Lock Workspace

[RyanSummers]

I think it would be useful to borrow the Lock Workspace feature from Photoshop for After Effects, esp with the wide use of so many scripts and CEP panels in many workflows. I accidentally pull off tabs or slide them around in my day-to-day use of AE, esp since I’m using a Wacom pen most of the time.

I’m sure there’s some wrinkles to consider, esp when switching Workspaces while locked - do you prompt with a pop-up or automatically switch it?

[Rocketbottle]

You can set your own workspaces and rename them. If you mess things up, you can quickly reset the workspace to the last saved state by double click on the title tap. Hope this helps a bit?

[Nuno Caroco]

I would go even further on this idea, Ryan. Not only being able to lock the workspace but for example a preferences option, limiting the number of maximum comp-tabs you can have opened in the timeline panel. Nuke has this feature to avoid a crazy amount of uncessary node panels confusing the user while working. This in AE would prevent an user needing to scroll to X amount of open comps in the timeline, looking for the correct one, and having only a chosen max, of the recent ones.

[Raad23921078pwbn]

a workspace lock or tabs lock in preferences is a great idea...if not for all tabs then specifically for the toolbar as that's the one that usually gets dragged out while selecting tools on the fly.

[mave1969]

So much this.

It's utterly absurd that hitting CMD-W (a first-principles, system-wide, application-independent shortcut for closing documents or windows) can instead close an arbitrary tab and ***** up your workspace.

It's moronic. Sorry, but it is. There is no legitimate justification for it.

The *only* context in which it makes sense is when closing comp tabs on the timeline or when there are multiple items in the footage or layer viewer.

Yes, I know if you've saved the workspace there's the operation to restore that layout, but that workaround just absolves the AE team of blame for what are daft design choices. What if you're in the middle of working out a new layout? What if you're just using a temporary layout for a particular job? What if you've got 10 tabs open on the timeline and you quickly hit cmd-W eleven times? (Because, you know, you can do that in other apps that adhere to sensible and well-established UI conventions without fear of trashing your workspace) Whoops, no timeline tab for you. The user shouldn't have to even think about stuff like this.

[andrew.hoeveler]

I would also take this a step further... My issue is that the vertical dividers between panels are constantly shifting widths and positions everytime I do something like close a panel, lock an effects panel and then drag another one next to it, etc. Basically EVERY interaction with opening or closing or moving panels will also move all the other vertical panels around it, rather than keep those locked in place and just affect the panel directly next to it. I saved a screen capture to explain better. Sorry if I sound like a grumpy old man here but this issue seriously takes SO much of my time every day just to work around it. 
Curiously, the horizontal dividers always stay put. Maybe because I leave my timeline along the entire bottom of my screen?
Creative Cloud link: Screen Capture of Panel UI issue 
Dropbox link: Screen capture of panel UI issue 

[andrew.hoeveler]

Dear Adobe After Effects team... it's been a half year later... any new developments on this fix?

[andrew.hoeveler]

Back here again to ask the same question - any advancements on this fix? It's been a year and half later now.
I definitely waste at least a few minutes of every work day moving panels back into the correct position... over and over and over again.

[Raad23921078pwbn]

Please see @Rocketbottle reply for a solution to your issue. My request is to lock the toolbar only as that's the only thing that I keep knocking out of place as I work

[andrew.hoeveler]

Yes, I'm aware that we can save our workspaces, but that still doesn't help resolve the issue I showed in my screen captures I posted above. Saving workspaces and then reverting back to the saved workspace is just another repetitive task, just as moving my panels back to where they were is repetitive. I'm looking for Adobe to stop moving all the panel borders around everytime a single thing moves.

[andrew.hoeveler]

I wonder if this issue will ever be fixed?

[Frank_B]

I wonder too.
Part of my daily workflow is resizing plugins panel to its original position every time after I open and close New Comp Viewer or Effects window.

[andrew.hoeveler]

Dear Adobe, it's now OVER a year later and nothing has changed with this bug. Is this ever going to be addressed?!

[Frank_B]

Don't hold your breath. They implied it's difficult to do because of how the software is designed and it's related to Premiere, or something like that.

[andrew.hoeveler]

Sadly, these are the frustrations we have to deal with using software that's based on 30 year old code.

[andrew.hoeveler]

Coming up on the 2 year anniversary of this post. Would be amazing if @Adobe chimed in here!

[andrew.hoeveler]

Testing to see if this new feature solves this old issue...

[mave1969]

@andrew.hoeveler It won't, because the issue of projects overriding your workspace was never a huge problem. The issue is that inadvertently hitting a keyboard shortcut can destroy your workspace, and the interface for managing workspaces in AE (not to mention the laughably clunky way the workspace files are actually stored) is garbage.