Collapse connected clips?

Again, extra steps. But, I would love to be able to "expand" a CC to work in it, within the Project timeline.

I understand the concept here, but collapsing anything will need to be a container, would need to have a name. I don't know anything in any app that collects layers/objects into a group without naming it.

What joema says. Just to make it easier to distinguish CCs that you plan to reuse or whatever from those solely created to reduce your timeline height, you could name them all (for instance) „x“. FCP does not add _01 asf, they are all „x“, and you could still see the relevant CCs by excluding >text >is >x (or so).
EDIT: I’m on vacation, so I can’t try. I think the smart collection should be: >media type >is >compound clip + >text >is not >x

FCPX.guru wrote: Again, extra steps. But, I would love to be able to "expand" a CC to work in it, within the Project timeline.

I understand the concept here, but collapsing anything will need to be a container, would need to have a name. I don't know anything in any app that collects layers/objects into a group without naming it.

Well, the user wouldn't have to know about it if the app absolutely needs to name it... Just make the process invisible to the user then. No dialog box, no nothing. No trace of a name or file... just collapse the damned thing!

FCPX.guru wrote: I understand the concept here, but collapsing anything will need to be a container, would need to have a name. I don't know anything in any app that collects layers/objects into a group without naming it.

But that logic, when you group connected clips to a secondary storyline, that should also need to have a name? But no, we don't have to name those. Why would we have to name collapsed clips? It would just be a visual thing... More like a view setting... you haven't created anything new, they would just be "hidden"... The idea that you would have to name them is just weird to me!

Feedback page.

Dimitri is talking about an Avid-style "collapse layers" functionality. Collapsing the layers into a single clip really just changes how it's shown in the timeline. The collapsed clip can be expanded in the timeline by double clicking it, and then re-collapsed. No separate clip or container is ever created in the bin.

What's good about the Avid implementation is that a collapsed clip can be opened in place, so the individual layers can me moved and modified in context. This can only be done in FCP by breaking apart the compound and recreating it after making the adjustments. Remaking the compound then requires renaming or accepting the default name. This can be a little clunky for those of us who typically name the compound clip. I don't think breaking apart the compound deletes its reference in the browser, so the compound clip name will have to be up-versioned each time it gets broken apart and remade. (I may be wrong about not deleting the original compound clip item in the browser when breaking apart.)

I've given feedback about wanting an "expand in place" command for compounds to several Apple reps. Fingers crossed it gets implemented.