Getting started
Walkthrough video coming soon
Getting Started
Seven rapid radial tips
Rapid Radial works the moment you install it. These are the steps that take it from “a faster menu” to something you stop thinking about.
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Learn two keys, not twenty
Ctrl+R on Mac, (Alt+R on Win) opens the wheel for whatever editor is in front. Ctrl+G opens the General page, which works anywhere — your browser, your file manager, your email. Press again to close.
Assign that key combination to an extra button on your mouse or other macro device and get even faster. -
Keep the playhead on the clip
Effects, transitions, titles and generators land at the playhead. This is far and away the most common reason someone thinks a slot didn’t fire — it did, somewhere you weren’t looking. If nothing appears, move the playhead onto the clip and try again. In Resolve 21.1, you can apply transitions just by selecting a clip. First transition will apply at the end, and the next one will apply at the beginning of the clip. For the effects, etc. Rapid Radial will automate the Resolve effect search for you.
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Fill the wheel with what you actually reach for
Right-click any slot — on the wheel itself, or on the icon in your menu bar — and assign it. Transitions, effects, titles, LUTs, render presets, markers, media files, whole bins, or any command in your editor that has a keyboard shortcut.
Resolve menu commands need a shortcut assigned inside Resolve first — Rapid Radial sends the keystroke.
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Save a profile per kind of job
A documentary needs a different wheel than a wedding. Save the whole configuration as a profile and switch between them in one click, instead of rebuilding your layout every time the work changes.
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Use Rapid Search instead of a Finder or Explorer window
Search every drive and NAS you own by name, preview what you find — video, stills, audio waveforms, even image sequences — then drop it straight onto the timeline or into your project. Image sequences arrive as one entry, not four hundred files. Rapid Search will easily search through subfolders, showing you everything you have, 2000 results at a time. Be careful where you point that thing!
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Try voice activation
This may not be for everyone, but the Radial supports voice activation. Try it! You may like it. Press the Press To Talk (PTT) key and either tell it "Slot 1", or the name of the label to execute that tool. You can also voice search in the Rapid Search. In Windows, I use it as a kind of 'Spotlight Search' since the search option in the start menu can be quirky.
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Use hotkeys! Or try persistant hotkeys...carefully
Have a bunch of stream decks or other customizable control surfaces? Set each slot to a hotkey and trigger the hotkey with a button on your control surface. Use persistant hotkeys so you don't even have to bring the radial up first. Get creative!
On macOS, grant two permissions
The global hotkey needs Accessibility and Input Monitoring — macOS won’t let any app listen for a keystroke without them. Rapid Search can optionally use Full Disk Access to reach every volume. The welcome screen has a button that shows what’s granted and opens each setting for you.
Stuck on something that isn’t here? Get in touch — it’s a real person.
Why don’t I just use resolve’s effect search to grab the tool myself?
You can! But the goal here is to save time and make repetitive tasks less time consuming. Even just saving a few seconds of time per transition/effect/tool adds up considerably over a week.
We’ve spent a lot of time tweaking the automation here to make it as optimized as possible. Some functions may seem simple, but there are actually a good amount of things happening underneath the hood.
FAQ
I’m selecting a slot and nothing is happening. wHHHYYYYYYYY!?
A few things to check.
Make sure the helper is running in your host NLE.
Be aware of the context of your playhead. Resolve will only show you what is relevant at its current position. It won’t show you transitions/effects if your playhead is on empty space — or even the wrong type of media. As of Resolve 21.1, you can apply transitions to anything that’s selected regardless of your playhead position.
Is the dog real?
Yes! That is Daisy. She loves socks, and she’s the best. She may have special powers too …somehow she ends up getting most everything she wants.
check back as we add more questions and answers!
TRY IT!
Run it unactivated for as long as you like. The wheel works, your slots save, and it happily acts as a desktop launcher — it just won't talk to your editor until you activate.