Undo all position steps at once, not one by one. AE

[ErwinMichael]

Hello,

when I move layer around I often need undo all of position change values at once. But undo system "breaks" the position into several (a lot!) undo steps. Going back is extremely slow as I have to press CTRL+Z so many times. Scrolling down history to find certain  " Undo change value"  is not very effective either. Is there some magic keyboard shortcut perhaps, which will UNDO all position values at once ? It is tedious to do it one by one. Perhaps someone else had similar problem. Probably it is better to go back all over and not to end in the middle, when position change exceeds number of allowed steps. I know it can be increased in settings, but that does not help at all in this case.

Thank you all

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

Nope. AE doesn't use a hierarchically structured history/ undo and that is that. If it's really such an issue, I would suggest creating dummy keyframes in an unused region of the timeline and then you can simply copy&paste them back to overwrite your messed up values.

Mylenium

[P.M.B]

Not sure if you mean position of the layer in the timeline or the actual the x,y coordinates of the layers.  Either way I'm pretty sure the answer is no.  I have to say that it sounds a bit unusual to be "often" moving a layers position so many times you exceed the number of available undo's and need to move it back to the original position.

I mean the question suggests that you have a very specific coordinate where you want the layer to be as opposed to placing the layer in place that "looks good" to the eye.  If the former is the case and it being a few pixels off its original location is unacceptable then I suggest setting a position keyframe and then tapping 'Page Down' on the keyboard to move ahead one frame so you don;t overwrite that keyframe.   Then you can fool around or do whatever it is your doing and if you need to go back you just go to that keyframe.

Other options would be to temporarily duplicate the layer so when your done you could delete whichever layer you didn;t need.  Or simply writing the coordinates down so you can punch them in manually.

TBH your workflow sounds a bit nutty. It may help if you described in detail what it is your doing.  Someone might be able to offer some suggestions on how to improve your workflow.

Anyway the short answer to your question, again, is:  No.

[ErwinMichael]

Thank you for all answers.

Sometimes I just need to move layer precomp xy (character figure) to proper place (door) by dragging it with mouse in comp preview window.

Sometimes I need to undo that position change, but AE doest undo layer to initial position, but "split" the distance in a lot of undo steps (guess every 10 px ?). However I am not able to reproduce this behaviour precisely right know to describe it closely. - It seems it is working as it should now.

Thanks

[P.M.B]

Thanks, I think that clarifies things a bit.   You're saying that you just drag the layer from point A to point B then when you try to undo the movement is broken up into tons of steps.   That is strange.  I've never experienced this as far as I can remember &  I also cannot reproduce it.  There must be some very specific circumstances that triggers it.  Maybe you've hit upon some weird bug.  

[ErwinMichael]

Yes exactly. Usually it happens when A-B is set and keyframed, and B position is readjusted again by dragging layer xy in preview window. Perhaps I am stupid, but can't reproduce it now. Weird.