Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by Digital Jedi - 21 Dec 2016 20:58 _____________________________________
I run this from Command Line periodically from inside the main folder where I store all my project files.
attrib +h *.lvix /s
I'm sure there's better ways to do this, but I thought it might be nice if Lightworks just hid the .lvix files by default. I mean, is there a reason we need to know they're there?
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by schrauber - 21 Dec 2016 21:33 _____________________________________ A good idea.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by jwrl - 22 Dec 2016 00:34
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When it comes to cleanup time it would be nice to be able to see them. I prefer software that doesn't hide files all over the place.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by Digital Jedi - 22 Dec 2016 02:14 _____________________________________
Speaking as a Windows user, we have that little check box at the top of Explorer that lets us see hidden files at a glance. Do Mac and Linux have something similar?
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by Jpaulbiss - 22 Dec 2016 09:02 _____________________________________ Digital Jedi wrote:
Speaking as a Windows user, we have that little check box at the top of Explorer that lets us see hidden files at a glance. Do Mac and Linux have something similar?
Linux does View -> show hidden files or Ctrl h
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by Digital Jedi - 25 Dec 2016 15:31 _____________________________________
From what I can tell there's also a quick way to get a Mac to show/hide files, though it requires using Terminal.
Since the files are only a few hundred bytes in size, doesn't seem like you really have to clean these up often enough for it to be a real inconvenience. It'll be months or years before they have any kind of impact on your storage. Sorting by file type, however, is a workflow issue when your assets are different file types. I'd rather not see what I don't need to see, until I need to see it.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by schrauber - 26 Dec 2016 06:50 _____________________________________
Annoying is only the high number of *.lvix-files.
If the contents of all *.lvix-files in the folder were contained in a single file, I would not need any hidden files.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by RWAV - 26 Dec 2016 15:28 _____________________________________
Not my territory - but at least for irritable Windows users - surely one could write a .bat file, to run on every start-up, addressing the windows attrib function to automatically tag all .lvix files as hidden.
I use a utility called Ztree - could easily change all .livx to hidden with that - but personally I agree with jwrl - I prefer software that doesn't hide files all over the place.
schrauber How would that work for shared projects and what would happen on the odd occasion the single file was corrupted.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by jwrl - 26 Dec 2016 19:00
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Avid writes a pair of database files to index all media in each media folder under their control. Since those index files carry data that's also encoded as metadata into the media files they can be readily deleted and automatically rebuilt. In fact this is recommended practice if you need to move media outside of Avid at all.
However when dealing with linked media (AMA media in Avid's terms) it's an entirely different story. They still produce just the same two database files this time in a unique folder. On Windows it's called Avid MediaFilesMXF__bg.1, and only ever has those two database files called msmFMID.pmr and msmMMOB.mdb in it. I've never had to deal with it, but I believe that if those files become lost or corrupted the user has to manually reconnect all of the lost media with the various projects that may require it.
The point about all the above is that there is no one-off, one-size-fits-all solution. A single master database file (or in Avid's case a pair) has shortcomings. Individual index files have shortcomings. Adobe's solution of a network of folders and index files has shortcomings. But they all work 99.995% of the time, and none of those files are hidden from the user. They're not hidden because it's irrelevant whether the user knows that they're there or not.
Let the software handle media management. To assume that you know how to do it better will only lay you open to potential catastrophe. And if the software handles media management you will never need to know or care about any additional files that it may or may not use to perform its magic. I mean, is there a reason we need to know they're there or not?
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by RWAV - 26 Dec 2016 19:23 _____________________________________
--- and the Avid media databases are subject to corruption - so in a shared storage environment - not only does one have to track down if a database is corrupt; each system has is own, then deduce the system which wrote a corrupt database and in effect 'owns' that file - one then needs to delete the corrupt databases and rebuild them, Simple - but if that happens to be an assistant editors workstation responsible for the majority of media files then the rebuild might take several hours - during which time all shared systems lose access to those files. Even a rebuild on an editor's workstation where most of the created media is from operational processes - the database rebuild might take more than an hour.
Of course Interplay does overcome most of that - but at a cost of at very least least tens of thousands and with its own instabilities of such magnitude that I know dedicated Avid storage facilities servicing very high demand clients who cannot take the risk with Interplay.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by Digital Jedi - 27 Dec 2016 15:46 _____________________________________ jwrl wrote:
Let the software handle media management. To assume that you know how to do it better will only lay you open to potential catastrophe. And if the software handles media management you will never need to know or care about any additional files that it may or may not use to perform its magic. I mean, is there a reason we need to know they're there or not?
Well...yeah, actually. But it can depend on the type of project you're working on.
Take, for example, a project that reviews film or television. You may need to source clips of multiple films and shows as you go. Which means importing batches of clips as you go. I drag and drop files from my file folders because it's more efficient and I can dump them directly into a bin, rather than moving them afterwards. But, as is often the case with review videos, your library for one project is going to get larger than you originally anticipated. And there's a definitive workflow delay when trying to visually scan a large collection of clips where every other file is something you don't need. And I have no intention of keeping that library indefinitely. External drives have their limitations, both financially and in storage capacity. I'm probably going to cloud backup my files and delete all the files from that project. But only the sourced clips. So picking and choosing is visually constrained again. That's just one case scenario, but it's unlikely a unique one.
I've worked with a lot of media and coding applications over the years, and they all include some kind of library functionality. Some do a phenomenal job. But I've never run into a situation where you're
completely absolved of regular, manual asset managment.
RWAV wrote:
I use a utility called Ztree - could easily change all .livx to hidden with that - but personally I agree with jwrl - I prefer software that doesn't hide files all over the place.
If I'm going to go so far as to suggest Lightworks hides the files upon creation, I don't feel like I'm going too far as to suggest it also remove the files once you remove the corresponding video from Lightworks. ============================================================================
Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by lghtwrks - 28 Dec 2016 05:05 _____________________________________
an old request was to have index files only created after pressing "import", not sure if that is "fixed" in v14.
greets s
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by lghtwrks - 28 Dec 2016 05:07 _____________________________________ does not seem so.
s
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by Digital Jedi - 29 Dec 2016 17:23 _____________________________________
On the current Beta, at least, if you drag and drop a video or videos into Lightworks, if only creates a .lvix file for that/those videos. Haven't tried that on the stable version before.
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Re: Create .lvix Files as Hidden by Default
Posted by lghtwrks - 30 Dec 2016 05:56 _____________________________________
it's more a about just browsing different locations, not importing anything. greets
s
