[SOLVED] X3a is adding another file with .assets file extension when saving projects ?

This is intentional. It's for the Gobbler integration. The .assets tells Gobbler what to sync if you upload your project. It's actually pretty cool. If you delete it SONAR is going to create it again on save, so there's no need.

It's actually a hidden file by default, so it's probably more of an annoyance to you if you've enabled Windows to show hidden files. I'm not sure if it can be disabled, I'll have to check when in the office tomorrow, but I don't think it can. I believe it's part of the save process with X3 in general.
 
You don't keep your project files in their own folders? I personally always work out of folders, so all audio and extra assets are in a single folder. There's no need to worry about clutter if you're moving the global folder around.

If it bugs you turn off show hidden files in Windows :)

Omg it's really bothering you to look at a few 2/3kb files?

Sonar keeps adding this .cwp file every time I save my project....  
 
Uh, Yeesh.

Sorry, but this is really cheezy design.
 
If you must have extra files to keep track of data... why not keep all of the extraneous files in their own 'Assets' folder within the main Project folder... rather than continue to clutter up the main Project folder? It wouldn't bother me in the least to have one extra folder for storing these files within the main Project folder. However, stuffing the main Project folder, especially if you intend to come up with even more junk files to keep track of... is ugly.
 
And I agree with the first poster... makes it ugly to keep track of your Project files. I save projects continually as I'm working with new suffixes. I may save 100 Project files for a single Project in 1 day. Then to add, on top of that... your 100 extra Gobbler files (which is ridiculous, because I'm not EVER going to use it)... is, not only ugly, but irritating. Especially when all it would take is to store those files in their own sub folder.
 
Really... the only beef I have with X3. Otherwise, it's great! Who could've ever imagined you'd start automatically stuffing the Project folder with files I have absolutely no need for (at this point... unless you, indeed, start adding something actually useful to them later on). Just give them their own "Assets" sub-folder.
 
Luckily... I use Directory Opus, which allows me to easily save the fact that I no longer want to view files in Sonar Project folders that have a file extension of '.cwp.assets', so I don't have to look at 'em at all, and it's an immediate fix. Otherwise, this would be extremely irritating.
 
Can't believe there aren't more complaints about this.

I agree they are an annoyance, but there are bigger annoyances that I deal with every time I'm working in Sonar, not just when I happen to be browsing my Projects folders.  An option to completely turn gobbler functionality off would be nice, but not critical by any stretch.
 
Dan

CakeAlexS
Would be nice to have an option to turn off gobbler functionality completely, but I'm not pissing my pants about it right now.

 

dke
I agree they are an annoyance, but there are bigger annoyances that I deal with every time I'm working in Sonar, not just when I happen to be browsing my Projects folders.  An option to completely turn gobbler functionality off would be nice, but not critical by any stretch.
 
Dan

Just don't install Gobbler and it's completely disabled.
 
 

You only have to uninstall if you've gone to their website and downloaded it. It does not install with SONAR. 

Otherwise it'll live in Control Panel > Programs and Features

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]

CakeAlexS
Would be nice to have an option to turn off gobbler functionality completely, but I'm not pissing my pants about it right now.

 

dke
I agree they are an annoyance, but there are bigger annoyances that I deal with every time I'm working in Sonar, not just when I happen to be browsing my Projects folders.  An option to completely turn gobbler functionality off would be nice, but not critical by any stretch.
 
Dan

Just don't install Gobbler and it's completely disabled.
 
 

Well not completely or there wouldn't be 10 .asset files in my current project. :)
 
Dan

Thanks Seth.
 
As someone else mentioned, it would be nice if they were saved in their own folder.
 
Cheers - Cliff

...gotta say this again...
 
It is very cool to see all the CW folks here actively involved in a good topic.
I just learned about things I probably would have been mystified seeing for the first time.
All of it makes sense and the architecture of "going forward" is very sound logic.
 
...Thanks to ALL of You

SuperG
I get the feeling some folks tend to create all of their projects in the root cakewalk projects folder, then wonder why everything is a mess....

Certainly not the case here, and I can't really imagine too many people don't use "Per-Project Folders".
 
The line I'm thinking along is more like ... putting the 'assets' files into their own folder - so instead of;
 
Project Folder\
Project Folder\SONAR Project File.cwp
Project Folder\SONAR Project File.cwp.assets (hidden by default)
Project Folder\Audio Files\*
 
We would have ...
 
Project Folder\
Project Folder\SONAR Project File.cwp
Project Folder\Assets\SONAR Project File.cwp.assets (hidden by default)
Project Folder\Audio Files\*
 
IMHO it would certainly be tidier.
 
Cheers - Cliff

My last 2 cents on this before moving on from this thread.

• When I save a song or even a version of a song - I save it to a new folder.
  When I need to back up or archive that version I back up the whole folder, never bother messing with the contents.
  Don't have to worry about extra files, missing files or screwing up another take/version if I remove a project from my system.
• The file sizes of the .assetts file are small - the ones found on a big project of mine are like 32KB in size. Not like their huge sizes are ruining my backup strategy.
• If we need to move the asset file to a subfolder then shouldn't the autobackups be in a subfolder too?
  MHO is that they're both fine where they are at. I think the layout structure is pretty enough as is.

This discussion was interesting but now I've got more important things to obsess over like did I overdo the panning of the delay at the end of that synth lead or my kids Halloween custom.
 
Peace out / best regards
 
...Steven

I would venture to say there are many more people who are NOT sharing projects than are. So putting them in the main Project folder because of a few that might share their project, while many people have absolutely no need to see them... but DO need to see the various main Project files... still makes no sense. If you know you want to share your file... then you either know or don't know that you also need to send the 'assets' file with it (along with all the audio files, which BTW are not in the same folder as the project, but have to sent). If you're sending someone your Project to work on... your already know you have to send your audio folder file. Why wouldn't it be just as easy to send an 'assets' folder with it?
 
Yes, it's not a huge deal... it's just a very inefficient waste of screen space, and extra files that have to be dealt with at some point... when they are, in fact, pointless to many , if not most, users. However, the Project files themselves are a main function of Sonar.
 
You don't have to do the right thing by giving them their own 'assets' folder. But it's damn sure not efficient, and is ugly and annoying to look at a new, additional, useless, 'assets' file for every single Project Save I do. Why not just stick all the audio and wave picture files in there to? That way they'll all be 'in one, easy to locate place'.
 
And on top of that... you're even saying that the files don't matter... a new one is created again every time you hit Save. If they don't matter, and we only need them for info, why even create them in the first place. If at some point they're needed by someone to share a project... just put an extra menu function to 'Save w/ Assets'.
 
Whomever thought this was a good design idea was... wrong.