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Scripting question: Is it possible to execute the “Trim Comp to Work Area” command in a script?
I’m a longtime AE user, but just getting in to scripting. After digging through the AE scripting guide I can’t see a way to perform the convenient “Trim Comp to Work Area” command.
I could do something like this:
// get the comp item
var myComp = app.project.items(1);
// set the comp's duration to 5 seconds
myComp.duration = 5;
// set the work area to start at 1 second
myComp.workAreaStart = 1;
// set the work area duration to 3 seconds
myComp.workAreaDuration = 3;If the Work Area started at the beginning of the Composition I could just do this:
myComp.duration = 3;But if I want to trim off the first second of the Comp and then have its duration be 3 seconds, I’m not sure how I can do that. Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks!
~Matt -
9 Replies
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If you have CS6, you should be able to give focus to the comp, and then use the menu command like this:
yourComp.openInViewer();
app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId(“Trim Comp to Work Area”));Dan
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Thanks for your reply, Dan. I haven’t upgraded to CS6 yet, are there any solutions you know of that will work with CS4?
Thanks!
~Matt -
There is a hack for giving focus to a comp. It’s ugly, but it might work for you. It would be like this:
var durSave = yourComp.workAreaDuration;
yourComp.workAreaDuration = 0.06;
yourComp.ramPreviewTest(“”,1,””);
yourComp.workAreaDuration = durSave;
app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId(“Trim Comp to Work Area”));I haven’t tried it with CS4, but it would be worth a shot.
Dan
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That worked perfectly! Thank you, Dan! I have also learned a ton over the years from your motionscript.com site. I can’t thank you enough sir, you rock!
Thanks!
~Matt -
Can this work in an expression or just a script?
yourComp.openInViewer();
app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId("Trim Comp to Work Area"));
I am setting up a template Comp for creating previews in and would like the Comp to either change to a specified layers length, or set the work area to that layers out point automatically. This usually gets overlooked and the previews end up with blank frames at the end, or the content gets cut short. Only need this if it can work as an expression.Also how do you write this correctly? I’ve tried several variations with no luck.
thisComp.layer("myComp").Duration;I was trying to change the source text of a text layer as a visual to prompt the user to update the comp length.-bsides
-bsides
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There’s no way to trim a comp with an expression.
For your second question, layers don’t have a duration attribute, but this will probably give you what you’re looking for:
thisComp.layer(“myComp”).outPoint;
Dan
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Hello,
i’ve been trying to ask this question on AE enhancers for few days but registration is quite a long process there so i’ll jump on this bus.Is it possible for a script to launch a particular window (i’m thinking of the Smoother window) and run an action within than window (set smooth to, say, 3 and then aplly the smooth to the selected layer) ?
i’ve tried :
var smoothPal = Window.find(“palette”, “Smoother”);
if (smoothPal instanceof Window){smoothPal.center();smoothPal.show();}
else{smoothPal.layout.layout(true);}Unsurprisingly, nothing happens… and even if the smoother palette happened to show itself, i wouldnt know what to do then since i dont know the property/methods used by this palette. The AE scripting guide doesnt say anything about it, so it might not be available to scripting… ?
Any idea welcome.
Xavier
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OK… i just realised that
app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId(“Smoother”));
(or app.executeCommand(5017);)
does open the Smoother palette.
But how to pass a tolerance value to that window and simulate an onClick() event on the apply button ? -
OK… i just realised that
app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId(“Smoother”));
(or app.executeCommand(5017);)
does open the Smoother palette.
But how to pass a tolerance value to that window and simulate an onClick() event on the apply button ?Xavier
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