Confused on optimization of meshes

[Jotasran]

I'm vortex user and want to optimize all the nifs in one particular mod.  It is to correct to optimize the nifs in the appdata folder (under Vortex)?  I'm using Cathedral Asset Optimizer.  My understanding is that the files in that folder generate the nifs in the main folder, which in turn overwrite the vanilla records which are in the main files for the game.  I just want to make sure I'm actually optimizing nif as opposed to thinking that I'm doing so and not.

[traison]

I just had confirmation from another user on here that vortex uses ntfs hardlinks, meaning you can change the contents of a file in the data directory, and the same file's contents in the vortex mod directory will also change - because they're technically the same file. In english that means it doesn't matter which directory you run through a tool like an optimizer, however, since vortex appears to be really bad at telling which mod any given file came from I'd say NEVER optimize anything in the skyrim data directory as you may end up optimizing (or otherwise changing) files in mods you didn't expect. Instead, always work on the files in whatever repository vortex keeps installed mods in - this way you know where the bounds are and you won't be doing unexpected damage.

[Jotasran]

Ok.  Makes sense.  Thanks.