Quick clip move/lock timing

When moving clips between tracks (such as alt-arrow up and down for audio clips), a clip will overwrite an existing clip if placed in the same track. Often I want to move a clip up or down several tracks to avoid existing clips, so I am stuck with using the mouse, which is slower and opens me up to accidentally moving the clip forward to back on the timeline in the process.

I have two requests regarding this workflow issue:

1) Some sort of key to lock the timing of the clip when it's moved with the mouse – holding shift or something to ensure that I can drag the clip wherever I want and it will drop to a track but maintain its current position horizontally.

2) A keyboard method of moving tracks that allows me to jump other clips so I don't overwrite them. This could be a single move to destination track shortcut, but it would be even better to have the ability to target a track (up to the first nine or ten) using a modifier and number shortcut.

For 2, respecting the state of Auto Track Selector would work.

I think both ideas are worthwhile, and I like the idea of locking the horizontal position so the clip only goes straight up.

I think Shift is the common way to lock one degree of motion. Which degree is decided by the initial main direction of the motion.

1) Some sort of key to lock the timing of the clip when it's moved with the mouse – holding shift or something to ensure that I can drag the clip wherever I want and it will drop to a track but maintain its current position horizontally.

This feature already exists. If you hold the shift key, you can drag the clip up or down to a different track and stay locked on the X axis.

1) Some sort of key to lock the timing of the clip when it's moved with the mouse – holding shift or something to ensure that I can drag the clip wherever I want and it will drop to a track but maintain its current position horizontally.

This feature already exists. If you hold the shift key, you can drag the clip up or down to a different track and stay locked on the X axis.

It does! I don't know how I didn't catch this before, I could have sworn I tried all the common modifiers and couldn't get it to lock. Thanks! Looks like the most important part of my request already exists.

Regarding your second request, a possible solution would be to not overwrite anything until the alt key is released.

When moving clips between tracks (such as alt-arrow up and down for audio clips), a clip will overwrite an existing clip if placed in the same track.

Another solution for this is Layered Video Editing like Resolve already has for audio tracks. It would allow you to lay video clips on top of each other without overwriting them. When you move the clip again, the clips underneath are preserved.

To enable this for audio:
Timeline -> Layered Audio Editing

To show the audio layers:
View -> Show Audio Track Layers

Having these options for video tracks also would be perfect.

Regarding your second request, a possible solution would be to not overwrite anything until the alt key is released.

I would be good with something like this that prevents committing to cutting into a clip until I release a key command, however…

When moving clips between tracks (such as alt-arrow up and down for audio clips), a clip will overwrite an existing clip if placed in the same track.

Another solution for this is Layered Video Editing like Resolve already has for audio tracks. It would allow you to lay video clips on top of each other without overwriting them. When you move the clip again, the clips underneath are preserved.

To enable this for audio:
Timeline -> Layered Audio Editing

To show the audio layers:
View -> Show Audio Track Layers

Having these options for video tracks also would be perfect.

… as you point out, there is a mechanic for this already in the software, so getting it for video tracks would probably be the best solution, and not too technically complex to implement.

… as you point out, there is a mechanic for this already in the software, so getting it for video tracks would probably be the best solution, and not too technically complex to implement.

Yeah, I certainly hope is the case. I don't know how much similarity there is in the code for audio and video tracks, but the functionality for Layered Editing is already there for audio tracks so hopefully it wouldn't be too much effort to modify it to work for video tracks also. It could even be rolled out in a minor update since it is expanding on a feature that already exists.