Height of the tracks

Hello,
Having not found similar suggestions, I therefore submit a problem that has bothered me since the start of Shotcut: the minimum height of the tracks. Could we not reduce it again because as soon as we count more than 4 or 5 tracks, we do not see them all and the elevator becomes compulsory and inconvenient.
What do you think ?
Hello from France.

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Thank you Hudson555, it is indeed a way to display a lot of tracks. I just thought that the minimum height could be further reduced without major inconvenience.
Thank you and good evening.

I would actually like to second this request. Looking at the track heights for the audio tracks and the advanced keyframes shows that they are shorter compared to the video tracks and simple keyframes. So the video tracks and simple keyframes can be reduced in height. Also, in the just released new version of Shotcut that came out yesterday, the icons in the toolbar can be made even smaller now. I believe then the icons in the track head menus can also be made even smaller to help give more options in making the tracks shorter.

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I would also like to second this request. I guess video track could be half the height of the actual minimum without any problem. And even another choice to reduce again one half. After all, there is not a lot of information to see in those tracks, aside from the small preview thumbnails (that I hide 90% of the time anyway).

I modified my minimum track height in V 19.10. I like this look and applied it to the latest release.

image

A height lower than this would wreck the icon display.

If you want to experiment with track heights edit the timeline.qml file located here.
\Shotcut\share\shotcut\qml\views\timeline\timeline.qml

Original code on line 60 multitrack.trackHeight = Math.max(30, multitrack.trackHeight - 20)
Adjusted height code multitrack.trackHeight = Math.max(20, multitrack.trackHeight - 10)

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That’s what I was imagining when I wrote about the track heights for the video and simple keyframe being reduced to the same height as the audio and advanced keyframe heights.

Maybe not if the icons are made smaller.

I like the icons the way they are.

My suggestion to make the icons smaller has to do with making the tracks smaller one more level down past how you demonstrated above. It’s not about making the icons smaller for all options.

Smaller icons would look too small.
image

These icons are reduced to 15x15 from 20x20.

I don’t think they would be any smaller compared to how small the tool bar icons can now be made. Making the track head icons smaller would just be for an option to go one more level shorter for the track heights. If anyone would feel that’s too small, then the user simply doesn’t have to use it but it’d be nice to have the option there.

For example, for me the the option to have the track heads at the largest setting in Shotcut is unusable however there may be some out there who like it.

Try experimenting with different icon sizes.
The file to edit is TrackHead.qml found here.
\Shotcut\share\shotcut\qml\views\timeline

implicitWidth and implicitHeight modify the icon size.

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I always hesitate to compare features of SC with other programs (please let me know if this is out of order and I will remove this post), but because it’s relevant to this thread, and just for information, I’d mention that Movie Edit Pro has a rather cool way of dynamically resizing track sizes in the timeline.

The demo screenshot video below gives an idea of how you can change track sizes in MEP - especially good for working on a laptop where the screen is small. Notice that when the tracks are at a small height, the preview icons disappear, which is fine when you just want to move things around etc.

I’ve also shown two more features - 1) where a clip can be immediately shown full size, filling the whole timeline area, and 2) by pressing {backslash} it toggles a full-screen view of the timeline.

Some (or all) of these features, or similar, would be awesome in Shotcut!!

https://streamable.com/363ww

This is a fantastic idea, @sauron - will be trying it out.

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+1

@sauron, which lines?

Hi @sauron, I tried your changes as above (also changed icons to 15x15) but it didn’t seem to make a difference to the small track height. Am I doing something wrong?

Timeline.qml modifies the minimum track height.
you need to edit:
The file to edit is TrackHead.qml found here.
\Shotcut\share\shotcut\qml\views\timeline

implicitWidth and implicitHeight modify the icon size.

The icon sizes can be edited in TrackHead.qml.

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Thanks @sauron. Icons in the track header look smaller now (after I realised I had to change them all individually), but with your code in Timeline.qml:

multitrack.trackHeight = Math.max(20, multitrack.trackHeight - 10)

… the tracks still seem the same height as before. :disappointed_relieved:

Did you reduce the track height using Ctrl + -??

This is my minimum track height.

2 Likes

Ah got it. Yes thank, Ctrl + “-” works. I had tried just selecting “make tracks shorter” in the menu - which bafflingly doesn’t work … weird!

Anyway, tracks are now shorter, same as yours, which is great! Thanks!:+1: