Topic: Relative snap?

Rather than creating a new preview topic, I’ll just add the post to this topic. 2.30 beta1 is available in the VIP lounge:

• Added “snap to grid”, “snap relative to grid” and “snap to edit cursor” options to the editor snap menu. All options can be enabled at the same time, making snapped position dependant on which snap point is closest.

• Modified the way that the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys affect mouse drag actions. Pressing the Shift key after starting a timeline drag action will temporarily disable snapping. Pressing the Alt key after starting an event drag action will lock the dragged selection in either the horizontal or vertical position.

• Dragging phantom copies in the arrangement editor is now done with the Ctrl key instead of the Alt key. The phantom copy can subsequently be converted to a unique copy with the edit menu or the Ctrl+U shortcut.

• Pressing the Ctrl key when drawing a curve, or when dragging a single point event in the curve editor, will snap the point to the default parameter value. This was previously done with the Alt key.

• Renamed the Quantize menu to “Grid & Snap” menu. Shortcut key is Alt+G (previously Alt+Q).

• Changed the shortcut key for toggling snap mode to A (previously T).

• Modified the behaviour of the Q/W key shortcuts: Q/W moves the edit cursor in steps of the grid value. Shift+Q/W steps the edit cursor between marker events and active loop, punch and segment ranges. Ctrl+Q/W will set the edit cursor to the start or end of the current event selection.

• Added Ctrl+E as shortcut for the “link edit cursor to play cursor” option.

• Added Ctrl+R as shortcut for resetting current event/segment selection.

• Added Ctrl+U as shortcut for converting a sequence/sound event to a unique copy.

• When a track event is selected, the Left Arrow key navigation will stop at the first event on the track, instead of selecting the track.

• Middle-click on the timeline will set the edit cursor snapped. Holding Shift while clicking will set the edit cursor without snapping.

• Added an extra decimal digit to plugin parameter value readouts in the curve editor and the mixer parameter faders.

• Fix: Unassigning an instrument from a track which had MIDI parameter tracks would cause a crash.

Let me know if you find any conflicts in the changes to the Shift, Ctrl and Alt key behaviour. I hope to release 2.30 this weekend.

@Ortac wrote:

@Zynewave wrote:

• Dragging phantom copies in the arrangement editor is now done with the Ctrl key instead of the Alt key. The phantom copy can subsequently be converted to a unique copy with the edit menu or the Ctrl+U shortcut.

What’s the point in this? It makes things more difficult as far as I can see.

@Slomo wrote:

I agree with Ortac. I have an established workflow using Ctrl and Alt all the time. It’s easier to learn new behaviour than to change old 😉

The reason for these changes can be gathered from various posts in this topic, but to summarize:

Changes to the key shortcuts was necessary to make room for a new key shortcut for temporarily overriding snapping while dragging events. This is a shortcut that is available in most other host programs, and I’ve come to appreciate it during the development of 2.30.

There are now three drag modes that are shared among all arrangement, piano roll, drum map and curve editors: Copy, override snap and lock x/y position. For consistency, I insist that the key shortcuts used to activate these drag modes are the same across all editors. It would be stupid to have for example snap override on the Alt key in the piano-roll, and on the Shift key in the arrangement editor.

The arrangement editor is special in that there has been two copy modes (unique and phantom). If both should have their own key (Ctrl and Alt), then to follow the consistency rules, the Alt key would not be usable as drag key shortcut in the other editors.

So far in 2.30, Shift is snap override, Ctrl is copy, and Alt is lock x/y. It can actually make sense to hold all three keys down if you are dragging an event you want to copy further away on the same track without snapping.

If you think this new key shortcut behaviour is bad, then please tell me what you would prefer instead.

@LiquidProj3ct wrote:

Frits, mouse snap mode doesn’t work when you set it in “Start of grid unit under cursor”

About that option: I never liked the fact that I had to place this option in preferences. Now that we have a menu for snap options, would it not make more sense to move the option to that menu?

Instead of the current “snap to grid” option, there would be “snap to closest grid line”, and “snap to preceding grid line”. This would allow you to have the “snap to preceding…” option enabled in the piano roll and drum map, while using the “snap to closest…” option in the arrangement and curve editors.