Macro to toggle between tools in Pro Tools

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hey there !

I'm looking for a macro to toggle between two tools mode in PRO TOOLS with ONE Keystroke.

For example, i'd like to switch from this tool :
Capture d’écran 2023-11-24 à 16.01.23

To this one :
Capture d’écran 2023-11-24 à 16.01.31

And if i press the same keystroke again, it will revert to the first, and so on...

Any idea ?

Thanks a lot !

2

Since I don't have it, I can't give tell you if it has full AppleScript support (I don't think it did 9 years ago) but the first thing you should do, and can do, is launch Pro Tools, then launch the KM Editor, then create the following button in a new KM macro:

image

Then use the down arrow near the rightmost "Button" label in the action. Then select Pro Tools. Then use the same down arrow a second time, and see if the names of those buttons that you want to select are visible in the list. If the answer is yes, you can be very happy, and there will be a simple answer.

3

The default shortcut for the Selector Tool (second image) is Cmd+3 (the 3 above the E, not the 3 in the numeric pad). For the Smart Tool it's Cmd+7.
For both, just assign the keystroke you want in PT's Keyboard Shortcut window.

4

I'm using an old version of PT.
Can't modify shortcuts.

I need a macro to toggle from a status tool to another with just pressing one button.

5

Then for each tool just make a macro triggered by the hotkey you want, and insert the "Type a Keystroke" action with the shortcuts above.

6

You can do this a couple ways, with some caveats.

  1. 'Dumb' Switching using a global variable. This will be fast and easy to set up, set a 'toggle' variable with an if statement where depending on the state of the variable keyboard maestro triggers one of 2 hotkeys to switch to the other tool.

The problem with this method is that this doesn't account for situations where the variable state gets out of sync with the actual status of the tool in the software. You'd have to either implement some sort of "reset", or manually toggle the tool when things get "out of sync" Not so terrible, but could get annoying.

  1. The other method i'd look into reading the status of the edit tool via applescript, and then triggering the appropriate hotkey depending on the current state. This will be more consistent, but a little trickier to make.
7

This seems to work pretty well for me, assuming Pro Tools is at the front.

image

Tool Switch.kmmacros (3.3 KB)

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