Finding Final Cut Pro X Libraries in the Finder with Smart Folders

Inspired by how cool smart collections can be in Final Cut Pro X, Idustrial Revolution set out to find if the same could be done for Libraries and Smart Folders at Finder level. A cool video tutorial later, one click gives access to all Libraries on all drives!

Our sister site, plugin developer Idustrial Revolution (which helps keep some of the lights on here at FCP.co) had an idea. Would it be possible to use a Smart Folder in the Finder to search for all the FCPX Libraries on a system?

It took a bit of working out and an abortive first tutorial due to not spotting a button that changed when the ALT key was held down, but the results are pretty impressive.

The Smart Folders search using Spotlight data, so some really complex searches can be built. As the video suggests, these could be client based, time based, creation, modified or any search term that produces a result.

At the moment there are no direct 'search elements' for FCPX as there are for iPhoto and GarageBand, it would be cool if Apple could add some. One possible way of getting around this would be to write a search in text as the folders are just XML files. Digging around in the Apple Developer documents gives us a hint that very clever searches could be built using Raw Query, that allows you to tap an argument directly into the Finder search box to see the result immediately.

All clever stuff, we will be interested to see if anybody takes this further.