Where is the ALE?

[Christoffer Glans]

I tried exporting MXF/AAF to offline DNxHD 36 files, but the only thing created is a "creation" folder with the MXF files and a XML-list.
Where is the ALE? I can generate an ALE list only if I choose, but why doesn't it create it upon exporting the material?

[M Most]

I tried exporting MXF/AAF to offline DNxHD 36 files, but the only thing created is a "creation" folder with the MXF files and a XML-list.
Where is the ALE? I can generate an ALE list only if I choose, but why doesn't it create it upon exporting the material?

If all you're trying to do is get the shots to come up in an Avid bin, you don't need an ALE. Just put the MXF files in a numbered folder under the Avid MediaFiles/MXF tree, start up Media Composer, and make a new bin. Then go back to the Finder and drag the .mdb file that Avid created in the numbered folder into the bin. It will populate the bin with master clips for every shot in the folder.

The only reason to use an ALE is to get additional metadata that isn't in the MXF headers, such as Red SDK settings and some other things. But in most cases, you don't actually need those things.

[MichaelP]

In addition to what MMost says, you can also just drag the .AAF files into the bin which has the advantage of not populating the bin with every clip that is in the Avid MediaFile/MXF/1 (or other number folder) as it can contain a lot of file files that may or may nor relate to the current project. The ALE will contain additional metadata such as BWf file name if syncing double system (the track info was unfortunately removed to fix some other bug). As these digital dailies systems add additional logging capabilities such as comments, notes, scene, take, then that will be in the ALE if not in the MXF wrapper to start.

Michael