Any Way to Lock a Track in Vegas Pro?

Former user wrote on 5/7/2010, 12:45 PM

You can select all of the events on a track and lock them, but I don't think there is a track lock.

Dave T2

xberk wrote on 5/7/2010, 1:20 PM

Dave -- that's what I do -- select all the events and do a lock. No track lock that I know of either.

farss wrote on 5/7/2010, 3:26 PM

Its been requested since at least V4.
Its an obvious functional requirement.

Bob.

rmack350 wrote on 5/7/2010, 4:21 PM

In fact, it's so obvious that you can just assume it's been asked for since the first time a customer ever saw the product.

Rob

Cliff Etzel wrote on 5/7/2010, 4:29 PM

So I'm not dense after all.

I thought I was missing this very basic feature. I sure hope SCS will consider adding this very needed feature in the next version of Vegas - would even be nice if version 9.0e had this feature snuck in, but I figure given the Vegas release timeline, that will be when the next major version of Vegas is announced.

Cliff Etzel
Solo Video Journalist | Micro Documentary Film Maker
bluprojekt | SoloVJ Blog
--------
Desktop: OS: Win7 x64 | CPU: Q9400 | Mobo: Intel DG33TL | 8GB G.Skill Dual Channel RAM | Boot/Apps Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Audio Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Video Source: WD Black 2x750GB RAID 0 | Video Card: nVidia GeForce GT 220 1GB

Laptop: Dell Latitude D620 | C2D 2.0Ghz | 4GB G.Skill RAM | OS: Win7 x64 | Primary HD: WD 320GB 7200RPM | Video HD: WD 250GB 5400RPM

Geoff_Wood wrote on 5/7/2010, 4:33 PM

Yeah, I've been asking for yonks too. The ease of editing in Vegas can also be a drawback without a quick track lock (button).

So easy to inadvertently nudge something.

geoff

rmack350 wrote on 5/8/2010, 11:43 AM

I'd bet small money that there's a Vegas 9e before 10.

All I can say about track locking is that you should make a formal feature request.

I don't know why this was never done, maybe there's a reason.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 5/8/2010, 12:12 PM

rmack350 wrote on 5/8/2010, 12:41 PM

You never know. A lot of the current trimmer stuff took FOREVER to get into Vegas. But I'd never hold my breath.

Rob

Earl_J wrote on 5/10/2010, 3:24 PM

Hello Cliff,
right click on a clip; one of the options there is Select Events To End (from the position of the cursor to end of entire track); then immediately right click again and select Switches>Lock ...
that should do it. . .

I'm undecided just yet on whether I'd use a track lock all that often...
I like the select to end and lock or unlock to give me the choice of leaving the stuff ahead of where I'm editing locked while I mess with the parts behind where I'm editing. For multi-track projects, here again, I'd like to group items on different tracks and have them move in unison behind the edit while I'm leaving the stuff ahead of the edit alone... no?

Just thinking out loud... not trying to start anything... (grin)

Until that time... Earl J.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 5/10/2010, 3:39 PM

If it was easier to acheive, it would be my workflow to routinely lock any track that I was not currently working on, or maybe that I had considered 'finished', for at least the immediate future.

geoff

Cliff Etzel wrote on 6/17/2010, 9:18 AM

Earl - I've found that I used this feature quite a bit in Edius and to not have it as a part of Vegas Pro is beyond me.

Vegas does break from the traditional convention of editing NLE's but it's my opinion that common features like this are crucial to those of us who take post production workflow seriously

Just sayin'...

Cliff Etzel
Solo Video Journalist | Micro Documentary Film Maker
bluprojekt | SoloVJ Blog
--------
Desktop: OS: Win7 x64 | CPU: Q9400 | Mobo: Intel DG33TL | 8GB G.Skill Dual Channel RAM | Boot/Apps Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Audio Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Video Source: WD Black 2x750GB RAID 0 | Video Card: nVidia GeForce GT 220 1GB

Laptop: Dell Latitude D620 | C2D 2.0Ghz | 4GB G.Skill RAM | OS: Vista x64 | Primary HD: WD 320GB 7200RPM | Video HD: WD 250GB 5400RPM

PerroneFord wrote on 6/17/2010, 9:35 AM

Track lock would have saved me untold headaches on my current project. Or maybe even just the sync-lock like Avid has. That way everything can be edited, but once you get picture/audio lock, you can click a single button and lock them so that if they move, they move together. ALWAYS. Then you can sync lock your lower thirds, and anything else that has to fall into line with them. if you need to shuffle stuff around on another track, no problem. When it's done, sync lock it. and move along.

I added a new opening to my project today and all my lower thirds, markers, etc, just moved themselves along the timeline.

jetdv wrote on 6/17/2010, 9:49 AM

You could easily simulate the effect via a script that would lock/unlock all events on selected tracks.

PerroneFord wrote on 6/17/2010, 10:00 AM

For free? Let's talk.

Terry Esslinger wrote on 6/17/2010, 10:00 AM

PF,
Sounds like you had the auto ripple setting wrong.

jetdv wrote on 6/17/2010, 10:43 AM

PF, sure. LockSelectedTracks.js



/**

 * This script will lock all events on selected tracks

 * 

 * Written By: Edward Troxel

 * Copyright 2006 - JETDV Scripts

 * Modified: 07-20-2006

 **/



import System;

import System.IO;

import System.Windows.Forms;

import Sony.Vegas;





try {

  var dolock = true; //Change to FALSE to unlock



  //Go through the list of Tracks

  var trackEnum = new Enumerator(Vegas.Project.Tracks);

  while (!trackEnum.atEnd()) {

    var track : Track = Track(trackEnum.item());



    if (track.Selected) {

      //Go through the list of Events

      var eventEnum = new Enumerator(track.Events);

      while (!eventEnum.atEnd()) {

        var evnt : TrackEvent = TrackEvent(eventEnum.item());



        if (dolock) {

          evnt.Locked = true;

        } else {

          evnt.Locked = false;

        }



        eventEnum.moveNext();

      }

    }

    trackEnum.moveNext();

  }





} catch (e) {

    MessageBox.Show(e);

}

It's a little old but should still work fine. Change that one line and save as "Unlock" instead to do the reverse.

PerroneFord wrote on 6/17/2010, 10:51 AM

I've never done a script in Vegas before so I'll have to play with it.

Cool.. first time for everything right? :)

PerroneFord wrote on 6/17/2010, 10:53 AM

It wasn't "wrong". It was on. And that's part of the issue. I'd like to have some tracks ripple, and others not. That is precisely what track lock and sync lock do for you. They allow you to ripple to your heart's content, while leaving everything you DON'T want moved, alone.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 6/17/2010, 11:01 AM

Works perfect for me

is there a way to embed or link to an image icon to add to the toolbar? I've created a folder with the two scripts but now want to spiffy it up with a couple of icons accordingly.

Cliff Etzel
Solo Video Journalist | Micro Documentary Film Maker
bluprojekt | SoloVJ Blog
--------
Desktop: OS: Win7 x64 | CPU: Q9400 | Mobo: Intel DG33TL | 8GB G.Skill Dual Channel RAM | Boot/Apps Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Audio Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Video Source: WD Black 2x750GB RAID 0 | Video Card: nVidia GeForce GT 220 1GB

Laptop: Dell Latitude D620 | C2D 2.0Ghz | 4GB G.Skill RAM | OS: Vista x64 | Primary HD: WD 320GB 7200RPM | Video HD: WD 250GB 5400RPM

i c e wrote on 6/17/2010, 11:29 AM

I could not believe that sony did not have a lock button for each track when I bought it. I was shocked after all my searching that it didn't exist. I remember the cheapo programs i started on had it......

peace

Cliff Etzel wrote on 6/17/2010, 11:54 AM

FYI: For those who use hot keys - I've mapped the following keystrokes to activate each function:

Unlock Tracks = CTRL+ALT+U
Lock Tracks = CTRL+ALT+L

These key strokes weren't being used by other functions in Vegas Pro as far as I can tell and it works - highlight the tracks you want to lock and use these hot keys accordingly. You can do the reverse to unlock. Also discovered you can selectively lock and unlock after they have been applied so you 're not limited to a set of tracks having to be unlocked first before locking one in the initial grouping

Thanks again Ed for the code.

Cliff Etzel
Solo Video Journalist | Micro Documentary Film Maker
bluprojekt | SoloVJ Blog
--------
Desktop: OS: Win7 x64 | CPU: Q9400 | Mobo: Intel DG33TL | 8GB G.Skill Dual Channel RAM | Boot/Apps Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Audio Drive: Seagate 160GB 7200RPM | Video Source: WD Black 2x750GB RAID 0 | Video Card: nVidia GeForce GT 220 1GB

Laptop: Dell Latitude D620 | C2D 2.0Ghz | 4GB G.Skill RAM | OS: Vista x64 | Primary HD: WD 320GB 7200RPM | Video HD: WD 250GB 5400RPM

Geoff_Wood wrote on 6/17/2010, 3:48 PM

Oh yeah - Jet's script saves as name.js ( not .cs) in '.....Vegas 9.0/Script Menu" folder.

You can also:
1 - make a toolbar icon with something like http://icofx.ro/ (32 bit PNG 16x16)
2 - Save in the same scripts folder with same name as script.
3 - Add it to the toolbar (scripts automatically show in the "available toolbar Buttons"

I'll pop the icons up on my website this evening !

I have a Lock and Unlock tool next to the native Lock Event tool.

Thanks again JETDV - been wishing for this forever ! A discrete one on every track header would of course be preferable. But then the problem is track headers start to get overly cowded as in Acid. But it is (should be) a 'fundamnetal' button IMO.

V12 maybe ;-)

geoff

John_Cline wrote on 6/17/2010, 4:13 PM

Scripting is an extremely powerful feature of Vegas. When the comment is made that Vegas can't do something, often the answer is, "there's a script for that." (And it usually has Ed's (JetDV) name on it.)