S2 TRICK

[toymakr000]

I have been making tracks based upon smaller portions of my display. The only way I could figure out how to make tracks with multiple channels was to copy and paste single channels one at a time. So I built a partial configuration then saved it, and renamed it.
Then I opened the lcc file in notepad and edited the file directly by copying and pasting the text itself. I very quickly made all the tracks I needed, compared to the multiple mouse clicks and edits needed inside S2. I would say it cut my time in half:Dand it seems to work:cool:
all we need now is someone to make an application that does it even faster!!!!
hint hint;)

[Guest wbottomley]

Gary... that's a great idea.

Didn't think of that one.

Fine work!

[taybrynn]

Seems like a great way to do it.

I was thinking it would be nice to have a utility that allow you to move the animation stuff around without having to redo it.

So if you decided to combine 3 channels into 1 or break channel into multiple channels ... that ... you could.

I did try using notepad+ to to global changes on the XML is it did work the first time, but when I changed things back ... then LOR II considered the file corrupted and didn't work at all.

Luckily, I was just experimenting with test animation files ...

[Robin]

I asked Dan several months ago if in the final version of S2 that they create a feature that allows you to high light a group of channels and move them all at once to a new or existing track. I think they were working on it but have not asked for an update.

My idea was to right click on one channel while holding on the shift key then go to the final channel and right click it and then click move to track.

[hobbes]

taybrynn wrote:

Seems like a great way to do it.

I was thinking it would be nice to have a utility that allow you to move the animation stuff around without having to redo it.

So if you decided to combine 3 channels into 1 or break channel into multiple channels ... that ... you could.

I did try using notepad+ to to global changes on the XML is it did work the first time, but when I changed things back ... then LOR II considered the file corrupted and didn't work at all.

Luckily, I was just experimenting with test animation files ...

The reason that Notepad corrupted the file is that in the original file each line is terminated with 2 carriage returns and 1 linefeed ( ) and Notepad strips those characters from the file. Wordpad and Microsoft Word also do not handle the file properly although newer versions of Word do give you the ability to open the file an an XML file although I find it much harder to edit that way as opposed to a plain text editor.

I use the text editor built into MS Visual Studio to open/edit the file if necessary. It will retain the proper characters at the end of the lines. I used to use an editor named TextPad that was great for editing code so it may work on the sequence files.

tom.

[VetteNut72]

Based on what I see here, it looks like LOR will probably have this capability in the future but until then I am in the process of writing a utility that will parse, edit and resave the configuration file. I'll give it to anyone that wants it when I'm done. Looking at the raw data from the config file, there is only a single CR (dec 13) and a single LF (dec 10) terminating each line and of course the dec 9 tabs for visual formatting (indents).

Craig

[rwertz]

VetteNut72 wrote:

Looking at the raw data from the config file, there is only a single CR (dec 13) and a single LF (dec 10) terminating.

When I look at my Channel Configuration file I do see the two carriage returns at the end of each xml element. However when I added new elements in Notepad it only added a single CR and a single LF. But LOR seemed fine with that.

I added a channel in Notepad by adding an element to ChannelConfig/channel and an element to ChannelConfig/tracks/track/channels. I incremented the savedIndex for both entries. I was able to import the configuration and see the additional channel in the editor. The sequence seemed to play fine.

I don't have a firm grasp on xml yet, so I could just be getting lucky.

[taybrynn]

I was using notepad++ (freeware) which edits in xml mode.

It worked after the first save. It was corrupted when I tried to change it back and saved a second time.

VetteNut, I would be very interested your utility to change things ... I could do this in UNIX, but don't have experience coding under windows.

[VetteNut72]

BTW, There is a XML Notepad available from Microsoft at the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72d6aa49-787d-4118-ba5f-4f30fe913628&displaylang=en#Requirements

Craig

[bob]

Here's something to be careful about when you're manually modifying the XML, or
copying/pasting from one sequence's XML to another's:

Each channel has an attribute called "savedIndex". The value of each channel's savedIndex should be unique within a particular sequence file. For example:


deviceType="LOR" unit="1" circuit="1" network="3" savedIndex="0">

That sequence should have no other channels with a savedIndex of zero.

This is used to match up which channels are in which tracks (and the animation). For example, that channel is in the following track:






Now, here's what you really have to be careful about:

First, the savedIndex values are not unique across sequence files. So if you copy and paste a channel from one sequence to another, make sure you give it a savedIndex that doesn't conflict with any others in the sequence you're pasting into. And appropriately change references to it in the tracks and animation.

Second, you cannot rely on a channel's savedIndex value remaining the same as it had been if you make some change to the sequence (in the Sequence Editor). Next time you save, that channel may have a different savedIndex.

We have an idea to make this easier in the future, but for now, at least, please be careful about this.

Finally, I just want to say: If you are going to manually modify a sequence's XML, please make sure that you make a backup copy of the sequence before doing so. It's not difficult to accidentally make a change which will make the sequence incomprehensible to LOR.

[rwertz]

Thanks Bob. I have to say I really like the new file format. I spent several days trying to convert my homegrown sequences to the old binary format. After limited success, I gave up and visually copied five sequences into the LOR editor. (If I had only jumped to LOR II sooner)

Hopefully everyone backs up their files before they play. It would be a shame if exposing the format created tech support issues for LOR.

[toymakr000]

Bob,
So far my experience with LOR has kind of gone like this. I figure out what I would like to do. Then see if I can afford what I would like to do . Buy the controllers,lights cords.....Then pick my songs and plan the layout. The next thing I do is my channel configuration and animation window. I do all this befor e I start programming. With the channel configuattion comes track setup. I was getting tired of clicking a channel, copying a channel to a track, then verifying. So this is when I decided to attempt the XML code change in the lcc file. It was much easier to do this way, and saved me a ton of time! I was very careful to not change the format or delete anything. I even re arranged the saved index to be shown in the order that I wanted it to show up.
So now that I have my configuration done I've started the animation window. I'm hoping that once done with that I can import it into any sequence and have it remain the same. Is this true?

[bob]

So now that I have my configuration done I've started the animation window. I'm hoping that once done with that I can import it into any sequence and have it remain the same. Is this true?

Again, you have to be careful about savedIndex.

An individual cell in the animation section indicate which channel (if any) applies:




That channel="8" means that the cell uses the channel whose savedIndex is 8.

But: the channel with savedIndex 8 in the file you're copying from might not be the same channel as the one with savedIndex 8 in the file you're copying to.

If so, the results won't be what you expect if you just copy and paste. To get everything to work as you would hope, after pasting, you would have to check whether all of the pasted channel="..." entries match the correct savedIndex="..." settings in the target file's channel entries, and if any don't, change them accordingly.

[nmonkman]

Being new to the "track" feature, is there a written or visual tutorial anywhere that one could watch and see what it does?

I am not even sure of all its features, but I think I understand the general concept.



Thanks,

Neil M