It would be great if Avid could properly export clips with a "/" in the name by substituting the forward slash for another character like a dash or underscore on export.

I inherited a project where the former assistant editor insisted on naming clips like 103A/2, and now that we're exporting vfx we're running into the problem where Avid wants to cut off everything before the slash, which in the case of a clip like 103A/2 would result in a filename of just "2.mov"

It is an OS limitation of Windows.  a / denotes a file path. 

Avid DS has a nifty utility called File Renamer - http://aviddssupport.avid.com/zip/utilities/FileRenamer.zip

it can batch process a bunch of files and rename them given certain parameters.  this would work to rename files before you import them

Else, there's nothing like manual intervention.  Call it Job Security.  ; )

I know, it's part of the path on OSX too. I was more suggesting that Avid just automatically substitute a different character for the slash when you batch export.

Also I'm not importing the files myself, we get them from telecine pre-named and digitized. I'd go through and just change the names but I don't want two naming systems so I'd have to do that for all the VTs that came in before I started and have already been cut with. Would be a big pain.

Why is the telecine house supplying clips named with a slash in the first place?  It's pretty much common knowledge that slashes in filenames are bad, right? 

Yep. Don't get me started. The AE I inherited this show from had all sorts of wild theories about how he wanted things to be organized. In this case he decided that he thought dashes were ugly (I'm not kidding), so he instructed telecine to use slashes instead. 

I wonder if the fix could be as simple as saying to telecine "hey, we're realizing some problems with having slashes in the filenames, would it be possible to have you all switch to using dashes or underscores instead?"

I already addressed that point above, but regardless I think you're missing the forest for the trees. Can I deal with this particular situation? Of course. Is it unreasonable to request that Avid reprogram how it handles clip names with characters that would be illegal upon export? No, I don't think so. 

There must already be some error handling built into the code in order to let Avid know it needs to trim out the filename before the slash (unless that's part of Finder's "Save As..." dialog code, which is also possible). All I'm suggesting is that instead of trimming out part of the filename it should just alter the offending character. 

Yes it is unreasonable to ask Avid to fix a problem that never should have been a problem to begin with if the file organization had been done by a professional using something other than a MAC. Educate the AE that in the professional world you don't use some characters for file names..

I particularlly get upset when I see files names with happy faces......makes me frown :(

Ha, ok, I give up. Avid should always assume everything is done perfectly, since everyone who works in this industry is an error-free and tech-savvy professional. 

But yet, don't blame the poor Mac for the ignorance of the AE who was using it. It's not its fault that it was used to do something stupid. And I didn't even get into how he was trying to media manage the Unity. That would really make you cringe.

Got no problem with the Mac. Since they went with the Intel chips, the boxes have been fast and stable. I don't even care if they use happy faces for personal tasks. But when they start functioning in the professional realm, interacting with Windows and Linux either just computers or NAS units or archive devices then they need to conform to standard naming conventions.

Error free.... that will be the day, and I am just referring to myself. Professional - yes, Error free -NO. 

And yes, I have seen some of those attempts to Manage Unity..... baseball bats work but tend to get you in trouble..... education is not as sure but causes less issues.

While I fully understand all the points and the desires expressed in this thread, nonetheless, in the 21st century, it should be common knowledge by ALL COMPUTER USERS, Mac or PC, that the following characters are ILLEGAL for use in file names in the PC domain:

? [ ] / \ = + < > : ; " , * |  . (except the period signaling the extension)

This has been common knowledge now for many years. Since there is no way to change this, any Mac user, especially those who know their work may have to be exchanged across platforms, should avoid those characters like the plague when naming files.

I'm not trying to be overly critical, but there are some things you can change, and there are some things you can't. It may be no fun facing that, but that's the way things are.

Heh, I think we've moved a bit off the original situation. I was just saying that he put slashes in the names of clips in Avid bins, not in actual filenames. The media in this situation is managed and named by Avid per usual since it's been digitized off tape. Rest assured no filenames were harmed by illegal characters in the making of this forum thread.

Following up on this, I was teaching a master class at SCAD last weekend, and while trying to demo some basic things to be aware of, I found out that in v6.5 Avid has done exactly what I suggested in my OP. Thanks Avid! If any of the clips in your bin have a / in their names, Media Composer will now substitute the / for an underscore. 

It works on my MC v6.0.3 too! Thanks Avid.