Work Area

The work area in After Effects defines the range of time that RAM Preview plays and that Lift/Extract operations act on. Railcut gives you keyboard shortcuts to set and jump to the work area quickly.

What the work area is

The work area is the shaded region on AE’s time ruler (and on Railcut’s time ruler). RAM Preview plays from the work area start to the work area end — unless you set it otherwise.

By default, the work area spans the entire composition. You’ll usually want to narrow it to the section you’re working on.

Setting the work area

Mark In — I

Move the playhead where you want the work area to start. Press I.

Mark Out — O

Move the playhead where you want the work area to end. Press O.

Use I and O together to define a range:

1. Park the playhead at the beginning of the section
2. Press I
3. Move the playhead to the end
4. Press O

Now RAM Preview plays exactly that range.

Mark Clip — X

Press X with the playhead over one or more clips. Railcut sets the work area to exactly match the duration of the clips touching the playhead.

If the playhead touches clips on multiple tracks, the work area spans the earliest in point to the latest out point across all those clips.

This is the fastest way to set the work area for a quick preview of a specific section.

Tip

The X key is great for a “preview this clip” workflow. Move the playhead onto a clip, press X, then press Space. AE previews just that clip.

Jumping to the work area

Shortcut	Action
Shift+I	Jump playhead to work area In point
Shift+O	Jump playhead to work area Out point

How the work area affects RAM Preview

When you press Space, AE previews from the current playhead position to the end of the work area. If you want to preview the whole work area from the beginning, press Shift+I first to jump to the in point, then press Space.

Lift — semicolon (;)

The Lift command removes the work area range from targeted tracks, leaving a gap:

1. Set the work area with I/O or X
2. Make sure the tracks you want to affect are targeted
3. Press ; (semicolon)

Railcut deletes all clips within the work area range on targeted tracks. Clips to the right stay where they are — no ripple.

Extract — apostrophe (’)

The Extract command removes the work area range from all tracks and closes the gap:

1. Set the work area with I/O or X
2. Press ’ (apostrophe)

Railcut deletes all clips within the work area range on all tracks and shifts everything to the right of the range leftward to fill the gap. This is the ripple version of Lift.

Caution

Extract operates on all tracks regardless of targeting or lock state. Locked tracks are not shifted — if a locked clip would create a collision, the extract may leave a gap on that track.

Setting work area manually in AE

You can also drag the work area handles directly in AE’s native time ruler (the gray handles on either end of the shaded region). Railcut reads these values in real time, so any changes you make in AE are reflected immediately in Railcut’s behavior.