Probably one for Edward:

I use numerous tools from Excalibur daily but there is just one tool that I use every few minutes - the select events tool. It's the only one I keep permanently on my toolbar, set to 'select events to end'. Since installing the latest build of Vegas, though, the icon has disappeared! The command is still there on the toolbar but it's invisible.

I've put a separator before and after it so I know it's there, and it's just as usable as before, but any idea what happened to the icons?

OK, the icons have mysteriously returned!

I have a theory - well, more of a wild guess: I had two instances of Vegas open when I started Excalibur up. I later closed one down and carried on working in the other instance. Then I realised I had lost the Select Events icon so I went to Customise Toolbar to reinstall it. That's when I noticed the missing icons. On closing the second instance of Vegas and restarting, the icons appeared.

I have a sense of deja vu here as I think something similar might have happened to me before.

Anyway, problem now gone away if not resolved.

The computer is doing it's best to drive you insane! ;-)

Don, it won that particular battle many, many years ago . . . ;-)

Vegas has a habit of "losing" icons. The easiest way to refresh the toolbar is to just exit and restart Vegas. You may be able to refresh it by going to Tools - Scripting - Rescan script menu folder

Thanks Edward. Still love Excalibur and rate it as the best script extension for Vegas, even though I probably use about 15% of it's functionality!

Hi Ian

I looked at Excalibar several times over the years, and just about bought but haven't, not being compelled by anything to buy. How does it make your editing life easier? What can it do that Vegas by itself can't do? Or, what (everyday tasks) can it do in an easier/simpler way than Vegas can? (I'm aware Edward will be watching... :-) )

hi renton,

simply dl the trial and give it a whirl - if i had to buy one 'plugin' for vegas, it'd be excalibur!

been using it for years - and edwards support is second to none!!!!

btw. i haven't given any examples of what i use if for because i simply don't have the time - and use so many of them!

Likewise I'm in a bit of a rush today, but for me the most useful and most frequently used tools (not in any particular order) are:

Select events - I use it from the dialogue box and as a toolbar button, primarily to select all events from the cursor point top the end of the timeline. This is such a huge timesaver when working with complicated projects.

Gap/Overlap - again, frequently used. Typical use would be when I am first laying out a load of clips on the timeline and want to quickly tidy them up. Also useful to evenly space events that you want to bring in at a specific frequency.

Create/Delete/Convert Markers - you have to download the demo and look at this yourself to see how useful and flexible these three are!

Four points - this lets you instantly generate an envelope with four adjustable points, e.g. for volume or composite levels. I have a feeling you can now do this in Vegas, but certainly not as flexibly as with Excalibur.

DVD Asset Collector - I don't use this for DVDs but there is a very useful feature that lets you batch render regions and name them as you like.

Properties - lets you change the properties of selected audio or video media

Other useful tools are:

Set Duration of selected events
Fade Events
Apply transitions to events
Unsplit media
Match aspect
Remove transitions

Many of the tools have various 'switches' that let you do different things, e.g. you apply the tool to selected tracks only, include or exclude the events under the cursor, have it affect the selected area only etc etc. Very useful and flexible.

Well, I went on a bit longer than I planned, considering I am in a hurry to get out the door! As Lesley says, download the trial and see whether any of this works for you. If you get into the habit of using it, you won't want to lose it, particularly if you do this kind of thing for a living, where time saved = higher margins.

Set velocity at marker - I edit quite a few screen capture videos in Vegas, and this one is an incredible timesaver - one button "freeze on this frame". Not all content is as static as some of these screencaps, but it has saved me hours and hours.

DVD asset collector - this is actually a very versatile batch renderer. I frequently have families of clips on the timeline that get the same sorts of graphic treatments & whatnot, I can set a region with the final name for each clip, then render the whole timeline while I go get lunch. Voila, all my master or distribution clips, with good filenames! Edward very kindly shipped me a file (was it a dll?) that opened up all the vegas rendering templates for the DVD asset collector, I use this all the time.

I don't do it often, but throwing a kajillion stills on the timeline with moves is dead easy.

And, everything everyone wrote above...

I am a huge believer in developing efficiency in rote tasks. Vegas will natively do almost everything the various scripting packages will do, it just takes many, many more clicks. I'd rather pay for Excalibur and devote more of my attention to the creative decisions. Thanks Edward!

You mentioned throwing stills on the timeline. If you're doing that on a regular basis, you should also check out Montage Magic will will add movements to your photos but do so in a "smart" way and let you easily modify the starting and ending positions. It has face detection so it will give preferences to the areas where faces are located.