When adding more controllers...

[jimswinder]

Steven wrote:

In this case, John added a new controller with blue channels, and wanted to preserve the existing sequences while inserting the blue channels in the appropriate places. It would be nearly impossible to do that easily without using a second track.

am I wrong then in my knowledge, that unless MORE controllers are added to the bottom of either tracks or groups, it would screw up your sequence (in regards to channel placement) when you imported a new Channel Configuration?

[jimswinder]

I don't think he really said he would use ALL 16 channels of a single new controller for blue strings.


just that he was adding 3-4 controllers so he could add blue strings...

[jimswinder]

Steven wrote:

It would be nearly impossible to do that easily without using a second track.

I found it quite easy to insert one or more channels within my "groups" and keep the integrity of my sequence...

perhaps we are talking about two different things here...

[Steven]

jimswinder wrote:

am I wrong then in my knowledge, that unless MORE controllers are added to the bottom of either tracks or groups, it would screw up your sequence (in regards to channel placement) when you imported a new Channel Configuration?

If you use the "Master Track" advice, then you can change the order and/or regroup the channels in any track except the 1st (Master) track without messing up your sequences by an import.

The "Import Configuration" is smart.

For example, let's say your "Master" track had these channels

Mini Tree 1 Red
Mini Tree 1 Green
Mini Tree 2 Red
Mini Tree 2 Green

and your 2nd "Working" track had the same layout. You built a lovely sequence with a Holdman-style red to green tree sweep for 2011.

In 2012 you added blue lights to your mini trees. Now your "Master" track has this:

Mini Tree 1 Red
Mini Tree 1 Green
Mini Tree 2 Red
Mini Tree 2 Green
Mini Tree 1 Blue
Mini Tree 2 Blue

but you want each tree to be grouped together, so the "Working" track has this layout:

Mini Tree 1 Red
Mini Tree 1 Green
Mini Tree 1 Blue
Mini Tree 2 Red
Mini Tree 2 Green
Mini Tree 2 Blue

If you import this 2012 layout into your 2011 sequence, your "Working" track will now have a blue channel under the rest of each mini tree, but the "red-green sweeping fade" is still intact. This is the beauty of using a Master Track.

[Steven]

jimswinder wrote:

I found it quite easy to insert one or more channels within my "groups" and keep the integrity of my sequence...

perhaps we are talking about two different things here...

I am talking about using "Import Channel Configuration" in all of last year's sequences to update them to this year's configuration. Have you used that?

[jimswinder]

Steven wrote:

I am talking about using "Import Channel Configuration" in all of last year's sequences to update them to this year's configuration. Have you used that?

Yes I have...and if I had done any changes to my "tracks" and saved to a new Channel Configuration, it ALWAYS screwed up my other sequences when importing it...

but alas...I did not have a "Master Track"...

I just could not see the usefulness of it having one with over 500 channels (too much to scroll thru)

but live and learn...

[George Simmons]

jimswinder wrote:

Yes I have...and if I had done any changes to my "tracks" and saved to a new Channel Configuration, it ALWAYS screwed up my other sequences when importing it...

You hit the nail on the head Jim - that's the reason for having that master track. There's no reason why you'd ever need to do any sequencing there if you didn't want to - it's mainly to preserve that which already exists when you add new stuff each year.

[-klb-]

I heavily use both tracks and groups. And, I use duplicate track.

And, I took sequences from 3 years ago, before controllers were really rearranged for adding blue, and updated them nearly perfectly with this year's channel config.

Understand that your fist/master track will make no sense in any context. After a few years, many channels there are in an order that has nothing to do with controller number, or channel sequence. They wind up in there ordered more by when they were first added to the show. I have many places where white, red, and green for one item may be next to each other, but the blue that is the next channel on the controller is in the last quarter of the first track.

But the key thing is that if the north edge of the house, white was the 10th channel in this track on one year, that it remain the 10th channel in this track forever, even if the controller and channel number change all over the place. As long as that same constraint holds for all channels from previous years, and all channels are in this master track, you can have as many other occurrences of these channels in other tracks, and totally change up those tracks from year to year, and still be able to import the channel config into prior years sequences, and have them work.

Things that help: Do not use groups in your first/master track. Then you can duplicate this master track at will, and not worry about messing it up by changing grouping in other tracks.

Understand that when you duplicate a track that contains groups, you do not wind up with new unique instances of these groups. So changing these groups will mess up your source track. There is a work around. The first step after duplicating a track with groups, is to ungroup all groups in the new track. Now, when you group them back up, they will be a completely separate group, and you can work them around without messing up the source track. I've already wish listed a feature that you be able to select that the duplicate track contain duplicate groups, instead of additional instances of the same group.

Myself, I use a master track, then at least 3 duplicates, that are heavily sorted and grouped.

The first one, is sorted by color, then item types, then index number of the item. This is grouped by item types, and by color. Fully collapsed, this is 4 groups.

The next one is top sorted by item type, then color, then index. This one is grouped by color within the item group, and again at the item group. This is good for most chases through mini trees, and through arches. Note that the arches wind up grouped both by arch, and again for all the arches.

Then the last one puts color as the last sort. It doesn't get as much use as the other two. But for some kinds of copy/paste, it works really well.

[John Slade]

Steven wrote:

In this case, John added a new controller with blue channels, and wanted to preserve the existing sequences while inserting the blue channels in the appropriate places. It would be nearly impossible to do that easily without using a second track.

jimswinder wrote:

I don't think he really said he would use ALL 16 channels of a single new controller for blue strings.

just that he was adding 3-4 controllers so he could add blue strings...

There is one controller that will be all blue which is the blue mega tree. That one will not be a big deal. The other new controllers will be channel eaters like leaping arches & pinwheels in various colors. Correct Jim, Not all 16 are for blue. As of now I'm all out of channels and in order to add some blue strings like 1 channel for the blue roof, 1 channel for the blue windows, and 1 for blue mini trees another LOR purchase is in order. So it would seem I'd need to insert and move all the channels around within S.E., but really if I add enough contollers then I can just keep my Master List as George put it and manipulate new channels in another track to join them with their corresponding location and type...