ExtendScript selected layer index

[Dan Ebberts]

What you get with selectedLayers is an array. So something like this would give you the index of the first selected layer:


var myLayers = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers;
if (myLayers.length > 0){
alert (myLayers[0].index);
}else{
alert ("No layers selected.");
}


Dan

[James Ronan]

Thanks a lot Dan! That works perfectly! One more Question…

when the button clicks I also have a variable that creates a new solid:

var newSolid = app.project.activeItem.layers.addSolid([0,1,0], "My First Solid", 1920, 1080, 1.0, 10);

It automatically puts the solid at the top (Index 1) What I’d like it to do is add it one above the selected layer…

So far I’ve tried a few combinations but nothing is working.

Any suggestions?

Thank you again!!

James

[James Ronan]

Also, when I said ‘one above’ I was thinking of the timeline and actually meant an index of -1

I’ve been trying to figure it out and I think that because once you add a new solid, the selected layer index is going to change +1

so far this what i’ve wrote but it isn’t working.

newSolid.index = (layerIndex[0].index - 1);

[Dan Ebberts]

Try it this way:


var myLayers = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers;
var newSolid = app.project.activeItem.layers.addSolid([0,1,0], "My First Solid", 1920, 1080, 1.0, 10);
if (myLayers.length > 0){
newSolid.moveBefore(myLayers[0]);
}


Dan

[James Ronan]

Hey thanks so much that works! What is the reason for the [0] after myLayers?

Really appreciate the help… but I have one more question (last I promise). After the solid has been moved to correct index, I wanted to change the myLayers (The layer originally selected) Track Matte to Alpha.

I’ve added: myLayers.trackMatteType = TrackMatteType.ALPHA;

However it doesn’t seem to work. I’ve tried a few different lines of code and I think the issue is coming from the .selectedLayers.

This works if I specify the layer: app.project.activeItem.layer(7).trackMatteType = TrackMatteType.ALPHA;

The complete code is now:

var myLayers = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers;
var newSolid = app.project.activeItem.layers.addSolid([0,1,0], "My First Solid", 1920, 1080, 1.0, 10);

if (myLayers.length > 0){
newSolid.moveBefore(myLayers[0]);
myLayers.trackMatteType = TrackMatteType.ALPHA;
}

Thanks once again.

James

[Dan Ebberts]

You almost have it. Try it this way:


var myLayers = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers;
var newSolid = app.project.activeItem.layers.addSolid([0,1,0], "My First Solid", 1920, 1080, 1.0, 10);
if (myLayers.length > 0){
newSolid.moveBefore(myLayers[0]);
myLayers[0].trackMatteType = TrackMatteType.ALPHA;
}


myLayers is an array of the layers selected at the time you run the script. myLayers[0] is the layer that was selected first. The 0 is the index into the array, which gives you the first array element, or in this case, the first selected layer.

Dan

[James Ronan]

Ah Yes! that makes sense. Wow thank you so much!

Really helped, thanks a lot Dan

James