Can I collect files using Automation Blocks?

I just wrote a tool which does what you requested 🙂

You find the script here in the community library now:

Project/Collect Files/Copy All Footage Files to Project Folder.xml

In the inputs panel you can choose a subfolder into which the files are copied. By default the files are copied in a subfolder "footage" of the folder where your aep file is. If the "footage" folder does not exist, it is created.

Here is a detailed explanation what the tool is doing:

Warning: If a file with that name exists already, it is not replaced, but used as is. If you have multiple project items using the exact same file, this behavior works fine (only the first one is copied and all subsequent items then use that file, too). However, say you have two images

C:\images\Ae\icon.png and

C:\images\Pr\icon.png

then only one of them will be copied to PROJECT/footage/icon.png

and then this file will be used by both of the project items.

Hence, make sure no two footage files have the exact same name before running the tool.