Creating a library

A library is one folder for one shoot. You make one from the launch screen, and nothing is created on disk until the wizard's last step. This page walks the three steps; the import that follows has its own page.

Opening the wizard

On the launch screen's right-hand column, under New library, press Choose location…, or Start from the detected card · NAME when a card is in the Mac, which opens the same wizard with the card already chosen as the source. The wizard is a sheet of three steps. Its footer has a note on the left that changes with the step, and at the right Cancel (step 1) or Back, then Continue or, on step 3, Create library.

Step 1 of 3 — New library

Choose where the library lives and what to call it. It holds the catalog, every decision, and a verified copy of the photographs.

1. Type a name under LIBRARY NAME. The field asks What is this shoot called?
2. Press Choose folder… and choose the folder the library's own folder is created inside. The row then shows the full path the library will have, and the free space on that drive. The footer's note reads Choose a folder and a name until both are there, then shows the planned path.

A box under the folder states the one rule every library follows: Photographs are copied into the library — Verified by checksum at each destination before the card is ever called safe to format. The library keeps working when the card is gone. There is no option to leave photographs where they are: every library holds its own copy, and so does every card you add to it later (Adding a card to a library you already have).

Add a second destination is off to begin with, and its row says why you might want it: Off — needed for "safe to format". Turn it on and a second Choose folder… appears for a second copy of every photograph, ideally on a different drive. If the folder you choose looks like it is on the same drive as the library, the wizard says so: This folder looks like it's on the same drive as the library itself — a copy there can never count as independent. You can still continue; choose a folder on another drive when you want the card to read as safe to format.

In Vixlo 0.1

The wizard lets you carry on, but the import then cannot start: the folder goes on as the backup, Start import stays dimmed while both copies are on the same drive, and the review can change the backup but not clear it. Before you leave this step, choose a folder on another drive or turn Add a second destination off. Already on the review? Press Choose… beside Backup — a separate drive and choose a folder on another drive.

Continue stays dimmed until a name and a folder are chosen, and until the second destination has a folder if you turned it on.

Step 2 of 3 — Choose the source

Vixlo reads the source before copying anything, and never deletes from a card during import.

Every card or removable drive that was in the Mac when the launch screen was drawn is listed as Card · NAME, with the folder Vixlo will read. Choose a folder… takes Any folder of photographs on disk, and is the way to a card put in after the launch screen was drawn. Choose one and Vixlo reads it at once, Reading the source…, then shows three counts: new, already imported and duplicates held back. They are exact counts of files, so a RAW+JPEG pair counts as two. The rest of the card is listed too, by name only (What counts as the card). The footer says the source is only read while you choose and nothing is copied until the next step once the numbers are up.

Continue needs a finished scan.

Step 3 of 3 — Rules for this library

Three of these are fixed by design. The fourth is yours to set, and can be changed for this library at any time.

The one choice, under REJECTED FRAMES, is what happens to the bin when you finish the cull:

Option	What it means
Keep the bin until I empty it myself	Nothing is ever deleted without an explicit Empty bin. Rejects stay restorable indefinitely.
Ask when I finalise the cull	A counted confirmation offers to empty the bin at handoff. Declining keeps every frame.
Empty the bin automatically when I finalise	On handoff, binned frames are deleted from the library folder without asking again.

The wizard starts on the rule the launch screen's Library rules sets, Ask when I finalise the cull until you change it.

In Vixlo 0.1

The rule is shown but not acted on: whichever you choose, nothing empties the bin by itself and nothing asks to. It shows only until you close the library, in the Bin rule… row of the ⋯ menu and in the Hand off dialog; every library opened after that starts at ask when finalising. Frames are deleted only when you choose Empty bin… and confirm the count (Library rules).

Under the choice, three rules marked ALWAYS: Originals are never modified, Photographs render with metadata applied, and Export builds new files from metadata.

Create library

Create library makes the library's folder, with its database and its Originals, Trash and Exports subfolders, and registers it on the launch screen. It copies no photograph yet. The sheet changes at once into the import review, with the scan carried across: see Importing from a card or a folder.

Leaving before the import is done

Until Create library nothing is on disk, so any way out leaves nothing behind: Cancel on step 1, or Esc on any step. Back on steps 2 and 3 only returns to the step before.

After Create library there is a library on disk, so each way out asks one question: does its Originals folder hold anything? The ways out are Cancel on the review, Close on the last panel or on Couldn't scan that source, and Esc, which also stops a copy in progress at the next file.

• Originals is still empty, which it is until you press Start import. Vixlo forgets the library: it leaves the launch screen, and its folder is removed if it holds only what Vixlo laid down. A folder with anything else in it is never touched.
• Originals holds something. Start import puts a small hidden file there before it copies the first photograph, and a cancelled run keeps it. From then on the library stays, with its copies untouched. Leaving does not add them to its catalog, so its row reads No photographs yet, and Rebuild the index… on the row reads them in (Continue to culling, and Close).

The New library card has the rule in full.

Related

• Importing from a card or a folder
• The launch screen
• Your first pass