Can I delete my optical flow analysis files?

You can delete render files anytime you'd like. I suggest doing it inside FCP X and not at the Finder level.

You can delete Project render files and Event render files.

Hmm . . .

I occasionally unceremoniously rip out my render files with finder. I have not noticed any ill effects, apart from obviously being patient while FCP X gets over the shock.

I've always been of the opinion that purging the render files, not only frees up space, it can sometimes clear out possibly corrupt render files and make things run smoother.

(I have no technical expertise to back this statement, but it seems to work for me - and has never ended in a bad experience of any kind).

Andy

(PS - Pass me that snake oil).

I should have added that if you have slow motion clips, removing the render files for those, will mean that FCP X needs to render again.

I have read that FCP X deletes redundant render files but bearing in mind what a complete mess the application made of recognising people when it imported some footage in my early days with it (it was somtimes quite determined that a bridge or a building was a person) - (is my photography that bad?) I find that slightly worrying, let alone hard to believe (that it would remove redundant renders reliably).

Lastly, your projects and events should be on an external drive and definitely not on your system drive. Apple chose the default as the Movies folder, presumably to accommodate those who do not have external drives, but I would have thought they could hve made it clear that this is not recommended.

Andy

Render files are quite different from content analysis. Render files are based on where the content that needs to be rendered is in the project and what's been done in the project. Change and effect and it has to re-render. The previous render is held in the undo queue, but dump when the application is quit. Only what's necessary to build the project is retained. If you trash the render files, the application just rebuilds them. At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

Thanks Tom,

Are the Analysis files in the render folder, or do they reside elswhere?

Andy

They are in a separate folder.

BTW, in FCP X, you have choices in the File menu to delete all render files for a given Event or Project, or just delete the older, unused render files, a really nice option.

I tested deleting Analysis Files folder, including the Optical Flow folder in an Event, and it didn't seem to both FCP X. But, in some cases it maybe could.

Analysis files are tiny, Optical Flow files can be several hundred MB.