(New to Perforce.) In the P4V GUI, I opened a Depot on a remote server and am trying to copy some folders/files to my local machine. I can Clone them, but then it also creates a ".p4root" folder, which I assume tracks the history. This folder is quite large so it takes some time. I don't need to track or push changes, I only need the files themselves. Any way to only copy the folder/files themselves?
The terminology is confusing because it means something else in git. In Helix Core when you connect to a server, you want to create a Workspace that will map files from the server to your local machine. If it's a streams depot (recommended) you can do that by selecting a stream to work in and then Get Latest (aka Sync) to get files from the server onto your local machine to work on them and then submit changes back to the server. If you're using a classic depot then the workspace setup will be a bit more manual but the Sync and Submit steps will be basically the same.
You will likely never "Clone", "Pull", or "Push" unless you are specifically doing some kind of code drop/DVCS workflow, but it doesn't sound like it from what you're describing.
If you're brand new to Helix Core, I'd strongly recommend checking out the Beginner's Guide playlist on the Perforce YouTube channel. There are some differences between a centralized version control like Helix Core and git that can trip people up when first starting.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH3pq2J85xsPYn71_yzzsZQKvalTW-duE&si=EGWEJLrqwIqtLkN9
Hopefully that helps!