Clearing out vaults - something kendall said - clarification?

Question

kendall -
in an earlier post you outlined instructions for removing projects from the library in a way that leaves thumbnails still accessible. (pasted, below) i just had one question about that method:
you say to open the library with Show Package Contents, and then to open the project i want to remove in the same way. i'm with you so far in that regard. but THEN you say "create a smart album looking for all image types - and remove them. You are deleting all the master files" - are we still in finder here or back in aperture? can you create a smart album within the finder? you lost me on that step.
now, when i look in package contents for an individual project i get what appears to be a few aperture info files, as well as folders for the import labeled something like "2005-12-06 @ 03/34/16 PM - 1.apimportgroup" - should i just remove those folders? however, INSIDE of that folder there seems to be a different folder for EACH SINGLE IMAGE/MASTER FILE.
this does seem like a lot of work just to remove a project and clear off space.
what files should i be looking for/clearing out and what files should i be leaving intact in the library for your method?
thanks!
msg
Aha! Then for you there is indeed a more advanced option.
First, you will still need to export the project and save it somewhere.
But then the next step is this - make a top level folder in Aperture and call it "Archive". Move your project into there (to let you know not to touch it after the next step).
Now, open up the Aperture library in Finder (Show Package Contents). Find your project inside that Archive folder. Open that project in Finder as well (same method), and create a smart album looking for all image types - and remove them. You are deleting all the master files.
Now restart Aperture. Visiting that project you'll be able to see those images at up to 1024x680 (may differ slightly depending on the aspect ratio of your camera). All your keywords will still be there to search on. You simply can't print or export or adjust these "offline" images in any way (and the images will have an "offline" badge on them to let you know they are in that state).
The Vault will have the full version of the project replaced by this offline version, which is why you needed to back up the project.
Granted this is going a little off into the weeds to do this and is not officially supported by Aperture. But it's not hard to do and works pretty well for something it's not supposed to be able to do at all. More importantly the fact that so much of this works (offline badges and working projects with missing master files) means that there is a pretty clear plan from Aperture to support something like this in the future.

Answer 1

<...>
you say to open the library with Show Package
Contents, and then to open the project i want to
remove in the same way. i'm with you so far in that
regard. but THEN you say "create a smart album
looking for all image types - and remove them. You
are deleting all the master files" - are we still in
finder here or back in aperture? can you create a
smart album within the finder? you lost me on that
step.
That was in Finder - the goal in that step is to find all of the master files in Finder and remove them. The reason to use the smart folder is that while you can go inside the project import folders where all of the images really live, each image is inside of its own directory so it makes doing it by hand rather slower than using a smart folder to find all of the RAW files that library contains.
Because Aperture is not working with images but only editing instructions, you can be sure that any image you find under a project is probably a master file that can be removed.
now, when i look in package contents for an
individual project i get what appears to be a few
aperture info files, as well as folders for the
import labeled something like "2005-12-06 @ 03/34/16
PM - 1.apimportgroup" - should i just remove those
folders? however, INSIDE of that folder there seems
to be a different folder for EACH SINGLE IMAGE/MASTER
FILE.
Yes, that's the case - you cannot remove those directories because the other files stored alongside the master files hold data about versions and keywords, and Aperture will not like it if they are gone! It will probably re-create them from the database (where all that data is also held) but I am not sure if the whole import folder is gone it would do so.
this does seem like a lot of work just to remove a
project and clear off space.
what files should i be looking for/clearing out and
what files should i be leaving intact in the library
for your method?
Indeed, a lot of work and the reason to use the smart folders to find only the master RAW (or TIFF or JPG or whatever you impotred) files and remove them quickly.
Just to be clear about this after you have emptied out the project in this way you'll really only be able to search and view images at a fairly large size - around 1024x640 at most. You'll not be able to print or export or edit, but again keyword searches will find images in projects modified in this way. You may want to rename the prject as "ARCHIVED" or something along those lines so you know not to use it for anything "real".