Editing Envelopes, using Smart Tool to grab segments.

I can select a range using whichever edit filter I want (lets say Clip Gain). When I move my mouse to the upper third (or so) of the clip the tool changes. So far so good. But grabbing and dragging up and down only seems to grab the envelope half of the time. Other times I have to deselect away and try again. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong because it does work as advertised some of the time.  Any tips?

I often start by dragging the lane height out to make more room, sure there is a trade off, you lose room/real estate but its the only sure way to do pin point precision work. when the lanes or tracks are only a 1/2 inch wide its hard to do anything with accuracy and consistency.
 
Not sure if you know this:
Using the smart tool, hold down the left mouse button and drag to make a selection.
Once that area is highlighted, you can position the mouse (until it turns in to a double sided arrow) and drag up or down to move that whole section.
 
This works better than using individual nodes and working one at a time.
But to answer your question, try expanding the lane as Jonesy said.
Ive been trying to figure out a way (for years now) to set the default of the automation lane height.
Because every time I go to set 25 lanes for automation, each one has to be individually dragged to height.
This is a huge pain in the keester.

I'm not sure it is a bug wicked, if it were I think a lot more people would be affected.
 
It's possibly a mouse problem - have you got a spare you could swap to, just to rule it out (or in)?

Hrm, good idea. I suppose it couldn't hurt to put new batteries in my little mouse as well.
 

Not to that effect, but this happens when I'm working on a track with the envelope highlighted for editing. It's not absolute, I can swipe and grab an envelope section and it works as advertised, but the very next swipe won't. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not. I thought maybe the hotspot was alien to me, but the smart tool changes to the double headed arrow as advertised.
 

chuckebaby
...I know what your saying. this hasn't happened to me in a while but it used to rear its ugly head while doing Gain automation only.

Yeah, I've seen that behavior on occasion specifically with clip gain envelopes, but not with track envelopes. 
 

...wicked
Yeah so far it seems confined to doing clip gain envelopes...but then again that's what I mostly edit in that way. I'll try and see if it comes up other times.
 

Cool, at least we're all on the same page.   
 
Whenever that happens to me, I just place the two nodes manually on either side of the desired range and Ctrl+Drag the middle segment down.   Not as convenient, but I figure better than hammering at it.