If you’ve already opened a project, you can open the Project Manager at any time by clicking the
Home button at the bottom left-hand corner of the Resolve window.

If you need to return to the Log In screen, you can click the Log In button at the upper left-hand
corner.

The Project Manager Interface
The Project Manager’s contents are different for each user. Once you’ve logged in, you can create,
delete, and import projects, as well as organize and search for projects if the Project Manager is
very full.
Project View
Two buttons at the top right let you switch the Project Manager between Icon and List View. You
can freely change views at any time.

In Icon View, each project is represented by a large image that can be hover-scrubbed to reveal
five representative images from that project, with a brief description underneath that includes the
frame size, number of timelines, and when that project was last modified.

Searching For Projects
A pop-up menu and search field at the upper right-hand corner of the Project Manager lets you
search for specific projects.
Using the pop-up menu, you can choose to search by name, or by project format. Once you’ve
chosen a criteria, begin typing into the search field, and the Project Manager will immediately and
dynamically begin to be filtered by your search text.

Group Projects
The Group Projects button at the bottom left-hand corner of the Project Manager opens up the
Group Projects browser.
This browser lets you import projects from other users into the Project Manager for the current user
that’s logged in.

Furthermore, if you’re on a system that’s configured to use databases for project management, a
pop-up menu at the top of the Group Projects browser lets you open up another database entirely
to browse its users and projects.

To use the Group Projects browser:
1. Click the Group Projects button to open the browser. It always appears in List view.
2. Choose a disk or database from the pop-up menu at the top of the browser to reveal that disk
or database’s users in the browser

3. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of any user to reveal that user’s projects in a hierarchical
list.
4. To import a project into the current user, Right-click it and choose Import.
5. A dialog appears that lets you change the name of the project being imported. If you like,
change the name, then click OK.
That project should now appear in the Project browser to the right. When you’re done
importing projects, click the Group Projects button again to close the browser.
Note: For more detail on shared database setup and operation refer to “Using the Shared
Database” in Chapter 10.

Project Management
By default, new installations of DaVinci Resolve manage projects on an independent, projectby-
project basis. Each project is a self-contained file that’s saved to the system drive by default.
The Project Manager provides an in-application interface for creating, renaming, and deleting
projects.
Methods of project management:
>>To create a new project: Double-click the Default Project, or click the Plus button at the
bottom left of the Project Manager. A new project is created, and Resolve opens up the
Media page. To alter the project settings, open the Project Settings by clicking the gear
icon.
>>To load a previously saved project: Double-click any Project icon, or Item if you’re in List
view.
>>To load a project in Read-Only-Mode: Right-click a Project icon or Item, and choose Load in
Read Only Mode. This lets you open a project, and even make changes, but those changes
won’t be saved. Any changes you make that you want to preserve must be saved as a new
project file using a new name.
>>To rename a project: Right-click a Project icon or Item, choose Rename, and type a new
name in the dialog that appears, clicking OK when you’re finished.
>>To load a config to a particular project: Right-click a Project icon or Item (other then the
currently open project), and choose “Load config to current project.”
>>To delete a project: Select a project, and then either click the Minus button at the bottom
left of the Project Manager, or Right-click a Project icon or Item, and choose Delete. Click
OK when a dialog asks you to confirm the operation.
Note: You cannot delete the currently loaded project.
Another set of commands let you import and export projects independently. Because all projects
are managed by a Resolve database, this is the only recommended way to export and import
individual projects, even for file-based projects.
Methods of importing and exporting projects
>>To export a project: If you need to export a project to another location, such as to copy it to
the disk of a client you’re delivering the project to, you can Right-click a Project icon or Item,
choose Export, then in the Save dialog choose a location, enter a name, and click Save. This
can also be done from the File menu in the main Resolve interface.
>>To import a project: Click the Import button, at the bottom left of the Project Manager
(to the right of the Plus and Minus buttons), find and select a project file using the Import
Project File dialog, and click Open

All of the various project settings, deck capture and playback settings, LUT settings, and application
preferences that are available in DaVinci Resolve can be found in the Project Settings window.
To open the Project Settings window:
>>Click the gear button at the bottom left on any page.

The Project Settings window is divided into a series of panels, each of which contains a collection of
related settings that affects some category of Resolve functionality.
Click on the name of any group of settings in the sidebar at the left to open that panel

Presets
The Presets panel lets you save customized collections of Project Settings for future recall. Presets
can save the state of nearly every parameter and setting in every panel of the Project Settings
window, and make it easy to switch among different setups for different tasks, or to accommodate
different types of projects.

There are three default items in the Presets list:
>>Current Project: This is the current project’s settings. After you’ve loaded a preset, the
current project becomes selected, showing that the preset you loaded has been applied
to the current project.
>>System Config: The default configuration that’s applied as the User Default Config for all
new users that are added to the Login screen.
>>User default config: The default configuration for all new projects created by a the currently
logged in user.
If you like, you can add as many custom presets as you like.
To Create a New Preset:
1. Alter whichever settings you need to, using the different panels of the Project Settings
window.
2. Open the Presets panel and click Save As.
3. When a dialog appears asking “Apply Current Configuration to System?” click Yes to apply
these changes to the current project

4. When the Preset Name dialog appears, type a name into the field and click OK.
The new preset appears as an item in the Presets list.
Once you’ve created one or more custom presets, you can load them at any time.
To Load and Use a Preset:
1. Click an item in the Presets list.
2. Click Load.
If a dialog appears saying either “Do you want to replace current project’s config with this
selected Preset” or “Apply Current Configuration to System?”, click Yes.
If you want to change the default configuration that new users and new projects are automatically
created with, you can edit the System Config or the User Default Config.
To modify a System or User Configuration:
1. Exit to the Login Window, and do one of the following:
>>Log in as admin to modify the System Configuration.
>>Log in as a user to modify the User Default Configuration.
2. Open a new or existing project, then open the Project Settings.
3. Open the Presets panel, and do one of the following
>>If you’re logged in as admin, select ”System Config” in the Presets list.
>>If you’re logged in as a user, select ”User default config” in the Presets list.
4. Make whatever changes you need in the different panels of the Project Settings.
5. When you’re finished making changes, open the Presets panel again, and click the Save button
immediately underneath the Presets list.
If you edited the ”System Config,” then all new users that are added to the system automatically
inherit these settings. If you edited the User Default Config, then all new projects created by
that user will inherit those settings.
Finally, if there’s a custom preset that you’ve created that has outlasted its usefulness, you can
delete it