Hi there!
Very cool that you want to start working with Libraries, they're a great tool especially for common, reused elements. But they do work differently than you're expecting so let me explain the issue here:
- Libraries are stored exclusively in the Adobe Cloud. You can view the items inside a Library in any application with the Libraries panel (Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, the CC Desktop app, etc.) but essentially you're looking at a preview of those items.
- The Libraries don't exist as local cloud storage, like Google Drive or Dropbox. Meaning they're not synced to your computer as local files. In order to use something in a Library inside a project you need to drag/import that item into the project -- this will automatically download the item and make it available as a local file on your computer.
- The location the item saves to is dictated by the Project Settings >Scratch Disk window; there's a file path setting for "CC Libraries Downloads."
So in your situation, there's no way to replace the clips in your project with the same clips from the Library because those files don't really exist until they've been downloaded and added to the project; you won't save any drive space because of this. Unfortunately you just can't work directly from the Library as a media source.
What I would recommend you do is: add all of your common clips to your local Creative Cloud Files folder. That folder stores assets locally and also syncs them to the Cloud so you can access them anywhere. Just import them each time you start a new project. For archiving via the Project Manager, I would simply OFFLINE those clips, that way they won't be copied to your archive along with your other project files.
LMK if this helps!
JVK
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