Virtual Folder

Operating systems support symlinks (symbolic links): a file system entry that points to another file. From the perspective of a program reading the file, a symlink is indistinguishable from the real file, it has the same path, name and apparent contents. Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer all follow symlinks transparently, which is what makes the technique invisible to the editor.

A Virtual Folder is a folder of those links, one per clip, that an NLE imports as if it were an ordinary folder of media. The trick is where each link points. A clip can resolve to a lightweight local proxy on the SSD for fast offline editing, or to an entry on a cloud-mounted drive that streams the original from the cloud. Switching a clip between the two modes is just retargeting its symlink; no media is moved or copied, and because the path the NLE sees never changes, the project never needs relinking.

That per-clip flexibility is the real power. A single Virtual Folder can mix proxies and streamed originals freely: the 95 percent of footage left on the cutting room floor stays as light proxies, while the handful of clips in the final cut stream at full resolution. The same folder serves the offline edit and the full-quality finish.

On Windows, where creating symlinks can require elevated permissions, Sanbila falls back to hardlinks and then to a copy so the Virtual Folder always builds. Because the media library underneath is shared, several Virtual Folders, for different cut versions or different editors on the same project, can point at the same files without duplicating storage. That is how a project stays organized and relink-free across versions while only the proxies live on the local disk.