Changing project 'parent folder' name = Problem

will-3 wrote on 7/5/2008, 6:35 AM

4 questions at end but first the problem...

I've got a project with a bunch of clips on an external USB hard disk... all the clips and files are in...

E: \ video \ projects \ abcd \ clips \ movie.veg

When I change the folder named 'abcd' to 'xyz'

and try and open movie.veg and Vegas tells me...

"An error has occured - The reason for the error could not be determined" and some of the clips are displayed as blank.... & no path or file name in properties for the blank clips either.

(Actually I changed the folder name because it was long and complicated (not abcd as in this example) and it seems I have been unable to rename it to its original name... so I can't get the project to work.)

1 - All the clips and assets are in the folder named "clips" so I'm unsure why Vegas seems confused here.? (Vegas 5)
2 - How can I fix it?
3 - How can I avoid this in the future (has happend before)
4 - Is there a tool to view and edit the .veg file?

Thanks for any help.

PS This is not a case where Vegas pops up the window advising that it can't find the clips... and ask...

- ignore this missing file
- ignore all missing files
- click here and navigate to the missing file
etc

Vegas just advises it is unsure of the problem.

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/5/2008, 6:38 AM

strange, i've renamed folders, moved them around, etc. & i always get the "where are the files" dialog. sounds more like there's an issue with the .veg file. try a backup & see what it does?

rmack350 wrote on 7/5/2008, 10:06 AM

I know of no way to effectively edit a veg file-except of course in Vegas. Not much you can do with a text or hex editor, afaik.

The way to fix it ought to be to restore the original folder name, but perhaps if you've opened the veg, experienced the error, and saved the veg then you've also saved the error, so to speak.

Normally Vegas tries to find the media if it's missing, and if it's in the same or sub folders Vegas does this easily. I don't think this is an issue with the media. Perhaps it's an issue with the characters in the new folder name? a semi-illegal character? (Windows normally stops you from doing this but maybe there's a legal character that Vegas doesn't like?) Also, there's a limit in XP to the length of a total path. It's long - like 256 or 512 characters - but not unlimited. This would certainly amount to an unexpected error for Vegas.

<time passes> Ah, I see you're saying that the folder name was long and complicated. Fits with my path length guess. Try copying you project and assets to a folder that's closer to the root of the drive.

Rob

pmooney wrote on 7/5/2008, 11:14 AM

This error seems to stem from trying to open the Vegas file from within the program (using the file-open menu). If you just open the vagas file from within the renamed folder (double clcik on the veg file, you won't get that error and the file will open and go through the process of re-identifying moved/renamed files).

rmack350 wrote on 7/5/2008, 11:22 AM

That's a possibility too, but it seemed less likely that he could do that over and over. Also, in his other post on the same topic he mentions that folder names are long. I've run up against this in web sites I've worked on with others. Total path length has a limit.

Rob Mack

Christian de Godzinsky wrote on 7/5/2008, 1:16 PM

Hi,

Just as a warning (might not be the cause for your touble), Vegas has some problems when handling filenames using characters other than ASCII, using the English version ofWindows but with another keyboard language (layout) selected! Ripple editing the timeline containing files with such characters as å, ö and ä, will cause fatal errors (in Europe), where we use such characters. Make sure that you have no "alien characters in your file names or directory pathes.

DVDA (yes -even the just published version 5) halts with a fatal error - if you try to replace some picture files that contain scandinavian characters in the file names.

This implies that there is something spooky in how Vegas handles or sorts files containing non-ascii characters, in mixed language systems. At least I can repeat these problems using the following combination Enlish Windows XP, Engish Vegas Pro, Swedish keyboard layout (and sort order).

Again, might not be the solution for your problem, but make sure that you use "clean" file names and file paths, stick just to plain valid ASCII charaters. Better to be safe than sorry. It seems that Vegas and DVDA never were tested properly is such mix-language setups.

Christian

Steve Mann wrote on 7/6/2008, 10:15 PM

Is the USB drive FAT32 of WinFS?

If it is FAT32, then it does not like long names. Windows hides the short filename from the user, so you may have made an indecipherable path name.

Contrary to popular thought, it is possible to edit the veg file using a hex editor. When changing filespecs, you must not change the size of the text string. Also, note that the files can be listed in the veg file more than once. Try recreating the filespec on your C drive and copy the files to it, then binary edit the veg file to change E: to C:.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/7/2008, 5:26 AM

in DOS use the "/x" command like option to list the short file names. IE

"dir /x" lists the short files names & the long ones.Specifying the short filenames is just the same as using the long ones in windows.

lynn1102 wrote on 7/7/2008, 5:57 PM

If clicking on the veg file itself loads the file, rename and save it before anything else. In trying to restore the original name, you could be mis-spelling or changing something.
How about a computer restore? The should get you back to the original name. Then load it and save it with a different name.

Lynn