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convert projects to folders

Folks

I have just moved from Aperture 2.1.4 to Aperture 3.1.3 and am strugggling to get a similar structure to my managed library

Prevously in Aperture 2, I had a Project down structure:

Folder - Image Type (RAW, JPEG etc.)

Project - Year

Folder - Month

Album - Day

The above was achieved by dragging folders of images in from a similarly structured Finder window.

See screenshot here:

http://www.fourplusfour.com/old

In Aperture 3 it is virtually impossible to achieve this structure while dragging and dropping folders, so I may need to resort to Project at the bottom structure:

Folder - Image Type (RAW, JPEG etc.)

Folder - Year

Folder - Month

Project - Day

See screenshot here:

http://www.fourplusfour.com/new

However - and this is where I need help!

Having 2 different layouts in the same Aperture library will drive me nuts - so:

How can I convert my old structure to a new structure with minimal effort?

Or any other ideas as to how to get consistency 🙂

I fully understand that the Finder is a file structure and Aperture is an Image structure etc. etc. etc. - I just want consistency within Aperture

Best regards

Brian

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Sep 11, 2011 2:04 PM

Best reply

Kirby Krieger

Level 6

12,592 points

Posted on Sep 11, 2011 3:21 PM

Hi Brian. I know you've thought this through, and so I'm curious: what advantages does having a permanent, massive structure like you want bring you that simply (as an example) using Photos view, which can be easily sorted by date and easily filtered to any date, dates, or range of dates, does not? It seems that what you are after is to sort by date-time (completely hard-wired into Aperture at the Image level, and available everywhere) and group by individual date (easily done using Filters). My thinking -- for myself, but you seem similarly interested in organization -- was that such a set-up is costly to create, cumbersome to navigate, and hard to confirm, while adding nothing at all to the out-of-the-box utility that comes with Aperture. Projects, and Projects View, combined with the whole "build-your-own-Library structure", hands you the tools to create an organizational structure that complements the built-in "by date" function, rather than mimic it. My encouragement is that you, at least, look into take advantage of this. In short, Aperture automatically creates a date-time index, and makes is frictionless to find any Images by date. Why spend so much time and effort duplicating what already exists -- and committing a terrific set of tools to a task that is already capably handled? My question is not rhetorical: I'm interested in how users use Aperture.

(Note, too, that you can with a couple of clicks immediately show/hide Images by the file format of their Masters.)

So thanks for thinking about it -- and, if you respond, for sharing your thoughts.

I will think on your request (making "4x4_old" into "4x4_new") and get back to you if I come up with anything.

View in context

21 replies

Jul 30, 2013 11:26 PM in response to jacobsuperman

I am also having a problem that the script is making the AppleScript Editor hang so I posted a second follow-up question in the AppleScript forum: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5205806 please tell me if my posts are getting off topic and I can open a new thread or move forums.

Jul 31, 2013 6:07 AM in response to jacobsuperman

Is the error happening with the script that prepares a library and sets up the initial structure RunProjectTime.scrpt or with the script installed as the Import Action Script, ImportProjectTime.scrpt?

Jul 31, 2013 7:19 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

RunProjectTime.scrpt

Jul 31, 2013 7:34 AM in response to jacobsuperman

Haven't a lot of time to spend on this now. As the script seems to work for most and given the error you reported I'd suggest trying a library permission repair and library repair.

Start Aperture while holding the option and command keys down. Do the permissions first then close Aperture and restart with the keys held down and do the repair.

Then try the script again.

Sorry I don;t have more for you at this time. Let me know what happens.

regards

adayzdone

Level 2

150 points

Jul 31, 2013 8:05 AM in response to jacobsuperman

Here is a similar script I wrote a while ago... Rename and File Aperture Projects by Date

Aug 27, 2013 6:42 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hi Frank.

I'm trying everything I can to make your apple script work because I love the idea. Alas, after putting all my (40k) photos into one big project, repairing and repairing and rebuilding my library as you suggested and running the script, I get this error,

error "Aperture got an error: Can’t get EXIF tag \"ImageDate\" of image version id \"iUmqnr+9Tg2TyAWA5zQOyw\" of library id \"LibraryFolder\"." number -1728 from EXIF tag "ImageDate" of image version id "iUmqnr+9Tg2TyAWA5zQOyw" of library id "LibraryFolder"

When I opened up aperture after this error I noticed a number of projects have been created (I see them when I click the 'projects' icon, but none of them appear anywhere in the sidebar. FWIW, before repairing my permissions, I was getting the script to run for a few moments before it would hang. The result then was a list of folders and new projects in the sidebar, but only a few photos had been transferred.

Being an apple script newbie I don't know where to begin to make this work. Any help is appreciated! thank you

OS 10.8.4

Aperture 3.4.5

convert projects to folders