I have deleted the .layout files.... HELP PLEASE...??

Question

Hello everybody,
I have joined the forum yesterday, new to Final Cut Studio. I studied the manuals and understood them to a considerable extent. I am a maths teacher and I video myself teaching maths and science at my home (Sony DSR 450 & Sony PD 170), in my small studio. I make educational DVDs using iDVD. It worked very well for some time. Then I bought Final Cut Studio and experimented with DSP. While creating more space in the hard disc, accidentally I thrashed the .layout files. Now whatever the project I do, while formating I get a message saying "The source file does not come with the .layout files...etc". I have tried encoding outside DSP in compressor and the imported into DSP.It was't helpful. I re-installed Finalcut studio.....it's of no use. In the forum someone suggested to by YANK. Now I am not able to procede with any new project as I cannot Build or format..........Completely stuck. Help me please.
Original clips are imported from DVCAM using DSR11 VTR.
kind regards
Murthy

Answer 1

Are you using a premade template, from a prior project that you deleted the .layout files from?
If so, try creating a compleatly new project from scratch, (nothing to complicated, just a menu and any of the assets that were in the original project, that were giving you issues. Try an build this new project.
If the project does build, then the other project file, (that was giving you trouble, may have a damaged or corrupt project file, but in any case, this shouldn't have been caused by the deletion of the .layout files. What may be going on here is that the iMovie source, (you originally used) may have been using these .layout files and when removed, DVD SP couldn't find them and this may have cause the issues you are seeing.
Creating a new project from scratch, in DVD SP will sever all links to the iMovie projects. Also, when you say you exported out of FCP, you need to remember that there is a good work flow you should follow and that there are many ways of exporting and encoding assets from FCP to DVD SP.
Here is my work flow:
When the FCP project is ready for export, here is what I do.
Export using the Quicktime Movie, (NOT Quicktime convertion) and un-check the make self contained movie box. This creates a reference movie that contains all of the changes you made to the original movie, (edits, transitions, audio/video levels, etc.) but still uses the original movie assets you captured from your DV source, (save disk space and exports much quicker.)
Open Compressor and encode you project to Mpeg 2, (using one of the premade Apple settings for video) and AC3, (using A.Pack or if you are using Compressor 2, the Dolby audio option.) What this does, is give you a set of self contained assets you can import into DVD SP, that do not depend on any of the FCP assets to work and will also speed up the build process.
Next, import the Mpeg 2, (.m2v file) and AC3, (audio file) into DVD SP as your DVD project assets and author you project as usual.
Once your satisfied with your project, run the build, (not the build/format button.) If you do it this way, then you have the opportunity to preview you project in the Apple DVD player software on you computer, (using the VTS Folder import of the DVD player menu) before commiting it to disk. This alllows you to make sure everything works correctly, before burning media. If it builds ok, then click on the format button and burn your disk.
Let me know how it goes?
G5 Quad Core 2.5GHz & G4/1.2GHz Dual 6GB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   [storage] X RAID's : [capture] Io : [decks] Betacam SP, S-VHS, DSR-11