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Sharing projects on one workstation
I’ve set up both of our MacPro FCP suites with multiple users (each one an admin).
I have the Shared folder (Mac HD/Users/Shared) set up as a Shared folder to which everyone can read & write. That’s where I’ve stored all of our FCP project files. (All Media is on our SATA RAID. I’ve always assumed that media and project files need to be in separate locations…)
So we open and save projects in the “Shared” folder, each of us under different user accounts. Unfortunately, every time someone creates a new file or folder inside the Shared folder, it is read-only by default for the rest of us. So Auto-save doesn’t work, and neither does saving manually. You have to Save-As, then alter permissions, then rename the file to overwrite the old one, which doesn’t always work.
(I’ve changed the permissions for the Shared folder in the Get Info window and clicked “Apply to enclosed items”, but I’d rather not have to do this every time someone starts a new project or modifies a folder.)
So…what’s the best solution here? I’d like to keep the separate user accounts if possible. Should we store the FCP projects on the RAID (it is RAID 5, so that would offer a small increase in security…)
Any ideas?
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
3 Replies
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If you haven’t already, invest in a secondary internal and store your project files there. That drive will be accessible to all user accounts on the machine equally.
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Whoa. Why didn’t I think of that?
Am I right in assuming FCP project files are better off on a separate drive from media? (I’ve always done it this way, but I forget why… or if I ever had a reason…)
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
It’s a pretty good rule of thumb. But, depending on your specific situation, it may be better to keep your projects on the same drive as their media, and have your Autosave Vault on your secondary internal. Basically you need to have some way of getting back your original should a problem occur. If your Autosave Vault, in my experience, is on your boot drive and you are working with larger FCP project files- say larger than 50MB- then you are more prone to crashes and erratic FCP behavior.
Also, it’s a good idea, if you have the drives, to render to a drive that isn’t your media drive, preferably your fastest non-boot drive-available. It will speed renders up some if you’re not writing to the drive you’re reading from.
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