Project and Media Management > Archiving > Saving to an Archive > 
Archiving Entries
 
 
 

Autodesk recommends archiving directly from a clip library. It allows you to organize your library entries in a clip library in advance. You can also archive from the desktop, but this method gives you less control over the organization of your entries before they are archived.

You can archive entries from any local or shared clip library.

When you save from a clip library, there are two methods for organizing the entries: Normal and Compact. Both methods perform some optimization to save space in the archive. The Compact method creates a backup set, which acts like a container that holds the archived material. It appears in the archive as an entry called Backup Set, and all selected entries are within it. Each time you use Compact, a new backup set is created. When entries are archived using the Normal option, the entries appear directly in the archive.

Normal Archives

With Normal archives, if a frame appears more than once in a source clip, the frame is archived only once. This saves space on the archive and is most noticeable if your clips contain many still shots.

NoteIf the same frame appears in two source clips, the frame will be archived twice.

In a Normal archive, each source clip is archived individually, making restoring individual clips easier and faster and ensuring that frames are output to tape in play order. This makes clips viewable on a VTR archive.

Compact Archives

Compact archives optimize archiving. If a frame appears more than once in any clip being archived, the frame is archived only once. No image data for duplicate frames is archived. This saves a significant amount of space on the archive if your clips contain a lot of duplicate frames.

When you create a Compact archive, the archived material is stored in a backup set. You can expand the backup set in the archive library to view and select the clips. You can restore selected clips from a Compact backup set without having to restore the entire archive.

Compact archives are the recommended archive type for Autodesk Smoke and Backdraft Conform projects since they are usually archived as a whole.

NoteWhen you open an archive, all entries appear exactly as they did when you selected them, even if entire clips were composed of duplicate frames and not archived. The optimization occurs on the tape, and references to all original clips are kept so that the clips can be restored.

To archive entries from a clip library:

  1. Open the archive. See Opening an Archive.
  2. Enable Include Audio if you want audio data to be archived with the clips.

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    NoteIf you disable the Include Audio button when archiving, the audio track information and audio data will be lost when you restore the clips.
  3. The Archive Information displays the percentage of space used on the medium and how much space is available for archiving, in both megabytes and frames.

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    (a) Percentage of space used  (b) Available space in MB  (c) Available space in frames  (d) Resolution box  (e) Bit Depth box  

  4. If needed, change the resolution, bit depth, or both to see how many frames of the specified dimensions can be archived.
    NoteWhen archiving to a VTR, you can only archive clips of the resolution supported by the VTR, therefore the Resolution box is greyed out and displays the resolution of the currently selected VTR.
  5. Click Save From Library.

    The current clip library appears.

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    (a) Clip Library box  (b) Backup Set box  (c) Archiving Mode box  (d) Save button  (e) Save & Close button  (f) Entry Type box  

  6. From the Clip Library box, select the required clip library.
  7. From the Backup Set box, select the backup set.
    Select: To:
    Compact Maintain a highly organized archive and save space on the device.
    Normal Archive without using a backup set. Entries are archived directly to the table of contents. Source clips remain in play order on tape.
  8. If archiving soft-imported clips, select the archiving mode from the Archiving Mode box.
    Select: To:
    Stone Write the clip to the framestore and archive the content of the media file.
    Linked Archive only the path to the media file.
  9. From the Entry Type box, select the entries that you want to archive.
    Select: To archive:
    Project + Shared Project Desktop, setup directory, clip libraries, shared clip libraries, and metadata
    Project Project Desktop, setup directory, clip libraries, and metadata
    Project Libraries Current project clip libraries
    Project Libraries + Shared Current project clip libraries and imported (shared) clip libraries
    Project Libraries Current project clip libraries
    Selection Selected entries
  10. Do one of the following:
    • ClickSave if you want to add additional items to the archive. You are returned to the desktop. Follow steps 5 to 10. When finished, click Close.
    • Click Save & Close to archive selected entries and close the archive immediately.

Additional Optimization

Both Normal and Compact archives add a second level of optimization by saving only one copy of clips. If a clip appears more than once in the archive, the clip is archived only once. Also, if you append to an archive and a clip already exists in the archive, the clip is not added to the archive—that is, no image data for the duplicate clip is archived.