1 Topic by jlklein

  • jlklein
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Topic: Re-associating a parent control?

Hey folks,
I've been getting more up to speed on our existing Nware system as our HW programmer's contract is ending, so I'll have to be filling his shoes. We've been building some new rooms together in preps for an expansion that will be taking place after he leaves and a lot of it could be copy and paste from existing room arrangements. Some of it we are able to do, such as the schematics/blocks with is essentially a router for each room with the various inputs and outputs to gain/comp/meter controls, and that's been no problem for me to just change the flyoffs, names and add aliases in each copied block.

The issue is that we also have a page for each room, or group of like rooms, that has a channel for each room comprised of that room's gain, mute, source selection, meter and 2x1 switch that is our paging override of the room audio. It's just a way for us to monitor/adjust multiple rooms from one page location for setup/troubleshooting. We would have liked to copy a row of this setup from another similar page instead of having to recreate them all, but there doesn't seem to be a way to copy a bunch of child controls (copies of the parent controls in the room schematics) and re-associate them with another parent.

Am I missing something? Is there actually a way to do this? It would save LOADS of time being able to copy a graphic and just re-route what parent control they should be linked to.

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff Klein, DMC-E
AV Project Manager/DoD
Technical Director/Faith Baptist Church
Baltimore, Maryland

2 Reply by phils

  • phils
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Re: Re-associating a parent control?

Hi Jeff,

There is a way to do this using Inspector (optional in Preferences), but I find it's mostly quicker and safer to use Copy/Paste Control Properties to make your new "real" controls look like the old ones you like. The only thing to watch is exactly what is copied; eg each Router button has different string value.

Hope this helps.

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
                                                                                        - George Bernard Shaw

3 Reply by jlklein

  • jlklein
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Re: Re-associating a parent control?

Thanks, Phil. I'll take a look at the Inspector parameters. The issue we run into is not a single control, but a group of them arranged in a particular graphical arrangement that we want to repeat without having to painstakingly line up all the boxes-within-boxes that make the "audio channel" control. I think it might be the "plugin_data" parameter that I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Jeff

Last edited by jlklein (2014-01-25 05:14:34)

Jeff Klein, DMC-E
AV Project Manager/DoD
Technical Director/Faith Baptist Church
Baltimore, Maryland

4 Reply by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
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Re: Re-associating a parent control?

You want the parameter listed in the Inspector Window as "device_id". Each native object in NWare has a unique device_id number. You will want to get that number from the device you want to associate that control with, then you will need to make sure the RUID for the given control matches the specific control you want that control to be associated with.

Be very careful when messing around in here. It is very easy to really mess something up.

Also be aware that composite devices may have more than one device_id associated with it. This is because the composite device is composed of more than one native device (hence the name "composite"). So, if you want to do things this way, you need to be sure to know what your native device's device_id's are and enter them for the appropriate controls for your user interface.

When it is all said and done, I doubt it would be any quicker to do this than it would be to copy the controls out, resize them as appropriate, and use some spacing blocks to get everything to line up correctly. Then you can cut and paste those spacing blocks from one page to another to get everything to lay out the same. The nice part is that when you are done you can delete the spacing blocks to leave everything neatly laid out on the screen without additional clutter.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website

5 Reply by jlklein

  • jlklein
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Re: Re-associating a parent control?

Thanks, Josh. I spoke with Ray Rayburn over the weekend and he echo'd the same sentiment. However, we came up with an easier workaround, which was when making up my room blocks with controls/schematics inside for the initial room, I can make my pretty "channel strip" out of the desired copied controls within that first block initially (instead of pasting off to another page), then when I make multiple copies of that block for each successive room as I do, it automatically reassigns the channel strip associations just like it does with the controls themselves for each new block. Then I can copy those already made/same size channel strips out of those room blocks onto my other page where I want all the room channel strips on one page and they're now associated correctly.

I hope that makes sense smile

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff Klein, DMC-E
AV Project Manager/DoD
Technical Director/Faith Baptist Church
Baltimore, Maryland

6 Reply by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
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Re: Re-associating a parent control?

jlklein wrote:

Thanks, Josh. I spoke with Ray Rayburn over the weekend and he echo'd the same sentiment. However, we came up with an easier workaround...

Yes, that is absolutely the best way to get the job done!

Basically build it once, all inside a single block, on multiple pages inside that block. Normally one page has the schematic on it and another page has all the controls laid out the way you want them to look. Then once you get it done, you can copy/paste that block as many times as you want and you have all the controls laid out the way you want. You now just need to aggregate all those controls together on a single page for your user interface.

You have now just made your own "composite device". You can also define that composite device as a plugin and keep it in your plugins list for future use or sharing with other people. This can even include sharing it to our plugins section of this user forum.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website