long project file opening times

. . . usually gets to around 49% pretty quickly then hangs for a while, up to 5-6 minutes on occasion. cutting in prores422, sequence is only 17-18minutes long, 20 layers of audio, peaking 4 or 5 of lines of video in places . . . . any thoughts? the project file size is relatively small, working off a 1tb graid external . . .

OC

...not enough free space on the Hard Disk and/or corrupt file.

I had this exact issue last week but on a very fast RAID array but they had filled it to over 96% full!!!



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cheers - will back up immediately

OC

Hi Ben - but then also, when opening it up on it's own with no other project files open - it opens up just fine, and there is a whole 1tb left on the 2tb drive too . . .

OC

Hmm 50% free is good (big thumbs up) but you said you are "working off a 1tb graid external" yet you have a whole 1TB free? What size is the G-RAID?

Could then be lack of RAM - how much do you have?

In fact just to be sure can you jot down all your hardware/software system details the version of FCP and QT and ProKit (if you know it).

If you find it is the only project that loads slowly but on its own it's is fine; then I suggest you load that project first and load the other projects afterward



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Hi Ben,

I work a few feet away from Mr Cox and can vouch for the amount of drive space that there is on the drives he is using and there is plenty of from, over 50% free give or take a smidgen.

But this has been an issue over the last few months on and off. We get 3/4 of the way through a project and it'll take 5,10 maybe even 20minutes to open a project file. File sizes may get up to 30-40mb but not much more.

Copy and Pasting timelines also becomes risky as it can lead to FCP locking up completely.

System wise Cox is running: fcp 6.0.6 on 10.6.4 with 12gig of Ram and hasn't updated to the Last ProKit update that ruined things for a lot of people. The Machine is a 8 core MacPro from last year.

I updated to 10.6.6 and also run fcp 6.0.6 and found the copy and paste problem is a bit better but project opening times are still bad. I have the same set up as Mr Cox but a 12 core Mac Pro bought in December.

We use either 2 or 4 TB drives for each project, working in ProRes 422 and use footage shot on the 5D.

Hope this info helps......

Hey Chris

Open Activity Monitor and see if there are any processes that are hanging - on the suite I was using yesterday on Leopard there was a lot of compressor and coreaudio plugins hanging and slowing or crashing the system/apps.

Do a full system clean. Check/Validate your fonts. Get Onyx and clean all your caches, etc.

A list of things to do: [onsoftware.en.softonic.com]

Also if cutting/paste timelines is not working - duplicate the project in Finder - Rename it - open it and delete all the media/timelines that you don't need and save the new slimline project.

Might still be some media issues as a corrupt audio file I had on FCP 6 used to cause similar issues.

Also run DiskWarrior [www.alsoft.com] on the G-RAIDs (in fact all your Media Drives) and repair the Directory - I would guess you have some corrupt files and a bad directory regardless of this issue.

Any reason you aren't using FCP 7?



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As much as we'd happily upgrade to FCP 7 it's not for us to decide and purchase, i did wonder if it is a 32bit/64bit issue. All the usual maintenance has been done but i'll take a look at onyx. We even run an File system check in unix after big updates or if things get really buggy, as well as PRAM and SMU resets.
Disk Warrior is also done regularly (just to check) and our directories are tidier than our desks.....

In activity monitor whenever FCP grinds to a halt during copy/paste, open/close procedures it shows up as 'Not Responding'

Its odd though as we progress through our 90 minute projects that the first 40/60 minutes all is quick and snappy then after this we start to get the issues.


"on the suite I was using yesterday on Leopard there was a lot of compressor and coreaudio plugins hanging and slowing or crashing the system/apps. "

I used to see this too on my old quad station running Leopard and was told that it could possibly be that the plugins were "too busy to report back properly" hence the not responding status. Don't know how true that was but it was from out official mac support guy at solutions-inc.

Cheers for reply ben hope this other info helps shed more light..... am off to download Onyx.....

Quote

Its odd though as we progress through our 90 minute projects that the first 40/60 minutes all is quick and snappy then after this we start to get the issues.

I'm slightly confused guys - are you experiencing the hangs on opening or on the actual timeline?

If you are calculating the percentage as what part of the FCP project is loading I wouldn't rely on that.

Another thing to try would be Jon's FCP Maintenance Pack - [www.digitalrebellion.com]

This is another "must have" tool (well suite of tools) that any facility running FCP should have anyway.

If it is hanging at the same point each time I would guess it is a corrupt file or possibly that sector of the G-RAID HDD might be on its way out.

Does the FCP project hang on every Mac you test it on in the same place? That would indicate an issue with the files/HDD. If not, then maybe the System needs reinstalling (last resort).

Hopefully something I've mentioned might help!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

"Its odd though as we progress through our 90 minute projects that the first 40/60 minutes all is quick and snappy then after this we start to get the issues"

sorry i should have explained this better, we have a 90 minute feature divided into 5 scenes which equate to 5 project files. when we get to the third, fourth and fifth this is when we have trouble opening up the project files across the board. files 1 and 2 which were fine may start to take a while to load also.

We use a new HD for every project and disk warrior check them prior to use and during with no reported problems.

As for the Corrupt media- it had crossed my mind, but both machines experience it at roughly the same stages and we are working on different projects. How likely is it that over the last 2-3 of our projects, could it be that we are hitting corrupt media in the last third of our work? unlikely, especially as sometimes scene 4 and 2 might be switched so we work on sc4 before cutting the second.

forgot to say thansk for the recommedation for the maintenance pack, also looking to superdruper to clone my (albeit faulty system) before doing too much. cheers again ben...

"the project file size is relatively small"

for the record, what is the project size?
are he slow opening projects lager than the rapid opening ones?


nick