Saving Your Work

Understanding how ORAPHIM handles saving is critical to preventing data loss. Unlike consumer editing tools that save a single standalone file to your desktop, ORAPHIM utilizes an enterprise-grade relational database architecture to manage project data.

The Database Model

ORAPHIM projects do not exist as independent .ORAPHIM files on your hard drive. Instead, they live inside a Project Database.

This architecture allows for:

  • Instant saving (writing database transactions is magnitudes faster than rewriting a massive XML file).
  • Multi-user collaboration (multiple editors can connect to a network database and edit different timelines simultaneously).
  • Bulletproof stability (if the application crashes, the database rolls back the incomplete transaction, preventing corruption).

How to Save

Because of the database architecture, saving is incredibly fast.

  1. Go to File > Save Project from the top menu.
  2. Or simply press Ctrl+S (Windows) or Cmd+S (macOS).

When you press Save, ORAPHIM commits your current timeline state, node graphs, and color grades to the active database.

Live Save

For maximum peace of mind, ORAPHIM features a Live Save mechanism. When enabled, ORAPHIM writes every single click, trim, and node connection to the database the millisecond it happens. If your computer loses power, you will boot back up to exactly the last action you took, with zero lost work.

To enable Live Save (Highly Recommended):

  1. Go to ORAPHIM > Preferences (macOS) or Edit > Preferences (Windows).
  2. Navigate to the User tab, then select Project Save and Load.
  3. Check the box for Live Save.
  4. Click Save.

Project Backups

While Live Save protects you from crashes, it does not protect you from human error (e.g., accidentally deleting an entire timeline and closing the project). For this, ORAPHIM maintains rolling backups.

In the same preferences menu (Project Save and Load), enable Project Backups. ORAPHIM will automatically save full historical snapshots of your project at specified intervals (e.g., every 10 minutes, every hour, and every day).

To restore a backup:

  1. Open the Project Manager.
  2. Right-click your project and select Project Backups...
  3. A list of historical snapshots will appear. Select one and click Load. This will spawn a copy of your project from that point in time without overwriting the current state.

Sharing Projects (Exporting Archives)

Because your project lives inside a database, you cannot simply email a project file to a colleague. You must export a .dra (ORAPHIM Project Archive).

  1. In the Project Manager, right-click your project.
  2. Select Export Project Archive...
  3. Choose a destination folder on your hard drive.
  4. You can optionally choose to include the raw media files and render cache in the archive. If you only want to send the project metadata, uncheck the media options (the resulting file will be very small, usually a few megabytes).
  5. Click Ok. The resulting .dra folder can be zipped and shared with other ORAPHIM users.