making a selection in v8?

JonnyC wrote on 9/14/2007, 8:32 AM

I've recently upgraded to v8 from v6 (I've been working with Vegas since v2). I noticed something different, while trying to make a selection within an event on the timeline, that is against my workflow grain. Scenario: I place an event on the time line (audio track: voiceover) and proceed to edit/cut the event. I click (and release) in the even where I want to place my curser to start a cut, hold my pointer over the curser, hold shift and drag...the curser moves, but no selection is made on the timeline/event...v6 does this. I've tried different preferences settings, but not been able to make it perform as I expect.

Does anyone know of a setting in preferences or why/when Vegas stopped doing this? I don't recall in any of the previous versions of Vegas that I've used that I had to alter a preference after a fresh install to make it perform this way.

Any help would be most appreciated!
JonC

Comments

xberk wrote on 9/14/2007, 11:52 AM

Can't remember V6 -- but I'm trying to understand this --
You want to place the cursor within an event on the timeline and start a selection from precisely that point by dragging and end the selection precisely (within an event) where you stop dragging. This was accomplished in V6 by holding down the shift key and dragging the cursor within the timeline. Is that it?

JonnyC wrote on 9/14/2007, 12:51 PM

xberk,

Yes, click in the middle of an event, then grab the curser, hold down shift and drag to a location in the event, therefor making a selection. It worked this way in v6 and all previous versions.

Now after reading the v8 manual and such, it seems the closest I can come to that functionality is to hold down control+shift, clicking inside an event and dragging out a selection, all in one move. This doesn't feel comfortable to me....yet.

thanks,
JonC

xberk wrote on 9/14/2007, 1:29 PM

You got my curiosity up so I booted an old machine with V6 on it and indeed it works as you described (damn handy too) -- I then searched a text list of VP8 shortcuts and found that SHIFT+DRAG = Override snapping .. I can't seem to get this function to work. Seems like we lost a cool way to do a quick selection within an event with V7 as it does not work in V7 either. One workaround would be to place a marker at the cursor, then it is fairly easy to do a selection that snaps precisely to the marker - then delete the marker after the selection is complete.

rjkrash wrote on 9/14/2007, 3:04 PM

Selecting a time range
Click and drag along the marker bar, CD layout bar, or a blank area of the timeline to select a time range. All events — and portions of events — within the region are highlighted.

Tips:

Double-click an event and drag left or right to extend the selection to the next fade or event edge on that track.

Dragging within an event will change the event's position on the timeline. To create time selection without moving the event, hold Ctrl+Shift while dragging.

If the Allow edit cursor to be dragged check box is selected on the General tab of the Preferences dialog, dragging the edit cursor will change its position on the timeline. To create a time selection without moving the cursor, hold Shift while dragging.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/14/2007, 5:57 PM

i loaded this up in vegas 6 & it works like you say. In vegas 8 it doesn't. But NEITHER manual's actually give a shortcut for it! Interesting! Maybe it was an unintended feature all these years!

xberk wrote on 9/14/2007, 7:53 PM

I agree with TheHappyFriar -- the SHIFT+DRAG to create a selection from the edit cursor had to be an undocumented feature of V6 or earlier versions. I haven't found any documentation for this feature.

Per Spots book (Vegas 6 Editing Workshop) apparently in V2-4 dragging on the timeline created a selection. In V5 and V6 in the General preference option settings you have "allow Edit cursor to be dragged". This was the default. If you "uncheck" this preference then you lose the ability to drag the edit cursor and gain the drag to make a selection. I'd assume that in V5 & V6 the undocumented feature was that the SHIFT+DRAG would temporarily "uncheck" the "allow Edit cursor to be dragged".

In V7 & VP8 you can still "uncheck" the "allow Edit cursor to be dragged" but to make a selection from the edit cursor you need SHIFT+CTRL+DRAG....Whew!!