Aperture 3: Library Management

Question

Aperture 3: Library Management

I am sorry to ask such a simplistic question, but I am not sure how to do this and did not see a post on the question.

I have my main aperture 3 library. I am going to break the library up to speed performance and make the library smaller (Around 60 GB). I am going to break the library up into things such as Sports, Family, School, etc.

Here is my problem. I export a folder into a new library "school". I do not consolidate files. The new library is created and the file structure is in the new library. The file structure still exists in the old library. I delete the folder structure in the old library and move it to the trash. When I empty the trash all the master files are gone.

How is this done without deleting files?

Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 15, 2010 2:04 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 15, 2010 2:10 PM in response to David Taylor7

You may be better off using Referenced masters. Read up on it. Then use file->relocate masters to move the Raw files outside of the library.

This way your library will be small, and you probably won't need to split it into multiple libraries to gain performance. (I know of people with 300k plus images that have little to no slowdown just by using referenced masters). (And smart project organization).

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Answer 2

Feb 15, 2010 2:32 PM in response to David Taylor7

Here is what I did, as i wanted to "break up" my libraries the same way. Its taking me all weekend but I am getting it done and I am having good luck, knock on wood.

1. I created a new Aperture 3 Library called Sports
2. In finder I right clicked on the Aperture 2 library and selected "Showed package contents"
3. I created the folders in the new Aperture 3 library to equal the stuff I wanted imported. I did not recreate the projects.
4. I dragged and dropped the Aperture 2 project from the finder in the New Aperture 3 library.
5. Waited until it was done.

This did two things for me, it kept my Aperture 2 library intact, and allowed me a clean start.
This also works for dragging and dropping Lightroom2 folders.

So far so good.

Bill Debevc
sshaphotos.com
BokehBrothers.com

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Answer 3

Feb 16, 2010 8:29 AM in response to David Taylor7

Both answers seem interesting.

The first answer, I do not have my master files in the library. They are referenced on an external hard drive. When I created the new library, the files were referenced in the new library, but still in the old library. Deleting them out of the old library deleted all referenced files.

The second answer, I like the project structure so I am not sure if that will handle my process. I have converted to Aperture 3 but I still have my 2 library. I will have to look into that.

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