Moving from Aperture 3 to ASP3 basics

[exPest]

I'm a long-time (but very amateur) Aperture 3 user looking to move to AfterShot Pro 3, now that Aperture is becoming unreliable in El Capitan. I'm after some basic advice about managing my images – where they are stored and how they link to ASP. I'm using terminology that I've learnt from Aperture – not sure if the terms have different meanings in ASP. I apologise if this query is very wordy.
I have two Aperture libraries of images: (1) my personal photos and (2) historical images related to a research project. It's preferable for me to keep the two libraries separate. I keep each of the Aperture libraries on two external hard drives. The libraries have about 40,000 and 1,000 images, respectively. (I keep as much material as possible on ext HDs - only 250GB on my MacBook Pro HD. I don't use cloud storage for my images).
My personal photos are organised in folders by year and month – and then topic sub-folders within each month.
My historical photos are grouped in folders named for the people or companies that have provided the images. As there are many inevitable duplications (this becomes important when someone provides a better version of a specific image), I also have a “master folder” which holds the best version of each image. This becomes the primary reference source for using the images in the research.
Do I export the images from Aperture directly into ASP – or can I locate them on an external hard drive and then link ASP to them? Or is there a choice?
Can I export the folder structure from Aperture that the photos are already in?
Do the images adjusted in ASP (versions?) get stored in ASP or in the same library as the original image?
Do the images keep all the metadata that I have in my Aperture libraries, after they are exported? In the historical material this is most important – it includes a caption, keywords, copyright information, etc.
Finally, are there any issues I should keep in mind while transferring my libraries to use with ASP3?
Any help is really appreciated!

[grcolts]

I used to use Aperture but kept all my files in folders so when I started using Aftershot Pro all I had to do was open the folders.
Today, I still do the same thing. I don't use ASP3 to catalog my images so I just save the image back to my folder.
Sorry I cannot answer your other questions about importing your libraries.
GR

[hannes_hab]

I am not familiar with Aperture but maybe this can help you:
ASP cannot read a special external catalog - but can read the files in a folder and related Standard XMP sidecar files.

"When AfterShot first scans a folder, it uses any metadata in the image files and existing standard XMPs."

So if you export from Aperture, Metadata should be in the file or in Standard XMP sidecar files.
(With ASP all information is stored in special AfterShot XMP sidecar files - if you want to interchange metadata writen by ASP there is a comand in the context menu XMP → Write standard XMP files to save the metadata in standard XMP files so that other applications can pick up your metadata changes.

When working with the catalog (which I would recommend) be sure to have the following Preferences:

"Allow automatic AfterShot .xmp creation for photos in Catalogs We highly recommend that you select this option so that all of your adjustments are stored both in the catalog and in an AfterShot .xmp file This practice enables recovery if the database becomes corrupted."

If you cange the image metadata with an ecxternal programm there is a command in the context Settings → Merge External Metadata instructs AfterShot to scan for metadata changes in the standard XMP files (as well as metadata embedded in the image files) and merge it with the metadata AfterShot already knows about.

Concerning internal or external hard drive. if you are using the access dirctly with folder its no problem - if you use catalogs there is the option to use "Movable Paths".
"Mobile Catalogs"
If you work on more than one machine, handling catalogs is a bit tricky,
as the catalogs need a fixed starting point to work properly. The Mov-
able Paths feature of the catalogs makes it possible to access a catalog
on a network drive using different mount points or drive letters. Right-
clicking on the root of a catalog shows a few options, including "Set
Movable Paths...". If you created the catalog on one Windows machine
on drive D:, you could open the catalog on another machine and use
the movable path function to tell AfterShot that this catalog now refers
to drive H:. This also works when using the same catalog on a Linux
and a Windows machine."

Metadata like caption, keywords, copyright information, etc. should be recongniced acaption, keywords, copyright information, etc. should be recongized.

For further information see also:
http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=46386
And the ASP user manual.
The AfterShot Survival Guide from afx (http://aftershotsurvivalguide.com) unfortunately is not available any more.