Quote Every time I want to revisit a project, I have to do Edit > Preferences > File and change the entries to point to the desired folder BEFORE I load the .pds. Why isn't this info stored in the .pds file itself? As I bounce back and forth frequently between projects, this is a real PITA.

I'll start with this. PD does store the exact location of every clip you use in the PDS file. As long as you haven't changed the location of any object contained in a particular project, PD should be able to load all related content each time you open it up.

You're correct that the default import and export folder locations are set independently from any project. That means that in order to load new content or export to a new folder you manually have to change them (or use the Browse button to look in a new location), but I don't know why you would need to change any of them to simply open up an existing project.

Here's what I mean. Take a look at a regular PDS file in any text (or better, XML) editor and you can see the content locations like this:



On the other hand, if you use Pack Project Materials from PD's File menu, it "flattens" the folder structure and places a local copy of all content in the packed folder. In that case, no location info is saved:



The only way I can think of that you'd manually need to pre-change the import folder location is if you'd used Pack Project Materials when you originally saved the project - but now for some reason the PDS file is no longer located in the same folder as the related content.

Quote Here's what I mean. Take a look at a regular PDS file in any text (or better, XML) editor and you can see the content locations like this:



On the other hand, if you use Pack Project Materials from PD's File menu, it "flattens" the folder structure and places a local copy of all content in the packed folder. In that case, no location info is saved:



The only way I can think of that you'd manually need to pre-change the import folder location is if you'd used Pack Project Materials when you originally saved the project - but now for some reason the PDS file is no longer located in the same folder as the related content.

I understand that PD keeps track of the path. And I want every path in there to be in the project directory (because other directories may not be there the next time I open the project).

That INCLUDES THE CACHE DIRECTORY.

I always edit the file paths before opening the project dir for two reasons:

1) As soon as I open an existing project, PD will start creating cache files in whatever directory it was last in. This is probably a waste of time and resources, as the cache files may already be there - in the PROJECT DIRECTORY for THAT project, where they belong. It also causes problems with cloud-based file systems (like OneDrive) because the "always keep locally" bit may be set differently on the REAL project directory and on the LAST project directory. The cache files don't belong in the previous project's directory. If you do this professionally, do you really want bits of video from one client to be stored in the project directory of another client?

2) Browsing for the target directory on each write only shifts the problem (you still have to navigate to the project dir, albeit with a MUCH better file browser than the one in Edit>Preferences>File) and multiplies the opportunities for error. Now, in the heat of video creation, I have to check the directory each time I save a snapshot. If I'm not careful, I'm going to end up saving a snapshot that belongs to one project in the directory of another. Yes, PD will find it when I reload IF the directory is still there and is available on that machine.


Anyway, I thank you for your answer. So, it seems that people use the tool mostly the way I do (saving project-specific stuff in the project directory), they just remember to navigate to that project when they write anything out.

Tedious and error-prone, IMHO. It seems so much more intuitive to store the default directories in the pds file. That's kind of what a "project" means.

Quote Tedious and error-prone, IMHO. It seems so much more intuitive to store the default directories in the pds file. That's kind of what a "project" means.

PD has always worked like this to my knowledge. I would actually prefer that cached files be stored in a central directory as they're a waste of space and can easily be created on the fly again should they ever be needed again.

I wouldn't want my individual project folders cluttered with them, and PD should actually purge all temp files that are older than 30 days, no matter where they're stored. I typically leave the export folder set to my S: drive root directory and move the produced files to another folder afterwards if needed.

You can certainly ask that the PDS file be changed to keep all the folder pathways on a per-project basis. That makes more intuitive sense than the current format. You can use File | Rate Us & Provide Suggestions to get that feedback to the right people at CL