Toggling Snap Off while Time Selecting, Moves Selection Start Point - Cockos Incorporated Forums

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Toggling Snap Off while Time Selecting, Moves Selection Start Point

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06-17-2009 08:50 PM

Bevosss

Human being with feelings

Toggling Snap Off while Time Selecting, Moves Selection Start Point

This ruins time selecting from an Unsnapped Point to an Item's End Point for instance

There are 3 ways to make a time selection regarding snap:

1. From an unsnapped point, to another unsnapped point.

2. From a snapped point, to an unsnapped point. [edit: this is broken too, my bad]

3. From an unsnapped point, to a snapped point.

and #3 appears broken, or at least exhibiting undesirable behaviour for me.

#2 is GREAT for selecting from an items start to a variable point in the item. You simple start the selection with Snap On, and then as you drag you toggle Snap Off (with a keystroke)...the start of the selection stays where it is (snapped), leaving you to vary the end point unsnapped.

#3 fails badly though....Selecting from a variable point near the right side of the item, to the item's end for instance, you start the selection with Snap Off at a variable point, then drag to the right and toggle Snap On...what happens?

The left border of the selection moves to a snap point too! So your unsnapped starting point is lost. Also, if you are too close to the right edge of the item, the selection disappears altogether (I assume the snap start point has then moved to the right edge of the item).

This has bugged me for ages, and I'm noticing it now when crossfading items on the right side of the enclosed item. The workaround I come up with was to place the edit cursor at the variable point first, then that acts as a snap point...but it's an extra step, I have to remember it each time (I usually don't and undo), it's a different method from the left side of the item, and it moves my edit cursor. You can also do it backwards from right-to-left, but this doesn't fit with your view showing often, and I tend to work left-to-right anyway.

Sooo...what I'm asking for is, either:

A. The starting point of the selection in progress doesn't change after toggling Snap On, or

B. A preference to enable this behaviour

I hope some editing types support this, unless everybody uses Snap Off all the time, in which case I'm screwed (again!) :D

Here's some pics of the behaviour using #3:

Starting the Time Selection drag

After Toggling Snap On while dragging

Issue Details
Issue Type Feature Request Project Deprecated REAPER issue tracker Category Editing behavior Status Suggested Priority 5 - Medium Suggested Version 3.03 Implemented Version (none) Users who would use this feature 5 Users who would not use this feature 0 Attachments 0 Assigned Users (none) Tags (none)

06-17-2009 10:46 PM

Bevosss

Human being with feelings

After further testing, I've found that using left-click drag in the item name area gives me the editing snapping behaviour I want, BUT:

This doesn't work across tracks or overlapping items with lanes showing, ie it will only select the single track item, no multiple items across tracks/lanes.

So, leftclick and rightclick drag have inconsistent behaviour regarding snapping.

What seems to happen is, once Snap is toggled ON, the selection starting point moves to the start of the visible marquee selection (this is using Rightclick drag with the preference enabled). There is no visible marquee with the Leftclick drag, so no change in selection start.

Also, I was wrong earlier about #2, it behaves just as badly upon zooming in.

It's hard for me to believe no one else edits tidily to item borders or grid points. This would be sooo useful speed-wise if it worked properly.

06-18-2009 02:13 AM

gofer

-blänk-

It took me some time to get this. But yes, I can confirm this weirdness when alt+rightclick-dragging to draw a time selection plus a marquee at the same time and toggling snap while doing so.
So this may not be a question of no one else editing to item borders, but rather a question of people rarely doing time and marquee selection at the same stroke. Would be nice if this worked properly, I agree

06-18-2009 02:57 AM

Bevosss

Human being with feelings

Quote:

Originally Posted by gofer

yes, I can confirm this weirdness when alt+rightclick-dragging to draw a time selection plus a marquee at the same time and toggling snap while doing so.
Would be nice if this worked properly, I agree

Great! Thanks for the reply gofer.

I'm hoping Schwa will tune this up while he's fixing the crossfades, as it seems to be the fastest way to set a crossfade up on overlapping items (cleanly to item borders)...apart from many other uses.

Perhaps they could also add the leftclick behaviour to the Alt-right click, where holding Ctrl down disables snap while dragging...that would also work, and be consistent.

Btw what also really stuffs this up is, if an item border is not on a grid line, selections snap to the grid instead of the item here...painful!

I would like the time selection to snap to the selected item's borders. This could be just when dragging a selection on an item if need be. Or, at least let it snap to both in turn, it currently ignores the item border completely.

06-18-2009 02:16 PM

airon

Human being with feelings

Have you evaluated the multiple-non-contiguous area selection idea, with the added idea of extending selections to item boundaries via actions ?

It's a possibility, but would it help you here, or is a simple fix necessary for the problem you describe in this thread ?

06-18-2009 02:18 PM

airon

Human being with feelings

Quote:

Originally Posted by gofer

For my kind of editing, it's a necessity to select time selection and items at the same time, though not always optimal. Reaper lacks what I called Area Selection, which would have no trouble snapping to item edges and other stuff.

I hope to see a solution that benefits us all.

06-18-2009 02:39 PM

Bevosss

Human being with feelings

Quote:

Originally Posted by airon

I did +1 that already...but that may take some time methinks.

Just after a quick fix here, ie

1. Toggling Snap On while dragging a selection, doesn't change the starting point, and

2. Selections can snap to item borders

Those 2 things would make drag-selection excellent for me, and make the whole selection process uber-fast. :)

06-27-2009 08:25 PM

Bevosss

Human being with feelings

Alt-right click rocks for selection, but it sucks if you want to snap the selection to an item border...which is pretty often for me. So bump for support.

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