Final Cut Pro is the editor Snitt works with today; support for more editors is planned. One click opens your rough cut, with every source file already linked and every removed piece still there to put back.
Export the timeline
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Finish your review pass
Accept or reject what you want in review. The export is built from what you are looking at right now, manual edits included.
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Open the Export menu
The orange Export button sits at the top right of the review window. Hover Export to Final Cut to open its submenu.
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Pick where it goes
Open in Final Cut Pro (⌘E) writes the file into the project's own folder and hands it straight to Final Cut. Save as File… writes the identical XML wherever you choose and launches nothing.
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Wait a couple of seconds
Final Cut opens with the project ready. No import dialogs, no relink sheet. The line under the Export button reads Opened in Final Cut with the time it took, or Saved <filename> if you chose the file route.
⌘E works anywhere in the review window. Hold ⌥ while you press it to choose where the file lands and still open it in Final Cut.
How it works
The spine is your rough cut. Only the kept segments go into the storyline, butted end to end. The sequence is as long as the edit, not as long as your raw footage, and it plays straight through.
Everything Snitt removed rides above it. Each removed segment becomes a disabled
connected clip anchored at the splice it was lifted from, stacked into lanes above the
storyline. It takes up no room in the timeline and makes no sound. It keeps its original
source range and carries a Snitt: <reason> marker saying why it went — a silence, a
filler, a retake, an off-script aside. If you would rather have a clean timeline with no
ride-alongs, turn this off in Settings — see
the restorable-cuts switch below.
Putting a cut back is a native Final Cut action. Drag a disabled clip down into the spine. You get back exactly the material that was removed, frame for frame.
Media relinks itself. The file points at your original footage by its real path, with the frame rate and duration Snitt measured at import. Nothing is copied, transcoded or moved.
Embedded timecode is respected. If a file carries a start timecode — a bext block
from a field recorder, a tmcd track from a camera — Final Cut places that file’s media
timeline at that timecode rather than at zero. Snitt reads the timecode at import and
declares it on the asset, so every reference lands where the media actually is.
Splices are smoothed. Every joint carries a 30 ms audio fade on each side, written as ordinary Final Cut fade handles on the clip. They remove the click a hard cut makes and are inaudible on speech. Grab a handle to change one.
Synced external audio
If your project had an external recorder, the synced track rides under each kept clip as a connected audio clip, and the camera audio on that clip arrives muted. Two copies of the same voice a few frames apart is an echo, and Final Cut does not always honour a single mute flag, so Snitt writes both of the mutes the format provides.
Restorable cuts are the exception — they keep their camera audio on purpose. Dragging one back into the spine brings picture and that clip’s own camera sound with it. If you want the external track under it instead, mute or delete the camera lane and extend the external clip by hand.
The restorable-cuts switch
Open Settings (⌘,) → General → Export.
Include restorable cuts in Final Cut export is on by default, and on is everything described above. Turn it off and the export is the spine and nothing else: a clean timeline with no ride-alongs and nothing to restore. The menu items say so before you click — they read “Open in Final Cut Pro — clean” and “Save as File… — clean” while the switch is off.
Turn it off when you are handing the timeline to someone else, or when the extra lanes get in your way. Snitt keeps the full cut on disk either way, so you can export again with the switch back on. See Settings.
If something goes wrong
Final Cut asks for missing media. The file points at your footage where it was when you imported it. If you moved, renamed or unmounted a drive since then, put the files back and export again, or use Final Cut’s own relink to point at the new location.
You hear the same voice twice. That is camera audio playing under the external track. It should only happen on a cut you restored by hand — mute the camera lane on that clip. If you hear it across the whole timeline, you are on an old build; check for updates (Install and updates).
The timeline is as long as your raw footage. That is the old layout, not this one. Update and export again.
More problems and fixes are in Troubleshooting. If you want a flat file instead of a timeline, see Exporting an MP4.