Breaking apart compound clip items

Hi Guys,

I'm working with a compound clip. It won't break apart when I click Command Shift G. When I go to "clip" and break clip apart, it is greyed out.

When I click into the clip, all the elements are there.

Can anyone diagnose this problem.

Why won't it let me break into the clip?

Phil

Phil.

I think others can expand on this further than me no pun intended. But I'll give it a shot. It looks like you are trying to do two different things. If you double click on the CC in the timeline, it will reveal it's contents. If you chose to break apart the items, it literally breaks those items apart, making it no longer a CC, but you can see the contents. As far as I can tell, there is no way to "re-connect" a broken apart clip, whereas with the first method, you just click the back arrow (can't remember what that is called) at the top left of the timeline/project.

I'll let everyone else clean up the mess of my explanation.

Jonathan

In your first screenshot, as far as I can tell, you have a project selected, not the compound clip you show in the second screenshot.
Make sure you select the compound clip in the timeline - as shown in the second screenshot - and it is still selected (showing in yellow) when you drop down the menu.

Yes, first screen shot, there's a Project selected in the Browser (bright yellow outline).

Hi There,

I believe that highlight was just for the screenshot. I have made the clip highlighted (yellow border) and the option to break apart the clip simply doesn't appear. The keyboard shortcut also doesn't work.

The clip is compound - The icon is in top left and when I double click into the clip, it shows all the elements of the entire compound. I click the back arrow to get back to the timeline, but the software won't let me break the clip apart.

Could this be an El Capitain bug?

Thanks,
Phil

Hi Phil,

Have any of the clips inside the CC been retimes, or has the CC been retimed?

- Ronny

I have had this issue. Try this, delete the compound clip in timeline and insert the compound clip from browser. Now you should be able to brake apart items. That workde for me.

If the CC is only partially used (only a range of it) and has other connected clips in an unused area, it won't break apart. I find this consistently and it drives me nuts, that I can't break apart just the used segment.

Hi all.

So let me ask this: once you break apart a compound clip, can it then be put back together? I know that "expanding" is a different thing, but with breaking apart it seems the only way to reconnect everything is through find/replace method

You just create a new CC

Actually easier than that. When you create a Compound Clip, the parent lives in the Event. The children (copies) live in Project and other Timelines. When you break one apart, you're doing that inside the Timeline. That has no effect on the Parent, which is still in-tact in the Event Browser. So just go back to the Event Browser, and drop the parent back into the Timeline where you want it.

Why would you want to create a duplicate of what you already have?

Excuse me for answering an old thread but I was having the same issue.

I have little Intros and Outros I have saved as compound clips that I believe I used to be able to break apart previously.

Either way, the workaround is to double-click to open the compound clip and Select All, and copy everything.

Push the back arrow to go back to the timeline and simply paste everthing in and delete the compound clip(s) which I borrowed from another event.

Nothing you all probably haven't figured out already, but I thought I'd share just in case.

What's wrong with breaking apart the compound where it already is?

Hi Ben,

Nothing really . . . it all depends on how you like to work.

I'm integrating certain components from the CC and deleting the rest, so it's easier to work this out in the timeline, rather then switching back and forth.

If you break apart the CC right there in the timeline, then just delete what you don't want. You don't have to switch to anything else.

Clip menu, Break Apart Clip Items. I guess I'm not understanding how that doesn't do the trick.

Ahhh . . . that explains things!

if you look at the very first post in this thread is reads:
"Hi Guys, I'm working with a compound clip. It won't break apart when I click Command Shift G."

I have the same issue with some of my older CC's and was searching the internet for "can't break compound clip in FCPX".

My advice is only for people having this issue. It's not ground-breaking advice, but sometimes I can't see the simple solution.

Plus, people on this site have helped me so generously I thought I'd pipe in

Also Ben,

What do you mean by "and has other connected clips in an unused area" in this post of yours:

If the CC is only partially used (only a range of it) and has other connected clips in an unused area, it won't break apart. I find this consistently and it drives me nuts, that I can't break apart just the used segment.

There is something else going on, because there is no reason why this wouldn't break apart, and I cannot reproduce the problem as you described it. Is this specific to older compounds? You would happen to know which version they originated in? Thanks.

Hi Tom,

All the CC's I have are old, but not that old. It's more like I've done so many things to them that they're polluted.

After I create them in a specific timeline I copy and paste them to an Event I created called "Intros & Outros".

Then later, in a new Project, I copy & paste them and use what I need and delete the rest. This CC may contain a Subscribe button, playout music and background I use, while the main clip I won't use, along with other items.

So a brand new CC in it's respective timeline works fine, but I am using these specific CC's not as FCP intended.

(I sometimes create a CC within another CC, but that seems to work fine.)

Thx for asking!

I can't reproduce the issue, either.