A better way to move projects between folders ?

The easiest thing you may be able to do to save yourself a lot of aggravation w file management in SONAR is simple
 
When you create a new project you will be giving the option to check a little box that says  
Store Project Audio in It's Own Folder …..
When you check that box what happens is SONAR will create a folder that will contain all your SONARs project assets .
For example lets say you create a new project and you call it SONAR Test …on your hard drive where you have your projects stored / directed to from the SONAR preferences there will be a parent project called SONAR Test , when you open that folder you will see the  CWP file named SONAR Test and you will also see a folder called Audio ….
The folder called Audio contains only the audio that is specific to that project alone (SONAR TEST ) and it is a nice tidy way to keep track of your audio assets ….
btw….when ever you import audio into a project you are working on it is also a good idea to check the box that will say 
Copy audio to project folder …if you are using the Store Project Audio in It's Own Folder option the imported audio will be stored in the Audio folder of the project …..
 
An easy way to clean out your audio folder when using the Store Project Audio in It's Own Folder option is to do a Save As of your project when you have gotten it to a point where you may be happy about your songs progress.
When you do the Save As , the name will come up and at that point you have a number of choices ..
If you Save As and keep the same exact name SONAR will clean out the Audi in your folder that you are not using .
If you do a Save As and us a different name ..example SONAR Test 1.0 it will not clean out your folder of all the extra audio files that you are not using ….
Then you will have a separate CWP file  that you can do edits with if you so choose , and both projects will share the same Audio Folder contained in the Parent Project folder.
 
IMHO , one of those two workflow's will probably work better for you than what you are doing currently . 
 
One of the biggest advantages of doing what I am suggesting is now you can store your projects any place you want 
and you will have all your relavant Per Song audio assets safe in one folder contained within the Parent Project Folder  
If you are getting low  on HD space or if you want to back up your projects you can do it easily and not have to worry about loosing your hard earned work …..
 
Also , I tend to run a separate external HD w my SONAR projects on them …it helps to do that because SONAR runs more efficiently streaming from a different drive than having to read the C drive and run the program  from the C drive at the same time …
 
all the best , 
 
Kenny

I clean out old dangly unused clips from a project, by doing a Save As, and creating a completely new project folder and I ALSO make sure to check the box at the bottom of the Save As dialog that tells Sonar to Copy All Audio - which will copy any REFERENCED audio clips from the project over to the new project's folder - and if you are using Per-Project Audio - which is the default, then the new Project Folder will contain an Audio sub-folder with only the audio clips actually referenced in the project, and then also in that new Project Folder, will be the CWP project file for the project.
 
The above is a great way to clean up individual projects that have a bunch of no longer used audio clips.
 
I NEVER EVER NEVER NEVER let any Sonar project reference any audio from any other folder than the Audio sub-folder created for that specific project by the Per-Project audio option.
 
And, I never have any missing audio or weird orphaned clips or folders.
 
Hope that helps, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Much obliged

Happy to have made a small contribution to this topic that may have made a difference 
 
File managment is a topic that I'm surprised doesn't seem to get much attention on the forum as a valid workflow enhancement . Who knows it may be possible that many folks have already sorted it out for themselves , or it could be that maybe some of the fellas and gals around here haven't hit the brick walls that I have hit . I know , I volunteered , nobody forced me 
 
A while back when I was still new here ,  a lot of SONAR users had me guest on their songs as a Guitarist or as a Bass player …
The common rule of thumb for trading files in this type of collab scenario was to have a file sent as an MP3 or a wave file w the correct tempo data listed . This file was somewhat close to the intended mix and it usually had the current song arrangement so I could dial up a part that could be dropped into the parent project as I sent it.
A few guys would add EQ's and plugs after the fact , yet most of the time they were pretty happy with what i sent them ..
 
What started happening in some of these collabs was the new musical ideas would start taking on a life of their own.
Some folks would actually feel a renewed energy infused on the song that was being worked on because now they had new parts to their songs being contributed on an instrument they were trying to mimic via a synth or they just wanted a different flavor and sound on an instrument they may have even played themselves  …. 
 
What was once " hey K …can you do a lead for me "? Then went to " hey check this out , what you sent me fits nice and I came up with some new ideas , what do you think "? 
A song Idea that may have only been 60 bars has been turned into a song that now has 120 bars with a brand spanking new arrangement 
At the time it made a lot of sense to keep track of the song and create a compatible project environment so I could stay in the loop and contribute ….in some cases I would mute the older version of the song and just add the new revisions to the "step parent project " …
More often than not , I would create a brand new project of the revised song in SONAR to have a clean uncluttered slate to work from …
Do you get where I'm going with this ?
Now all of a sudden I have all sorts of song projects of the same song in various sonic environmental settings and a bunch of totally different arrangements  going on over here ….all this going on Just in SONAR 
 
 
To complicate matters even further , I have always used Samplitude as my audio editor .
What that means is , now I have to create a mix of the original project in Samplitude to be able to edit my guitar / musical contributions that I had played in SONAR  . By doing it this way I will have them in that other musical environment .
My reason for doing it that way is simple  . I happen to prefer an  object orientated workflow that I can control in real time while listening …The mix is there just to have a reference to listen to and make it easy for me to work ….
The musical parts that I am contributing are always on their own tracks for export once the edits are done to my satisfaction …
I may leave a section of the song in the beginning where I'm not playing so the collab mate can line things up if they need too. 
 
FWIW, I have done this plenty of times in SONAR,  it is just not my preferred work flow ….
 
To deviate for a moment ,
I know a lot of guys use Sound Forge as an Audio editor and from what I understand  SONAR can host that program as an Audio editor ….at some point in the future I may have the bread to go there ….
right now I'm OK with using Pro X 2 exactly the way I use it 
 
Now what does all this mean anyway ? In the short term  , it means a file management nightmare that I need to put in check because this type of workflow also involves other musical programs placing files all over the place 
The goal for getting all this file management type of Jazz under control means , I need a sensible way of  including all the assets and rendered files I will want to keep . This is so I can be able to have my work archived in a sensible logical manner….
 
Thats how I wound up going here in the first place and getting this issue "somewhat" together … 
 
For anybody that thinks this way of doing things is a cluster bump , be thankful I didn't go into the file management issues I have to deal with when I collab on a song w myself using 2 different OS's which includes a number of different DAW's on each OS that bring unique strengths of their own to the table ….
 
I'm starting to build up a nice little collection of external Hard drives to keep all this stuff on 
 
Kenny