feature Request.

[Box on Rails]

I want to be able to add a only Motion effect rows from a prop to a group. What I have is a 100 x 50 matrix that I have added to cover a 4'x8' window on my house. Previously, the window had an outline string and a 50 x 48 Matrix inside it.  The matrix was a prop and the outline string was a prop. Rather then keep the outline string up I decided to create a Motion effect row in the new 100x50 Matrix for the outline. The old outline string was on it's own unit so it was a single prop that was easily added as part of my "entire house with no matrix" group. this allowed me to display singing characters in the matrix while the entire house group displays an effect. So my issue that I am having is I only want the Motion effect Row with the outline in the Matrix prop to be added to the "entire house" group but the software does not have the ability do this. It only allows the adding of the entire prop. My request is to allow one or more selected Motion Effects row within a prop to be added to a Group vs. the entire prop. 

Kenny Jure 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Box on Rails

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

+1

I have props that are plywood cutouts with pixels and I use motion effect rows to segment out the parts. Its not all that different than a wireframe, just using plywood. I don't do many whole house effects, but when I do, I may only want part of that cutout to light up because it has animated parts. For example, I have an angel defined as a custom prop with two sets of wings to make it look like its flying. A desire of mine has been leave the top wings as solid color with a whole house ripple effect of a different color. Since the group takes in the entire prop, I can't have the ripple apply to only the top wings, it applies to both sets.

I have thought about making the angel into many different smaller props, but not sure I could because of how the prop is wired. For example, the pixel string may go back and forth between two different parts of the angel for wiring efficiency to avoid having to cut and splice in extra wire.

[Box on Rails]

20 hours ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said:

I have thought about making the angel into many different smaller props, but not sure I could because of how the prop is wired. For example, the pixel string may go back and forth between two different parts of the angel for wiring efficiency to avoid having to cut and splice in extra wire.

I think you could do it but you need to wire the 2 sets of wings as separate props on separate ports (unit ID#s).  I have done this with all my RGB singing props I have the eyes and mouth on one Prop (unit ID#) and the Outline on another that way I only add the outline Prop of the singing tree or pumpkin to the Entire House group. This was pretty easy to do.  Now, with a 100x50 Matrix I need only the outer rows of pixels to be added to a group and splitting the matrix prop is going to be a lot more work in both creating the prop and wiring the prop. The Matrix would be reduced to a 98x48 and the outer row prop would use 296 pixels and would would require 3 ports at 100 pixels per port, It would be so much easier if when a group is being created that in the selection menu there would be a sub folder under each prop that has a list of Motion effects in that prop that you can check for adding to the group. If you want to add the entire prop just check the main prop. If you want a specific ME Row from that prop just add another + level to the prop selection for ME row to be added. That seems pretty straight forward to me. where are all the LOR programmers at. this seems to be a feature that needs to added.

Kenny Jure

Edited January 13, 2023 by Box on Rails

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

6 hours ago, Box on Rails said:

Now, with a 100x50 Matrix I need only the outer rows of pixels to be added to a group and splitting the matrix prop is going to be a lot more work in both creating the prop and wiring the prop

Agreed, this is exactly my problem with the angel prop (and others), because the string gets interleaved between both sets of wings. Again, I could choose not to interleave and wire things differently. But that ultimately leads to more soldering work.

However another aspect is pixel sharing between animated parts. For the angel, a pixel is shared where the top and bottom wings cross. Doing the two string route doesn't allow pixel sharing, so the prop would need to be redesigned just to get around the software rigidity.

I think its way easier to manage props (at least pixel props) when your physical prop is a 1:1 match to a prop in the software. Having to define many props and then using one or more groups to bring it back together works (except for pixel sharing problem), but becomes cumbersome. So yeah, I would really like the ability for a group to take a motion effect row. It seems relatively easy, but there are caveats if they are added. For example, you may want to include multiple ME rows of that prop in the group, but keep the relative layout of those ME rows within the prop versus placing those ME rows relative to other items in the group. Guessing most of the time one would want to preserve the arrangement within the prop, but I could see where the ME rows would be arranged relative to the other items in the group. Now I suppose you could create two groups, one with multiple ME rows of that prop with the use preview option and then the actual group that includes it with whatever else you want.