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Blue-Marble
Known Participant
November 3, 2023
Answered

New layers start at work area start time?

Is there a way to create a new layer at the start of the work area instead of the start of the timeline?

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Rick GerardCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 3, 2023

If you are dragging an asset from the Project Panel to the timeline, holding down the Shift key will cause the layer in-point icon (looks like the current time indicator at the top of the timeline) to snap to the CTI, the Start or End of the Work Area, or any marker or keyframe that is visible. 

 

If you are creating anything new from the Layer/New menu, it will always be at the start of the timeline. Once created, you can always hold down the Shift key when selecting and dragging it to snap to the nearest layer in-point, visible keyframe, CTI, or marker.

 

Unfortunately, there is no setting in the preferences or a keyboard shortcut to make the layer snap to anything by default.

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2 replies

Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 3, 2023

If you are dragging an asset from the Project Panel to the timeline, holding down the Shift key will cause the layer in-point icon (looks like the current time indicator at the top of the timeline) to snap to the CTI, the Start or End of the Work Area, or any marker or keyframe that is visible. 

 

If you are creating anything new from the Layer/New menu, it will always be at the start of the timeline. Once created, you can always hold down the Shift key when selecting and dragging it to snap to the nearest layer in-point, visible keyframe, CTI, or marker.

 

Unfortunately, there is no setting in the preferences or a keyboard shortcut to make the layer snap to anything by default.

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    Blue-MarbleAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 4, 2023

    Thank you, Rick. Maybe you might know but why isn't Adobe improving After Effects and other apps for that matter with more settings for defaults? It happens every now and again but the one I mentioned seems like it would have been requested a while ago and has since been archived as a request. It is really frustrating to have to remind Adobe about other features that some apps have and some don't. And then the different app departments don't learn from each other by default about defaults.

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