Watched Folders
Watched folders are the foundation of MakerVault. Each watched folder is a directory on your computer that MakerVault scans and monitors for design files.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”When you add a watched folder, MakerVault:
- Recursively walks the entire directory tree
- Identifies files with supported extensions
- Indexes each file’s name, path, size, type, and modification date
- Extracts metadata from supported file types (like LightBurn files)
- Computes a BLAKE3 content hash for duplicate detection
- Starts a background file watcher for real-time updates
Managing folders
Section titled “Managing folders”Adding
Section titled “Adding”Click Add Folder in the sidebar or use the welcome screen. Select any folder on your computer.
Filtering
Section titled “Filtering”Click a folder name in the sidebar to show only files from that folder. Click All Files to see everything.
Removing
Section titled “Removing”Right-click a folder and select Remove. This removes the folder from MakerVault’s index. Your actual files on disk are never modified or deleted.
Performance
Section titled “Performance”MakerVault scans files extremely fast:
- 5,000 files in under 1 second
- Files are inserted in batches of 500 per database transaction
- Content hashing runs in the background so it doesn’t block the UI
Hidden files
Section titled “Hidden files”MakerVault automatically skips all hidden files and directories, including:
.DS_Storefiles._macOS resource forks.gitdirectories- Any file or folder starting with
.