Multiple Tracks Mimmicking each other

[justaddmorelights]

Ok, I have a question for you guys, I'm a newbie and have spent alot of time watching Jstorms tutorials (which were a great help!) but I am having issues with duplicate tracks. As Jstorms shows in his tutorial (#3) he duplicates the "master" track and names it "ordered" so that he can rearrange the channels without disturbing his "master" track. However, when I duplicate and go to put my channels in groups or whatnot, the master track changes along with it! What's up with that? Is there a setting I need to change?

 

Thank you Jstorms for your tutorials, your guidance and any other is much appreciated!!

[k6ccc]

I have used tracks for years without seeing the issue you are reporting.  Just for grins, I just created a new animation sequence with 48 channels.  I then duplicated the track with a new track name of "working" and also renamed the original track with a new name of "master".  Next I went into the working track, and converted several channels in the first controller to a group called "group 1" and then all 16 channels in the second controller to a group called "group 2".  Next I converted the first 15 channels in controller 3 to RGB, and then converted all 16 channels in the third controller to a group called "group 3".  Lastly I re-arranged the channels so that the three groups were at the beginning of the listing leaving the channels in the first controller that were not part of a group at the end of the channel listing.

 

After each step I checked the master track to make sure that it was not altered.  Except for the channel name change that happens when three channels are converted to an RGB channel, there were no other changes to the master track.

 

Did my steps give any hints as to what is going wrong for you?  If not, can you send me your sequence and the steps that you used and I'll see if I can see the problem.  My E-Mail is:  jim@k6ccc.org

[justaddmorelights]

Jim, I did just about what you said, (I have 56 channels total and the advanced license) 3 LOR 16 channel controllers and 8 RGB dumb ribbon channels.  I renamed all the channels to reflect the lights on the house, I then duplicated the original (renamed master<like you did>) and named it ordered and again duplicated it and named that one groups. I went to my ordered track and moved the channels around to my liking and then went into groups to group them. I then went back to the master track and the channels were moved like in the ordered track and they were also grouped like the group track. In fact, aside from the name, all 3 tracks were identical. I then degrouped and returned the channels to their numerical order. After saving, I again tried moving just the first 4 channels in unit 1 on the ordered track and again the other 2 tracks mimicked the ordered track.  I am running windows 7, the laptop was just recently wiped clean and windows reinstalled (if that has anything to do with it).  Thanks, John

[k6ccc]

John,  I don't have any good answers for you.  I'm doing this on SE version 4.1.2 on a Windows XP computer.  At home I'm using Win7.  Last year it worked pretty much the same on version 3. something.  If no one else comes up anything, open a help desk ticket.

[justaddmorelights]

OK will do. Thanks!

[Darryl Lambert]

I've had this issue before & I just tried it & it still exsists.

I believe it has to do with grouping. If I copy a group to a new track, whatever I do to those channels it is copied in both tracks.

 

My workaround is create a group with all channels,( it's ok to have groups inside other groups ) then I copy to new track. Once there I degroup all groups & everything becomes independant of each other. You can then group/move in the new track without any issues.

[PhilMassey]

Daryl is correct. If you copy a group to a different track, you must degroup to break the connection with the original track.

[ItsMeBobO]

The mimicking is normal when you duplicate a group.  All occurrences of the group retain its attributes.     If you want the same channels in a different and distinctly modifiable group you need to create a new group.  

There are several ways to do it.   I suggest you right click the group and select 'Duplicate Children to a new group'.  Then as a second step select the new group and then move to new track. 

[justaddmorelights]

OK, I've figured it out, having my channels under the group of unit 01, 02,03  which is set as default when you add a controller, still falls into the category of grouping. However since my RGB channels are not, I was able to move them and not have an issue. So, I decided to delete all tracks except the master track, degroup units 01-03 in the master track, I then duplicated the master to create ordered and group tracks and viola! Problem Solved!! Now I can move around and group as needed!

 

Thanks so much for your help!!

[k6ccc]

Yes, there is a standard advise to not group channels in the master track.