Automatic "paste" over masked channels?

[adamfresk]

Is there a way to, so to speak, have a bunch of settings automatically "pasted" over masked channels? So that you can combine several different scenes without having to manually enable disabled channels once again, after "fetching" desired settings from one scene and jumping over to a different scene where those channels are masked?

Am I making any sense? Do you guys understand what I mean?

/Adam

[RichG]

Not exactly sure what you mean...

When changing presets, the masked channels on the new preset will inherit the values from the preset you're leaving. The channels will not change until you select a preset that doesn't have the channels masked.

[adamfresk]

What I´m after is a way to - when programming (as opposed to in a live situation) - make the inherited values of the previous preset "stick" to the faders, so to speak, instead of just staying where they are with the faders masked and "greyed out". As it´s designed at the moment, the values remain unchanged, yes, but the channels stay masked and if I just save the preset and leave it, the inherited values will be gone again. I have to manually re-select all the channels that have (now masked) values that I want to keep, and re-activate them again before saving, for any new information to be kept in the preset.

I would like for there to be a mode in which the saved values from one preset are automatically transported over to another (given that the relevant channels on this second preset are masked) and remain active and set to their respective values just as in the previous preset. An intelligent programming mode, so to speak, that recognizes which channels on a given preset are active, what values they are set to, as well as which channels on this channel are masked, and copies *all this information in its entirety* to the new preset where masked channels behave like they are "empty" and ready to be "filled" with new info.

In this way, I could just puzzle a bunch of presets together, like legos if you will, and add new lights to existing presets using a sort of "mask-and-inherit" method, without having to re-select and re-activate the inherited channels manually and only then being able to save the new values/lights to each preset. This would save literally eons of time.

Am I making any more sense now?

[RichG]

Am I making any more sense now?

Hmmm... trying to understand here. I'm a little slow today. lol.

Could you perhaps create a copy of a preset? That would create a duplicate of the preset and then you could modify one of them as needed while keeping all the other channels the same.

Or perhaps you could use the Channel Masks Macros to Enable/Disable channels to save time?

For instance, you could:

• Select a preset
  Mask whatever channels you want using the "Disable selected channels" Macro
  Save the preset
  Open a different Preset
  Go back to the Saved preset
  Select those channels again then use the "Enable selected channels" Macro
  Save the preset again

[adamfresk]

Yeah, I´m on board with all of that.

I´d like for there to me a mode, though, where the masked channels of the preset I want to add new lights to, act as though they are not only masked, but completely "empty/transparent".

So that *all* the information from the preset which I want to "copy" stays *exactly* as it is - including which channels are masked, which are active, which values all of them have and so on. A kind of "active-channels-take-precedence"-logic, if you will. So that all channels which are already active in each of the two presets, *stay* active and set to their respective values when one preset is "copied" to another (given that "empty/masked slots" have been prepared for them by masking/de-activating the relevant channels in the preset which recieves the new info).

In this way, I wouldn´t have to bother with manually re-activating the relevant channels *once again*, while also making sure that any channels which I want to *keep* masked stay masked. This is a bit of a hassle, and takes a lot of unnecessary time when programming. Instead - if *all* the info was just copied and "pasted" onto the new preset, the active channels in both presets would stay active and set to their values, and the channels which are masked on *both* presets from the outset would remain masked.

Again - this is not a behavior I would want in a live situation. In live situations, the channels staying masked and just "letting through" the info from any layered scenes on top of what´s already there is a great and useful feature. One can just have (for instance) a separate midi track which triggers moving head movements only, while all of the light settings remain the same. This makes it possible to have the movements differ from one song to the next by layering scenes differently, while still using one and the same bank and light settings.
The feature I´m after would be useful specifically for programming, to save time when merging scenes together to create new ones.

[Pruitt]

I sort of did this by creating Masked scenes of all my fixture groups and individual fixtures, and then created masks for all of their various colors and positions I use for them. I also use the moving head positioning macro in the Macro forum for all my scenes too. But it took me a lot of time to create all those masked scene tools, and I did it while learning DMXIS and Show Buddy Setlist. But now I can easily create scenes by just applying whatever masked fixture presets I want to them to achieve the look I want, then save it as a scene. Makes creating new scenes pretty easy now. But I spent a couple of weeks creating all the masked scene tools I use, and come across new ones to create now and then still. lol...

[adamfresk]

I sort of did this by creating Masked scenes of all my fixture groups and individual fixtures, and then created masks for all of their various colors and positions I use for them. I also use the moving head positioning macro in the Macro forum for all my scenes too. But it took me a lot of time to create all those masked scene tools, and I did it while learning DMXIS and Show Buddy Setlist. But now I can easily create scenes by just applying whatever masked fixture presets I want to them to achieve the look I want, then save it as a scene. Makes creating new scenes pretty easy now. But I spent a couple of weeks creating all the masked scene tools I use, and come across new ones to create now and then still. lol...

Yeah, combining scenes to create new ones using the masking feature is quite useful. But one still has to re-activate the newly "imported" channels before saving, for the scene to "stick". I´d like a mode where one doesn´t even have to re-activate. A mode where DMXIS "understands" that adding a bunch of pre-arranged faders from one scene to the masked channels of another scene, means that you want to keep these faders activated. Then you could just hit save immediately after "importing" the new fader settings. This would save yet dramatically more time.

[RichG]

The feature I´m after would be useful specifically for programming, to save time when merging scenes together to create new ones.

If that's the case, then a macro will work. I'm pretty busy right now, but should be able to program a macro for you in the near future.

[Pruitt]

I sort of did this by creating Masked scenes of all my fixture groups and individual fixtures, and then created masks for all of their various colors and positions I use for them. I also use the moving head positioning macro in the Macro forum for all my scenes too. But it took me a lot of time to create all those masked scene tools, and I did it while learning DMXIS and Show Buddy Setlist. But now I can easily create scenes by just applying whatever masked fixture presets I want to them to achieve the look I want, then save it as a scene. Makes creating new scenes pretty easy now. But I spent a couple of weeks creating all the masked scene tools I use, and come across new ones to create now and then still. lol...

Yeah, combining scenes to create new ones using the masking feature is quite useful. But one still has to re-activate the newly "imported" channels before saving, for the scene to "stick". I´d like a mode where one doesn´t even have to re-activate. A mode where DMXIS "understands" that adding a bunch of pre-arranged faders from one scene to the masked channels of another scene, means that you want to keep these faders activated. Then you could just hit save immediately after "importing" the new fader settings. This would save yet dramatically more time.

Oh, no doubt. I have made the mistake of not activating all the channels a bunch of time, and have to recreate everything. Something like that would be a big help. But the method I setup does allow much faster scene creation than constantly editing fixtures. Just a matter of remembering to activate all the channels when I'm done. That still escapes me at times. lol...

[RichG]

Just want to make sure I have the requirements for the macro defined properly. Let me know if this is what you want and I'll start coding it.

Here's an example of two Presets called A & B:

Combine.png (7.9 KiB) Viewed 7867 times

The Macro combines Preset A into Preset B. The basic operation is:
* If Ch x in B is disabled, then inherit the value from Ch x in A and Enable it.
* If Ch x in B is enabled, then keep the value (Do nothing).
* If Ch x in both A and B are disabled, then keep it disabled (Do nothing)

[adamfresk]

Just want to make sure I have the requirements for the macro defined properly. Let me know if this is what you want and I'll start coding it.

Here's an example of two Presets called A & B:
Combine.png

The Macro combines Preset A into Preset B. The basic operation is:
* If Ch x in B is disabled, then inherit the value from Ch x in A and Enable it.
* If Ch x in B is enabled, then keep the value (Do nothing).
* If Ch x in both A and B are disabled, then keep it disabled (Do nothing)

Yeah, that seems to be precisely what I´m looking for! Any enabled channels from bank A will stay enabled when "pasted" into masked channels of bank B, already active channels in bank B will stay as they are, while channels that are masked in both banks will stay masked? If you could actually create a macro for that, it would be totally sweet!

Thanks in advance!

[Pruitt]

yeah, a macro like that seems like it would be pretty handy for combining masked scenes.

[RichG]

Here's a macro that will combine channels saved in a clipboard to the present Preset. It does exactly what the table outlines above.

Note: You'll have to change {USER NAME} in the path accordingly.

First select some channels, then run the Copy macro.
Then select a different preset and run the Combine macro.

Caution: The Combine macro will save the preset with the new values.

Very special thanks to Kalle Paakkonen for laying the groundwork. The Copy macro is exactly his (except for the temp file path) therefore the Combine macro is compatible with his Copy macro... So if you already use that then you won't need the one I included.