Sending a cut to another editor

Send to… writes the timeline for another editor. If the file can’t hold something on your timeline, a list of what will change comes up before you save.

Send the timeline to another app

  1. Open Send to…

    Click Send to… on the toolbar. It is greyed out until the timeline has a clip on it.

  2. Pick where it goes

    The menu has two groups, Send to an editor and Interchange. Each line says what the file keeps.

  3. Read what will change

    If the file can’t hold everything on your timeline, a box titled This export won’t match your timeline lists each change. Click Cancel to stop, or Choose location… to save anyway.

  4. Save

    The file is saved, and a message gives its name.

The Send to… menu open, with Send to an editor and Interchange

The formats

In the menu What it keeps
Final Cut Pro (FCPXML) Layers, transitions, volume, opacity and markers.
Premiere Pro (FCP7 XML) Layers, linked audio and video, levels and labels.
DaVinci Resolve (FCPXML) Layers and transitions. Try this one first for Resolve.
DaVinci Resolve (FCP7 XML) The same timeline in an older format, for when the FCPXML import goes wrong.
Avid Media Composer (AAF) Tracks, with reel names and timecode for relinking.
Avid bin metadata (ALE) Bin columns only, no timeline. Send it with an AAF or an EDL.
EDL (CMX3600) One video track with no gaps. Layers, color and effects are left out. Almost any app can read it.
OpenTimelineIO The whole timeline, for apps and tools that read OTIO.
CinemaCutter project Everything, as a .csfx file.

Two of them carry a lossless badge: OpenTimelineIO and CinemaCutter project.

The same timeline always writes the same file. If two exports differ, the timeline changed.

What the warnings mean

These are the lines you may see in the box before saving:

  1. Reframed shots arrive full-frame. A picture-in-picture or split screen won’t survive.
  2. Only the master format goes over. Your other sizes and their framing stay here.
  3. Only the topmost video is kept.
  4. Some transitions become plain cuts.
  5. Empty space arrives as black clips, not as gaps.
  6. Overlapping clips can’t both be kept, so one is dropped.
  7. Some footage has no file path, so it arrives offline and has to be relinked by hand.
  8. Some clips run at a different frame rate from the sequence.

Bring a cut in

In a project’s editor, open the sequence menu (Seq, next to the sequence name) and click ⇪ Import Premiere XML…. If parts of the file can’t be read, a message says what was skipped.

Premiere XML is the only format you can bring in for now. A .csfx file can’t be opened yet.

The Editing tab has a smaller export: one scene’s clip bin, to Premiere or Final Cut.

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