Migration S4 sequences to S5

[James Shelby]

Ok I have tried to find a way to clean up the mess s5 migration has made and I have have hit a stone wall. If I import a view s5 blows up the order of all my channels, rewrites the tags and many others are missing. So I opened an s4 sequence, cleaned up one track and am able to export those tracks but I can't find a way to export it to create a view to use as a template. I understand I will need to rebuild my complete template but I am trying to find a faster way other than printing a s4 template and manually entering every line in s5. Maybe s5 won't work with my s4 sequences?Please no snappy remarks just solutions.  

[James Shelby]

I have s4 on another computer so what if I make a sequence with all the channels but with no tracks then I would have all the channels on one page, then use that as a s5 preview? 

[James Shelby]

I am just rambling here but in s4 you could export your channel config but I don't see where you can do that in s5. 

[Crimson Lane Lights Etown]

You need to create a new configuration and export it. There's a little tiny button next to the window that has the channel name in it.  Click on the drop down and go to the bottom where it says Grid Configuration, then import or export from there.

[PhilMassey]

Seems like we may have had this conversation before concerning Grid View Groups, or was that someone else.

Grid view groups are like Tracks. Once you make them you can export them and import into future sequences.

Show all is a system generated group much like Track one in S4. Leave it alone and create your own the way you want them, the export.

This may help

 

[Crimson Lane Lights Etown]

it's next to Show All Items.  Looks like connect wires or something.

 

[dibblejr]

4 minutes ago, James Shelby said:

I am just rambling here but in s4 you could export your channel config but I don't see where you can do that in s5. 

Not going to work well. Save yourself the grief and build your "preview" from scratch. FYI- I do not convert my S4 sequences to S5. When you open an S4 sequence in S5 after building your preview skip through all of the warnings, copy paste and close the old sequence without saving.

IMO

JR

[James Shelby]

2 minutes ago, Crimson Lane Lights Etown said:

You need to create a new configuration and export it. There's a little tiny button next to the window that has the channel name in it.  Click on the drop down and go to the bottom where it says Grid Configuration, then import or export from there.

Yes I got that part but my preview was still messed up. I think I see where as I edit a sequence using the SE window and rewrite the channels descriptions and move the channels to the rightful places its updating the preview at the same time so I might be on the right track.

[James Shelby]

6 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

Not going to work well. Save yourself the grief and build your "preview" from scratch. FYI- I do not convert my S4 sequences to S5. When you open an S4 sequence in S5 after building your preview skip through all of the warnings, copy paste and close the old sequence without saving.

IMO

JR

Working on that  just trying to find a faster way. Using your method I think as I edit a sequence in SE its updating the preview at the same time.

[James Shelby]

I am seeing where in the design window its sorting by the first digit and alphabetically making it almost impossible to edit 1900 channels where half a prop is half way down the list.

[dibblejr]

Just now, James Shelby said:

Working on that  just trying to find a faster way. Using your method I think as I edit a sequence in SE its updating the preview at the same time.

I found out last January that sometimes what should be the easiest way makes a lot more work with unwanted results so I rebuilt my entire preview and had a successful Covid show, and then something went wrong and had it became a nightmare at Halloween. A lot of help from friends here got me fixed up.

JR

[dibblejr]

2 minutes ago, James Shelby said:

I am seeing where in the design window its sorting by the first digit and alphabetically making it almost impossible to edit 1900 channels where half a prop is half way down the list.

Sort, right click on the channel button and sort by whatever it takes to get them where you need them. You may also have to name/ number every node. I had to do that with a few custom props.

JR

[James Shelby]

33 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

I found out last January that sometimes what should be the easiest way makes a lot more work with unwanted results so I rebuilt my entire preview and had a successful Covid show, and then something went wrong and had it became a nightmare at Halloween. A lot of help from friends here got me fixed up.

JR

True, I need to rewrite everything in s5 SE first to update the preview because the way I wrote the names of the channels in s4 the design window in s5 is splitting up the props sometimes three different places making a huge mess. In s4 a tree in "yard" track is a different from a tree in the "oaks" track but s5 combines them together making for a tree that was 16 channels now 128 channels long with it sorted as controller address 1 - 8 first then by channel number second making for an amazing mess. So I must rewrite all the names to make sure they don't overlap each other and watching how it sorts from left to right. Why does it need to be sorted anyway?? 

[dibblejr]

33 minutes ago, James Shelby said:

True, I need to rewrite everything in s5 SE first to update the preview because the way I wrote the names of the channels in s4 the design window in s5 is splitting up the props sometimes three different places making a huge mess. In s4 a tree in "yard" track is a different from a tree in the "oaks" track but s5 combines them together making for a tree that was 16 channels now 128 channels long with it sorted as controller address 1 - 8 first then by channel number second making for an amazing mess. So I must rewrite all the names to make sure they don't overlap each other and watching how it sorts from left to right. Why does it need to be sorted anyway?? 

One of my two AC  controller that I have left after going all pixels . It controls my singing santa. In S5 it only gives it 3 channels. I have not been able to correct it and I built it in S5. LOL I am forced to use my 2nd AC controller to control 3 channels for my strobes. Not sure what went wrong or I could use one AC controller. Something I will be looking in to soon.

 

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, James Shelby said:

True, I need to rewrite everything in s5 SE first to update the preview because the way I wrote the names of the channels in s4 the design window in s5 is splitting up the props sometimes three different places making a huge mess. In s4 a tree in "yard" track is a different from a tree in the "oaks" track but s5 combines them together making for a tree that was 16 channels now 128 channels long with it sorted as controller address 1 - 8 first then by channel number second making for an amazing mess.

You should have a S4 track that has every single channel in the show - with unique names.

And I just had fun manually reading a .loredit file in NotePad to figure out why there was a slight color shift between two text Motion Effects.  Took a little bit to figure out some of the difference in the xml file, but found the incorrect one was color 00CCFF instead of 00FFFF as it should have been...  Felt good to fine int!

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by k6ccc

[James Shelby]

The greatest problem I am having is how s5 rewrote most of my channel names then sorting them by the new name. So I can't use preview to modify anything because the prop is blown up all up and down the screen and in preview you can't move channels like in the SE. I find it odd that the Previews are used to create new sequences. As I am working on a sequence called "template", S5 is updating the preview. I find that odd because if you screw up a sequence then that mistake will be carried into your next sequence if you use the same preview. In S4 you couldn't mess up your template because it was not affected by the sequence you were working on. If you made a big mistake you could just import your template and you are back to square one. I can say I know little about S5 and there is a good chance I am thinking like S4 when trying to learn S5.  

[dibblejr]

25 minutes ago, James Shelby said:

The greatest problem I am having is how s5 rewrote most of my channel names then sorting them by the new name. So I can't use preview to modify anything because the prop is blown up all up and down the screen and in preview you can't move channels like in the SE. I find it odd that the Previews are used to create new sequences. As I am working on a sequence called "template", S5 is updating the preview. I find that odd because if you screw up a sequence then that mistake will be carried into your next sequence if you use the same preview. In S4 you couldn't mess up your template because it was not affected by the sequence you were working on. If you made a big mistake you could just import your template and you are back to square one. I can say I know little about S5 and there is a good chance I am thinking like S4 when trying to learn S5.  

The "Grid View" act just like the "Channel Config" in S4. I for one wished it was still called the channel config.

You first have to get a good working one or more. I had a lot of help from friends.

JR

[tlogan]

I'm just throwing this out there, but in the S5 Grid View, you can click and drag channels up and down the view to wherever you want them. I had the problem where in a string of 50 smart bulbs (150 channels) they would get out of sequence unless you renumber Prop1,Prop2,Prop3 to be Prop01, Prop02, Prop03. Which you can do automatically. However one or two would still end up sorted out of sequences. So I went in and clicked and dragged where I wanted them. Then export the config and you should be good to go to re-import for all your sequences. 

[PhilMassey]

I posted this a while back on managing your previews.

 

[James Shelby]

47 minutes ago, tlogan said:

I'm just throwing this out there, but in the S5 Grid View, you can click and drag channels up and down the view to wherever you want them. I had the problem where in a string of 50 smart bulbs (150 channels) they would get out of sequence unless you renumber Prop1,Prop2,Prop3 to be Prop01, Prop02, Prop03. Which you can do automatically. However one or two would still end up sorted out of sequences. So I went in and clicked and dragged where I wanted them. Then export the config and you should be good to go to re-import for all your sequences. 

Ya I'm am finding all this out now, being very careful how to rename everything. I wish it could have been like in s4 you just updated the sequences to the newest version of software.