The Vegas team could easily add a "Border" Function to the Layer Dimensionality FX plugin.

John - Hi. Thanks again - your efforts and experience are much appreciated! When I was looking at Cyberlink and CorelPro or some other consumer systems you could crop a video, put a border around it and then when you got it cropped how you like it you could move it around the screen like a PIP. All in one convenient effect. My only conclusion with VegasPro is that doing something like this is a real convoluted combination of effects/crops/border etc. etc. And I still don't have a workflow that seems to work consistently. I really like VP but wow. really?

I'm speechless, primarily, because I didn't write the software. I've experienced a similar situation in the distant past with AutoCAD where just about everything was harder to do than working in Visio. In AutoCAD, one could draw with precision, though. It seems that I always select the dark horse. 

I'm speechless, primarily, because I didn't write the software. I've experienced a similar situation in the distant past with AutoCAD where just about everything was harder to do than working in Visio. In AutoCAD, one could draw with precision, though. It seems that I always select the dark horse. 

After fighting to learn Autocad (might take me years) I bought Mesh Cam Pro to take a jpg text image created in Vegas 11, convert it sizewise in Adobe Elements, then insert it into Mesh Cam Pro and in millimeters convert the text image to a cad file all in about 10 minutes time and then send it to the G code software (free) and watch it carve the text into wood. The Cad file would contain about 30,000 lines of code created in less then 10 minutes from a jpg text image of black text on a white background. It could also select 32 different color cad machining operations on one picture if you had the time to watch it carve. I was a very happy camper with this software which required very little expertize.

JJK

I thought I would survey the results of this issue over the different Vegas Pro versions.

Vegas Pro 9

Vegas Pro 10

Vegas Pro 11

Vegas Pro 12

Prior to 11 when Pan/Crop and other fX were handled in separate windows, it seemed to work. I could have loaded version 4 and 8, but...

Disclaimer:

Correlation doesn't equal causation.

Lone wolf here.

Vegas sequence -» Photoshop Action (macro) using custom PSD frame. Render in Vegas.

Spent a day learning a workflow, and never looked back. Exquisite.

Hello @Musicvid - yes, you and @john_dennis have really just confirmed my working theory that there is no simple way to accomplish this outside of third party software, etc. etc. Even John's solution works only if I don't change any of the framing parameters after I set up the initial border, at least on my system. So really it seems like my mileage is varying which is something that I don't want in a software program. I'll re-iterate from my foray into Corel and Cyberlink - this is easily accomplished on one screen with all the parameters there for a simple adjustment - ten seconds and it's done.

Hello @matthias-krutz - Well Done! Yes, this is exactly what I was looking for but for whatever reason could never figure out for myself hahahahaha. I am forever in your gratitude and I will sing your praises to my grandchildren. Lol, thanks again and take care!

One other question and this may be asking a lot - but is there anyway in pan/crop "position" to control the pan/crop box to get one of the sides at an angle or both sides for a parallelogram effect while still retaining the border? This can be done with the masking tool where you can adjust "nodes" on the mask to make whatever shape you like. But I'm not seeing this for the position function. If this makes sense.

With Pan / Crop only a rectangular selection can be created. In VP17, the PiP FX has a FreeForm mode for free selection of the 4 corners.
If you want a nice perspective view, you can create it with Track Motion - 3D Source Alpha. This does not require PiP FX.