Hello everyone
I've got 3 types of files piling up on my hard drive: .pd patches, abstractions, and audio samples. So far I've been saving each project I work on in its own file but this is leading to problems when I want to use certain abstractions or samples in multiple projects without having to copy them into other files and take up more space. How do most people organize everything?
Thanks.

@kullboys The only solution is to add paths to the "preferences... paths" of Pd.
And / or use [declare -path].

Obviously it can be useful to have a folder of projects, and each project within it can find itself easily......and its sub-folders with a [declare -path sub-folder] object in any patches that need it.
EG
projects (folder)
.... project_1 (folder)
......... main_patch.pd (contains [declare -path tracks -path data]
..........other.pd
..........tracks (folder)
..........data (folder)

If you then call that main_patch (adding it's folder to "prefs..paths"...... or using a [declare -path c:/...../project_1] in your new patch) then those sub-folders will be found as well.

When starting out, with few patches, this can be a bit annoying. But later, with thousands of patches and abstractions it will be an advantage. Your problem becomes excluding patches and audio that unfortunately have the same name, or plugins you don't want, or even versions of externals.... 32bit?....64bit?...... from other Pd versions that you have on your desktop.

Personally, I also have a folder on my desktop, with its path set in all my Vanilla Pd versions, into which I have put all the "extended" object "vanilla" replacements. That's another example of avoiding conflicts..

And then another desktop folder ( again, set in all prefs) into which I can temporarily dump copies for testing. I know that everything in that folder is a copy.

David.

As David said, you can build your own library of abstractions that you use often, or multiple libraries for different sets of abstractions. If you add the path of a library directory to Preferences -> Path, you can use the abstractions within this directory in all your projects. Obviously if you change an abstraction in such a library it will change in every project.

Yeah, I just have a simple "abstractions" folder right next to my "patches" folder where I put my reusable abstractions. Each patch gets it's own folder, so I can save abstractions that are unique to that patch in the same folder as the main patch without making a mess.

My samples are in their own huge folder, neatly organized. However, I recorded most of those during the last 15 years or something, while I'm still quite new to PD, so those were organized before I got into PD already.

How do you guys name your abstractions? I always prefix mine with "ds_". I have a "ds_xth" abstraction that only passes each xth bang it recieves, for example. I'm new to this, so it would be interesting to hear if that's the "right" way to do it.

@Delta-Sign Yes, I have seen a few big projects with a two letter prefix for every file in the project.
It's a good idea, but really needs to be done from the very start of the project.
A lot more typing......... so I was never "that" organised....
It is perfect though for absolute protection from any future confusion.... especially when sharing.
I have also seen a few though, where they have "wavered" at some point.
Usually when they needed a float as the first character....... probably for some kind of "radio" selection...... and gave up on creating a lookup table just for that.
David.