[T. Payton]

[Aaron Rock] “It reconnected the core media in a new event, unfortunately the footage is still de-linked in the sequence itself. I tried to adjust the XML to read the asset correctly, but no luck. “

Correct. FCPXML will not relink events in a project, just events. Therefore you need to copy your project into a compound clip in your event. Then reimport the event and it will relink the footage in your compound clip timeline.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Sorry for the typos. I hit post instead of preview. It should read:

– Export your event as FCPXML (deselect everything and the select the event). Then Quit FCP.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Aaron – I think I have great news for you. Relinking is possible! It turns out that when importing a FCPXML event (not a project), it will only look at the file name not the ID. Here is the quick procedure.

– You’ll need to move your project to your compound clip in your event. To do so, in your Event, create a new compound clip and paste your entire project timeline into it.
– Export your event as FCPXML. Quick FCP. (deselect everything and the select the event)
– Now open your FCPXML (in TextWrangler for example, free on the Mac App store) and examine the “resources” section and the path to your original files. Ensure your original media are at these locations (this is what FCP X will use to relink the files.)
It will look like this:

-Import the FCPXML and it will create a new event and COPY ALL MEDIA files to the FCP Events folder.

A few caveats, FCPXML does not retain color correction, audio filters, etc. But you still have your original project so you can move the titles, etc. to it. Or you could copy and paste the footage in to a duplicate of your original project timeline.

I know this is not an idea solution, but it will get you back in business.

My recommendation, change your workflow so you copy all your media files to the Final Cut Pro folder until Apple releases the capability to relink files.

– T.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Also give Apple a call about this. Perhaps they can resolve it on the phone.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Bummer.

A few things I would try (which I’m sure you have done some.)

– Export a XML for the event. Then import the xml. Does it relink the footage to the imported event?

– Drag one of the of the media files to your event. Does it relink?

– Choose “Organize Event FIles”. Does that do anything?

– Copy a clip into your original event (replacing the symbolic link, i.e alias. Of course backup the symbolic link first.)

I’m sure this doesn’t help, but we changed our workflow so we always copy to the final cut event folder and we have not had a problem. In fact just today made a modification to a PSD file that was in the original media folder and upon save FCP X updated it throughout the project. It looks like there is defiantly a problem with FCP X and non-managed media.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Just a followup on the large project problem in this thread. https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/21413

I finally made it to my local Apple store to try this on some new 2011 27″ iMacs. The slowdowns were almost identical to my 2006 MacPro (13GB Ram), or my 2007 MacBook Pro (4 GB Ram). However, they all had 4 GB of RAM, but FCP X was only using a little of 1 gig most of the time. One of the employees I was showing this to with was floored at the slow performance, especially when typing text in a title on a somewhat complicated project. I was trying to reassure him that the rest of the app is excellent, it is just the database format that is the problem.

I also mentioned to him that despite the slowdowns, the more efficient workflow in FCP X is actually breaking even in my edit time as compared to FCP 7. I have found several workarounds, and right now FCP X is working really, really well for the projects on my plate.

The fact that the performance on my projects was so bad on the new iMacs actually made me very hopeful. I was thinking that my old MacPro workhorse was needing to be abandoned, but my MacPro isn’t the problem, but rather that database method in FCP X!

I would encourage all of us who like FCP X to give Apple a call or Send Feedback to make the FCP team to let them know how aware we are of the problem we have discussed here and that it is essential that they fix it.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

I’ve been there. I would encourage you now to figure out a workflow and archive strategy for projects moving forward. Here is what we do at our shop:

1-All jobs are assigned a job number and we name events & projects with this job number.

2-Media Archive Drive – (bare sata internal 3.5″ drives using a esata docking station). All media that is shot is dumped on this media archive. We don’t work off of it just dump our footage to it as a backup. Once a drive is full, we increment the number and grab another drive.

3- Work RAID – we store our projects & events on a RAID, copying all files to the FCP Events Folders (we are a small shop so we only have one). We also store “Job Folders” for each project which includes photoshop files, scripts, check movies, After Effects documents and renders, etc.

4- External Edit Drives – (FW800 drives) if we need to edit offsite, or shuttle around a project – we copy and event from our RAID to a shuttle, edit right on the shuttle and transfer back to the RAID for finishing

5 – Project Archives – (bare drives with docking station) once a project is completed and the job is closed, we move it to a our Job Archive Drives until they are full. We make 2 copies of this archive, one we bring offsite, another we keep onsite.

We have a naming convention for each type of folder associated with a project:

Assigned job number and Name –> 11-MBI-102 Promo Video
media archive –> 11-MBI-102_O Promo Video
event –> 11-MBI-102_E Promo Video
project –> 11-MBI-102_P Promo Video
job folder –> 11-MBI-102_D Promo Video

That way when they are dumped onto an archive, and we need to figure out what happened 4 year ago, we can easily find out.

I hope this helps. Bummer you can’t go back in time. 😉

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

[Lawrence Eaton] “Many thanks for the workarounds. Now my poor gray-matter will go into overtime!”

Glad to help. It helps me avoid actual work 😉

[Lawrence Eaton] “The ‘Notes” section will need more prodding and poking to see what it can deliver – but this is the best option, for me, that you suggest, Tim.”

I have used all three options and they all work well. Notes actually very accessible as you can just show the “notes” field in the timeline index. See here:

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Well the Motion files are a tangled mess. FCPXML is a beautiful thing.

Well a beautiful thing with a few missing pieces. 😉

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Nope. Actually FCPX internally does support it (you can see that in a FCPXML file) but you can’t add keywords on the timeline as of 10.0.2. (But be sure to give feedback about it).

However, there are whole bunch of workarounds to make the clips searchable, and thereby selectable as a group via the Timeline Index.

– You could rename the clips in the timeline as a group (in the inspector). Making them searchable.
– You could add a “keyword” to the clip’s Notes field as a group in the inspector.
– You could assign the clips to a role, and then search for that role in the inspector. Again as a group.

So you’ve got a whole bunch of options. Let me know if any of these don’t make sense.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque