v0.145.4Internal beta docs
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Beta documentation · eXLib v0.145.4. Public release is pending.

Reveal in Timeline

Several places in eXLib let you jump straight from something on screen to its real spot in After Effects' timeline. They're all the same gesture underneath, so once you've learned it once, it works identically everywhere you meet it.

One gesture, several entry points

You'll run into reveal from:

  • Right-clicking a property or layer row in the Pickwhip and choosing Reveal in timeline
  • Double-clicking the pin chip in the status bar
  • Double-clicking a row in the Comp Expressions panel
  • Clicking a node in the Dependency Map, in either direction

All four run through the same shared mechanism, so the behavior — and the wording of anything it tells you — is identical no matter which one you use.

What reveal does

Reveal selects the property's layer and the property itself in AE. Since a property can only be revealed inside its own comp's timeline, reveal also activates that comp along the way if it isn't already the one you're looking at. On the active editor tab, an ↗ button appears next to a pin whenever the pin's comp differs from the currently active comp — clicking it does the same reveal-and-activate.

The macOS Accessibility permission

The first time you use a reveal gesture, macOS may prompt you to allow After Effects — not eXLib — under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. This is expected, not a bug: when After Effects doesn't expose a menu command for the reveal, the native companion finishes the jump by synthesizing the same SS keystroke you'd press yourself, and macOS requires the Accessibility permission for any app to send synthesized keystrokes.

Grant it once, to After Effects, and every reveal gesture works from then on.

If you have not granted it yet

Nothing breaks. Reveal still selects the property in AE, and the toast that follows tells you to press SS yourself to finish the jump into the timeline. The permission only covers that last, automatic step — everything before it works regardless.

✓

If reveal seems to stop halfway — the property gets selected but the timeline doesn't scroll to it — that's almost always this permission not being granted yet, not a broken gesture.