Feature request: non-latching snap

Cubase
1

Hello,

Problem with current workflow
When dragging a note, a part or anything, you often wish the snap setting was different: you click on a note, hold the button, start dragging, and then you realize that snap is on when you needed it to be off, or vice versa. What I usually end up doing is release the button (which drops the note wherever it was when I started dragging it), undo (one key command), toggle snap (another key command) and then click and drag again (i.e. repeat an action I just went through).

Suggested solution
For many years there’s been an elegant way of dealing with this in Final Cut Pro: if you press the snap key command toggle while still holding the mouse button for a drag operation, the snap setting is toggled, and changes back to what it was when you release the mouse button. It’s like a momentary on/off used for when a drag operation has already started. It uses the same key command, doesn’t need to be learned and is very intuitive. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there’s a way of doing this in Cubase.

Cubase already does this with, for example, drag-copying (option/alt) or drag-in-one-direction (command/ctrl). You can hold these keys at any time during the drag operation. With the Final Cut Pro method, you don’t need to hold a key (it’s not a modifier), but you simply press it to change a mode while the drag operation is in progress. It therefore seems very easy to implement IMHO.

Thanks.

2

+1 (using the modifier key)

(however i’m a little confused with regard to how you describe final cut does it; you have to click the momentary snap function [button] while the drag operation is in progress? how would one simultaneously drag an object and click somewhere to toggle the momentary snap at the same time?)

3

Thanks for chipping in.

As you’ve pointed out, it is obviously impossible to drag an object while clicking on another one…

What I’ve described is the Key Command behavior. It’s actually very, very simple:

  1. There’s an icon which shows snap on/off, which can be clicked (just as in Cubase).
  2. This action can be assigned to a key (not a modifier). In Final Cut it is the S key by default.
  3. Start a drag operation and, while holding the button, press the key once (don’t hold it). This toggles the snap state momentarily.
  4. As soon as you release the the mouse button (thus ending the drag operation), the snap state returns to what it was before you started dragging.
  5. You can press the key as many times as you like while dragging and the snap will toggle on or off accordingly (a rather pointless exercise but it illustrates the point).

I hope this is clearer now.

4

nice, thanks!

5

Upgraded from 6.5 to 8, and this feature has been added in the meantime! Great stuff…