FR - Auto-find missing source files

[Lunch Money]

OK,

There's a bug I discovered in T2 PC version (and I assume Mac, but I can't check) that I'm amazed nobody has come across before (don't worry, it's been reported). When importing an edit that contains duplicates of files that are already in your directory, you get the option to overwrite the old one, or replace with the new one.

This works fine, and your actual directory is clean as a whistle.

However, in your project list, you get duplicates! So suddenly you have:

Guitar Solo
Guitar Solo
Guitar Solo take 2
Guitar Solo take 2

listed, even though the actual Windows directory only contains "Guitar Solo.wav" and "Guitar Solo take 2.wav".

Now, let me backtrack for a second-- it's not necessarily a bug so much as a poorly-implemented piece of code. Think of the "Project List Items" as just shortcuts. Since you've imported 2 separate edits, Tracktion is just blindly setting 2 separate shortcuts, even if they have the same name. I'm quite certain that this could be modified and improved.

Moving on to the FR:

The whole reason for doing this was to keep my project clean. So I went and I manually removed the offending duplicate items (just the items, not the source files!); however, this screwed up Tracktion's system of "shortcuts" and I had to manually re-assign a bunch of "file missing" clips to the right source files.

It seems to me that when you open an edit, and your clip WANTED to find "Guitar Solo.wav", it should be able to notice, "Oh yeah, there's Guitar Solo.wav" anyhow, no? It should be transparent and automatic. Now, even then, if you MUST manually select "find missing source file", shouldn't it at least hilight the name of the correct source file when the Explorer window pops up?

I'm not a programmer, but I suspect that these 'shortcuts' are a system of pointers rather than references to the actual file name. The edit clip points to the Project list clip, which should THEN tell it what file is needed.

----

Thinking aloud:

Let's say the first occurrence of "Guitar Solo" has an invisible internal ID of "00315". So when I go to the edit page, my guitar solo edit clip asks Project Page, "Hey! 00315! What file do I need???"

If I've deleted it, the edit clip goes "Hey! WTF? Where did 00315 go??? Great, now I don't know which file I need" and the user is left to fend for himself manually, in what can sometimes be a HUGE directory and a bunch of poorly-named files.

Wouldn't it be better if when you import the new edit, it says, "OK, I found that this is a duplicate file. Should we replace?" And then when you say "yes", it goes... "OK, now the 'Guitar Solo' Project List item should now respond not only to calls for 00315, but also for this new one, 00316".

Problem solved, no?

Greg

[Lunch Money]

Conversely, the filename could be embedded in the edit clip, which would make 'trkedit' files marginally bigger, but not crushingly so. I mean, 200k... 210k... it's worth it, no?

Greg