multiple clips selected, break apart when I move them.

Im using fcp 5 on a g5.
plenty of ram
when i drag a box around multiple clips, normally over 5 or 6 clips, and try to move them,
they all seem to disorganise themselves and when i drop them in th e new position, they are all over the place.
Its not locked layers. there seems to be no consistency in how or why they do it.
I copy and paste the whole timeline into a new timelline and it fixes it for a while/.
PLease help...
frustrated.

Might be a corrupt project/sequence, possibly resulting in display glitches. Ditch preferences. If that doesn't work, copy the timeline to a new project file with matching settings and see.


www.derekmok.com

also I forgot to mention that this thing has already had the prefs trashed, its been re installed
from the origional disc and all other troubleshots i can think of.

That's a really odd one. What happens if you make a new user and try it there? Or take the project to another computer and try it there?

Jude Cotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's a really odd one. What happens if you make
> a new user and try it there? Or take the project
> to another computer and try it there?

New user, as in log into the machine as new user?
I havent taken this project to another machine but it has happened once before
on my home machine(different machine). Also it would select seemingly random clips from other parts of the timeline when i dragged a box around a few clips. It looks really buggy and random

So it's happened to you before on a different machine with a different project?

Is it maybe to do with auto select? From the evidence I don't think it's the machine or the project. I think there's something you're doing that's confusing the pair of you.

Try taking just one of the clips that gets messy when copy pasted and copy paste it to another part of the timeline. Does it end up where you expect it to be?

Also, beware when dragging stuff in the timeline that the small arrow is pointing down, not sideways when you drop stuff. If it's pointing sideways you will insert, not overlay.

Any of that help?

> Also it would select seemingly random clips from other parts of the timeline when i dragged a
> box around a few clips. It looks really buggy and random

That's almost impossible. I think you may be using the wrong tools, or accessing tracks you're not seeing.


www.derekmok.com

Jude Cotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So it's happened to you before on a different
> machine with a different project?
>
> Is it maybe to do with auto select? From the
> evidence I don't think it's the machine or the
> project. I think there's something you're doing
> that's confusing the pair of you.


>
> Try taking just one of the clips that gets messy
> when copy pasted and copy paste it to another part
> of the timeline. Does it end up where you expect
> it to be?
>
> Also, beware when dragging stuff in the timeline
> that the small arrow is pointing down, not
> sideways when you drop stuff. If it's pointing
> sideways you will insert, not overlay.
>
> Any of that help?

Yes. Its not so much a copy and paste problem. its more dragging multiple clips.
like if i select all the clips from the end of a timeline and move them along a bit.

derekmok Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Also it would select seemingly random clips from
> other parts of the timeline when i dragged a
> > box around a few clips. It looks really buggy
> and random
>
> That's almost impossible. I think you may be
> using the wrong tools.

yeah maybe your right...so what is the tool that grabs a bunch of stuff and throws it in all different random places?
I guess if I just make sure im not using that tool ill be fine.
is it near the slide tool or somethng? I cant see it. I only see the arrow and, crop and slide and
all the regular butons. I must be missing the "take all my stuff and throw it around randomly" tool. thanks a lot.
I Know its supposed to be impossible, thats why i said it looks really buggy.


or accessing tracks you're
> not seeing.

> yeah maybe your right...so what is the tool that grabs a bunch of stuff and throws it in all
> different random places?

Well, it doesn't work quite like that. Any tool can be used to alter your timeline with surgical precision. And any tool can also wreak havoc on clips' positions.

I can deduce some things from the way you described your approach. If you're drawing a lasso with the default Arrow tool, that tool can also move things around, so maybe while you're trying to draw a lasso around more clips, you were actually moving them.

A good way to circumvent that is to use the Group Selection tool (GG) to draw lassos around groups of clips. That tool has only one function, and that is to select. It cannot be used to move clips around. So if your mouse operation isn't quite dead accurate yet, using that tool will prevent you from moving things. Once you're sure you've selected the right clips with the Group Selection tool, then you switch to the Arrow to move them. And for the Arrow to move something, you have to click on the black part of the selection -- not a cut, not a blank space.

Another useful tool is the All Tracks Forward (TTTT) tool. It is great for closing and creating gaps in your timeline.

The important thing is to remember a Chinese proverb:

"Sometimes when you go after speed too much, you end up never getting there."

If you're not completely comfortable with all the tools, slooooooow down, look at the timeline, and leave the mouse alone until you know exactly everything you're doing. It takes much longer to fix mistaken operations than to slow down to make sure you're doing the right operation. Especially if you don't spot the mistake right away, but only in an hour, a day, a week.

Remember that when you select things, you're often also affecting clips you can't see -- for example, if you have a lot of tracks and some things are out of sight below the displayed portion; if you have tracks locked; if you have overlapping clips; if you have a long timeline and there are objects down the timeline.


www.derekmok.com

Can you get us a screen capture of before and after one of these moves? Maybe we can see what's going wrong from that.

>>I must be missing the "take all my stuff and throw it around randomly" tool. thanks a lot. <<

Nasty sarcasm doesn't really fly in here, either. We are trying to help you, without being able to see what you're doing, on our own time, for free.

ok thanks. Ive just ried to pull up that timeline and it doesnt do it now.
It seems like a tempromental thing that only happens after ive been editng for an hour or so onn that project.
I will definately get a screen shot next time it happens.
Its really wierd and Im experienced enough to know that its not a problem with the arrow tool.

Sorry for the sarcasm. I was just dumfounded by that answer.