[John Smith]

I restarted the export in the end, though after an hour of exporting my memory is back to almost full, though the memory pressure this time is very low, just a single green bar in Activity monitor as opposed to last time that showed a wide pressure display and with the bars red.

I assume that FCPX is using all available memory and then using virtual memory for any additional space it wants to use. So on the last export that failed I assume the virtual memory must have been full, which was the result of the paused applications and the error message of no more memory. Though there is no where in FCPX I can see that allows you to assign the amount of Virtual Memory. There was more than 100GB of space still available on both my home drive and the drive FCP was exporting to, so there is no need to have a lack of virtual memory issue, yet there is no option to change the amount FCP uses (that I can see).

Something I find puzzling is why there is such a lack of preferences in FCPX, it’s like Apple have some misplaced preconceived idea that their software is so intuitive that user inference is not necessary!? … if ONLY!

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9

[John Smith]

This is just more screwed up programming by Apple, I am becoming so sick of their inability to programme a decent application that I feel like being done with them.

This was an occasional issue under OS X Lion, mostly I could do what I liked whilst it was sharing/creating the master files. But it basically comes down to if you use any other application or process whilst FCPX is mastering then it will likely fail. This includes sleep, which is suppose to be so much more efficient since Mavericks, but in reality it’s the same steaming pile of stupidity it was under Mountain Lion. Almost no application responds or makes use of the new setup procedure for making the computer sleep at the correct times, it worked almost perfectly under Lion OSX so why the hell change it to something that causes more energy consumption as everyone has to have the computer running excessively due to the rigid nature of using Caffeine. FCPX whilst mastering will still sleep, and this will screw up your master. And unlike applications like After Effects, when it screws up after 3 hours, it doesn’t retain anything of what it did, so you can’t even start again from where it failed.

Make sure no other applications are running, and make sure you have caffeine running and make sure it’s set to indefinite if your share/master is going to be a very long one. My last master must have taken over the 5 hours as it failed due to my caffeine preferences having been reset to a default of 5 hours for some reason. This barely ever happened under Lion OS X, it only become a consistent issue under Mountain Lion and is now a case where I can’t export anything without this issue in Mavericks, in fact I can’t even have multiple share/masters queued up with the option to have them load in Quicktime after completion as this causes the next Master in the queue to fail. So make sure the “after mastering pull down option” is set to “do nothing”, otherwise it will screw-up the next item in the queue.

We need a new company like what Apple used to be, as all the software they produce is deficient, some nice elements of functionality that makes you want to use the software, but so much poor functionality they never sort out it makes using their systems a constant dirge of annoyances, aggravations and slow working. I haven’t used Windows based systems properly for a long time, I know they have improved a lot, feel like returning to them. Though I guess they’ll not be that much improved… I am making a point to never learn another piece of Apple software, as it always turns out to be way more hassle than it’s worth, they rarely get them working properly, and any OS X update often just screws the whole process up again. It’s a mindless round of perpetual aggravations. It’s a case of: is the improved computer performance of updating the operating system worth the stress and hassle of dealing with all the lose of functionality that you will get in other respects.

I officially hate Apple software and shall look else where whenever possible from now on…

[John Smith]

Work it out? It really isn’t that complicated, if you have programmed in the automation function for one keyframe then it’s hardly any work to make it work for multiple keyframes, you can’t be talking much more than a few lines of code, ceratinly one basic procedure linking to whatever code/procedures they are currently using… this isn’t a case of working it out, it’s a case of chucking out poorly tested code and using developers who don’t use the application. I can’t see how anything else explains it… I have just been trying to use the keyframing to change the appearance of text over a duration of a few seconds. It will add the keyframes, though not display them in the timeline, but only the first set keyframe will cause any change. The second keyframe only displays when you delete the previous keyframe… now if you can’t keyframe the text, why have the ability to add the keyframes? This software is a 1-2+ years old now and still a stinking heap of BETA crap on so many levels and on so many features I could write an entire book on the subject.

I’ve suffered this application for a long while in the assumption that it was going to improve, but really it doesn’t, and the preferential elements of it that I have stuck to it for are seeming less and less worth the eternal hassle. Adobe Premier is calling…. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to learn this software, best off not wasting your time getting into something that is never going to be made into a solid application. Apple have lost it, spend less time of the effing iPhones and get back to things that are actually useful in more ways than just being a pointless distraction. Apple is just money money money, well developed innovation is really in the back seat.

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9

[John Smith]

Thanks for reply… though it’s a bit like making a 4 legged chair and forgetting to put the forth leg on. They call the technical help in Apple Shops the Genius Bar, the one time I tried to use them they couldn’t even provide me an answer to the simplest of requests and told me to phone Apple Support, pure genius that! ;p

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9

[John Smith]

Keyframing was designed by a complete ignoramus…. is there no way to select two or more keyframes and then drag them to a different point on the clip/region. All I want to do is drag two positioning keyframes from one end of a text clip/region in the timeline, to the other end. But I can’t find a way to select both keyframes. I don’t want to drag them individually (obviously) as then I have to faff around making sure the number of frames between them is the same as it was prior to moving them. If there is a way, then it’s about as intuitively assignable as something that’s been lost in the depths of the Amazon rainforest for 10,000 years 😛

thanks…

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9

[John Smith]

I don’t care what anyone says on this, you explain around it how you like, it’s a bug or lazy programming. Easiest work around I have found is to select the compound clip in the time-line and use Control+D and then enter a duration that exceeds the total length of the clips contained with in the compound clip. The compound clip now automatically adjusts to the exact length of the contained clips.

There is a bar that you can not drag inside the compound clip editor that divides where the clips have gone beyond the originally created compound length (greyed out). That should be adjustable, but it’s not. You should also be able to just drag the end of the compound clip in the time-line to extend it to the new length, but you can’t. This is simple and standard editing functions that just don’t work.

The above works if the compound clips contents have exceeded the original length, if the compound clip should be shorter as you have removed frames/clips from it then I do a similar thing as before. Control+D, then enter a duration below that of the clips within the compound clip (or probably easier drag the right-hand-side of the clip to the left in the time-line), then press control+D again and enter a value that exceeds the actual duration of the contained clips. You could of course just use the exact length required, but it’s often easier to do this than entering an exact number of seconds and frames. No chance of cropping anything off through lack of attention to detail.

Anyway, I assume this is the problem this post was about, this is the problem I was having, and this is a work around that I have fathomed that works best for me.

I guess you can probably do a similar thing by selecting multiple compound clips, so as to adjust them all in one go. Though I haven’t tried that yet.

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9 DP7 (yes risky running a BETA system, but Mountain Lion is awful, and the performance of Mavericks is a lot better than Lion (and M’Lion))

[John Smith]

I might add also, if anyone is interested or not I know not! ;p

But why can’t Apple have both functions, the drag option is great, but why not have the buttons as well? It’s not like they free up space for anything, there’s just empty space where there was once buttons. Same as with the Save As feature being removed, there was no reason why they couldn’t have a system where Save As was present as well as the newer functions, as despite the cries and arrogant assertion from Apple that they have removed the need for Save As, it’s clearly not the case, there is a call for both functions. The new save function is great (particularity in FCPX), but really “Save As” still has a simplicity of use and functionality that is lost in some circumstances. And curiously enough they have yet to integrate the same save functions into Logic Pro, I am glad “Save As” exists still there as it’s much more apart of my work flow, but the FCPX system of saving would have been a very good addition (but not a replacement).

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9 DP7 (yes risky running a BETA system, but Mountain Lion is awful, and the performance of Mavericks is a lot better than Lion (and M’Lion))

[John Smith]

I had a feeling someone was gonna say something like that, I had tried doing that previously but couldn’t get it to work, think I probably had wrong edit type selected. Seems until your certain something should workout the way your trying it, you often have trouble making these things happen…. I do generally find Apples desire to remove buttons and to surreptitiously hide functions from plain sight is more of a pain in the ass than helpful. Too many times it becomes incredibly irritating when you can’t remember where something has now been hidden. Fine if you only ever use a small handful of applications, but if you use all manner of audio, video, and animation packages, and sometimes do not use one of them for a month or so it becomes a tireless round of searching… I think greater visibility should be concentrated on rather than less buttons. They seem to have taken to making the Applications more bulky in sense of taking more of the screen space up with larger sliders and buttons, but lessening the clutter. I’d rather more buttons and smaller objects/sliders etc. The working area seems to keep diminishing. I find with Final Cut Pro X I have a lot of trouble getting a good view of an entire project when any complexity develops. Now seems to be the same with Logic Pro X, the mixers and surrounding nobs and sliders are all much larger and the work space decreased… Logic 9’s interface really didn’t need altering very much, if at all…. anyway ramble ramble!

Thanks for that, problem solved…

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Mavericks OS X 10.9 DP4 (yes risky running a BETA system, but Mountain Lion is awful, and the performance of Mavericks is a lot better than Lion (and M’Lion))

[John Smith]

hmmmmm curious, I couldn’t find that file anywhere, so ended up downloading some more scripts from Adobe website, one of them allows you to modify existing keyframes via a script called “KeyEd Up.jsx”, though doesn’t seem to show menu functions that don’t have short-cuts already assigned. So, I then told the script to save a short-cuts file to my desktop, then I added the said text (from you), and then told it to merge the files…. this worked.

Adobe Scripts: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&extid=1698043

Somewhat long winded! … though for some reason after doing this ridiculous song and dance I actually tried looking for the file manually rather than searching for it. And there it was, right where it was said to be. Yet the search did find an old version of this file from a backed-up Leopard account. But failed to find anything from my backed up Lion or Mountain Lion accounts or indeed the file in the current system. I’ve noticed odd behaviour like this quite recently when using the search box in the finder window. Not sure if this is a glitch with using Mavericks (quite likely) or if it exists in Mountain Lion as well. Main reason I moved to Mavericks was due to problems with Mountain Lion. Highly unstable operating system, so I thought I would try going forwards before going back to Lion, as my computer seemed to be under-performing on Lion.

Found my way around most problems in Mavericks, and there are actually some good and practical improvements, so have been very reluctant to go back, FCPX and AE do perform faster as well. Though the main instability I had with Mountain Lion has persisted with Mavericks. Though I think this is bad programming with a DigiDesign plug-in for the MBox 2 Pro firewire audio interface. Though it didn’t cause kernel panics and system resets in Lion, just some not so problematical glitches. Anyway, this is off subject!

Thanks for feedback.. all works now

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Maverick OS.X DP4 (yes risky running a BETA system, but Mountain Lion is awful, and the performance of Maverick is a lot better than Lion)

[John Smith]

I am using CS5.5, but there is no such file as Shortcuts.txt, looked in exact user folder location, also looked in main preferences folder. Searched entire computer, and the only file that comes close is for Photoshop. There is in fact no Adobe folder in preferences at all, and no file located in the previous sub-folder layer or elsewhere.

So I can’t change the details as no such file exists anywhere, there are no hidden files either.

2.4ghz 12 core Mac Pro 2012, 32GB DDR3 DIMM Registered ECC, Maverick OS.X DP4 (yes risky running a BETA system, but Mountain Lion is awful, and the performance of Maverick is a lot better than Lion)