierCorrection + linesList_TagArr(i) + EDL_FilesExtension

            Next

        End Sub

        Private Function findReel(ByVal index As Integer) As String
            Dim i As Integer

            For i = 0 To clipsListArr.Length - 1
                If linesList_TagArr(index) = clipsListArr(i) Then
                    Return (i + 1).ToString
                End If
            Next
            Return ""
        End Function


        Public Sub insLine_EDL(ByVal line As String)
            Dim txtLine As String

            txtLine = line
            f2Reader.WriteLine(txtLine)
        End Sub
        Public Sub insLine_comment(ByVal comment As String)
            Dim txtLine As String

            txtLine = comment
            f3Reader.WriteLine(txtLine)
        End Sub

        Public Sub resetIndex()
            linesIndex = 0
        End Sub


        Public ReadOnly Property ProductsList() As String()
            Get
                Return linesListArr
            End Get

        End Property

        Public ReadOnly Property ProductsListIndex() As Integer
            Get
                Return linesIndex
            End Get

        End Property

        Public ReadOnly Property ProductsListEnd() As Boolean
            Get
                Return linesEnd
            End Get

        End Property
End Class

  
End Module

———————————————Script End————————————————

[Angela Anderson]

hi elvir,
i’m wondering if you can walk me through how exactly to use this script in very basic language – i’ve tried to use it recently in vegas, what i did was: export the edl –> then tools-scripting-run script (like you said)
then i got a window that asked me to locate the script, which was saved as .vb (not .vb.txt) but when i would navigate to the file location, it did not show up. it simply wasn’t there. any ideas?

i don’t use a pc, and i have no idea about scripting language. there seem to be places in the script where i’m supposed to change the variables, but that’s just a guess and i don’t really know what to/how to do it.

any advice is very welcome!

[Elvir Surkovic]

hi angela,

You should really have no problems with finding the file through Vegas window.

One of the reasons could be that(in Windows Explorer) Tools->Folder Options->View->Hide Extensions for known files is checked. If it is the case, you cannot see the default extension of txt file.

Go to (Using Windows Explorer):C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 8.0\Script Menu. In that folder you should see some script files with extension .js and .cs. If you cannot see that extension, it means that you have to make that option unchecked.

Also, try to put the file you created in this folder, you should see it in the Tools->Scripting menu. If Vegas is already open, Run Tools->Scripting->Rescan Script Menu Folder, to make it know about your file.

I hope this will help you.

[Andi Nakasone]

Hi Elvir, I have the same problem trying to get my Vegas files succesfully converted to work with FCP. I’m not sure if you’ll get this message or not anymore but I’m trying to get your script to work with Vegas 9.0 but I keep getting this error when I try to run it, it says:

An error occured during execution of the script

System.NotSupportedException: Language not supported.
at Sony.Vegas.ScriptHost.RunScript(Boolean fCompileOnly)

Is there way to fix this by chance?

[Elvir Surkovic]

Hi Andi,
I did not test the code with Vegas ver 9.0, but it should work as well as with older version. I will test the code and let you know about the results.

[Andi Nakasone]

Hi and thanks a lot for replying! Let me know if it works, I’ve never used scripts with vegas before, its possible I might have used it wrong as this is all new to me. But if you can help me with some basic instructions on how to use the script, I will greatly appreciate it!

-Andi

[Andi Nakasone]

Hi Elvir, I hope I’m not bothering you to much with this but by chance has there been any luck with the script so far? Is it possible you can email me the script file and instructions on how to use it to my email at: andi.nakasone@gmail.com

I would greatly appreciate your help with getting my vegas project to work as a FCP project this weekend, so much so that I would be more than happy to pay you a little something for your time, thanks again!

-Andi

[Andi Nakasone]

By any chance has there been any confirmation of success yet? I’m really sorry about troubling you over this, but this information is quite time sensitive to know, and like I said I can reimburse you for any time you spend on the issue if you like.

-Andi

[Elvir Surkovic]

I have sent email to andi.nakasone@gmail.com with attached tool. Please, check your inbox.
You can reach me at: e.surkovic@ieee.org