If I import a folder on my iMac into DT, I assume that the folder gets sync’d over to the MBP (meaning that the files in the folder are actually copied over to the MBP and look like they have been imported there. Is that the case?
Sync is a mirroring sync so the databases will be the same on each device.
The thing that I don’t understand: If I index a folder on my iMac, what happens on my MBP? Is the whole folder (which is large) copied over to the MBP? If so, does it appear indexed there or imported?
Again, since sync is a mirroring sync, the items would be indexed on the second machine.
Yes, the items would be synced to the new machine but in the same relative location, if possible. For example, if you indexed a folder on the desktop of machine A, sync would create a similar folder on the desktop of machine B and its database would be pointing to those files, not the files on machie A’s desktop.
If you were indexing files in a commonly accessible location, like a Dropbox folder connected to both machines, there is an option to not synchronize the contents of indexed items… BUT you should not use this if you are syncing with DEVONthink To Go as it would have no access to download the contents of files.