I read in several places in the Vixen documentation about grouping and nesting of elements but I just can't find how to do it. When I make eg a generic numbered group or a megatree it has just one level. I have not found out how to nest a group within that group. Nor can I nest that group within another. The page on Display Elements and Groups says it is possible and even necessary but I have not found a word on how to do it. Hours of trial and error has resulted in nothing. Can anyone point me to a relevant tutorial or otherwise give me a start somehow.
Basic question on grouping
- Thread starter dw377
- Start date
MartinMueller2003
Supporting Member
You are so close. Open the patching screen.
All work will be done on the left side of the screen.
Create an element. Call it Collection (a random name that popped into my head)
create another element. call it foo-1
Create another element and call it foo-2
Drag foo-1 and drop it on collection. You have now caused collection to become a group and you have embedded foo-1 in that group.
Drag foo-2 and drop it on collection. You have now added a 2nd element to the collections group.
Create a set of numbered elements called bar-x
Drag them into collection. you now added a bunch of elements to collection.
Hopefully you can now see the basics of what you want to do. There are lots of tools to make this process simpler. For example on the layout page there are some wizards that let you create things like trees or stars (and many others). You tell the wizard what kind of lights you are using, how many lights, if making a tree, how many legs and what do you want to call the tree.
Then you go to the setup / patching screen and combine your trees into a tree group (just like collections above).
On the sequencing screen you can apply effects to the trees group (they all do the same thing), to individual trees, to specific legs on a tree, to specific pixels on a leg on a tree (I hope you get the point).
My show is set up as
"Show" which has three groups House, yard, Signs.
Those groups all have multiple groups in them. House has windows, eves, snowflakes
Again they each have groups in them
Windows has win-1 through win-4
Each of those window groups has five groups top, right,botom,left,middle
Each of those has some number of pixels. I tend not to break a pixel into its component LEDs.
All work will be done on the left side of the screen.
Create an element. Call it Collection (a random name that popped into my head)
create another element. call it foo-1
Create another element and call it foo-2
Drag foo-1 and drop it on collection. You have now caused collection to become a group and you have embedded foo-1 in that group.
Drag foo-2 and drop it on collection. You have now added a 2nd element to the collections group.
Create a set of numbered elements called bar-x
Drag them into collection. you now added a bunch of elements to collection.
Hopefully you can now see the basics of what you want to do. There are lots of tools to make this process simpler. For example on the layout page there are some wizards that let you create things like trees or stars (and many others). You tell the wizard what kind of lights you are using, how many lights, if making a tree, how many legs and what do you want to call the tree.
Then you go to the setup / patching screen and combine your trees into a tree group (just like collections above).
On the sequencing screen you can apply effects to the trees group (they all do the same thing), to individual trees, to specific legs on a tree, to specific pixels on a leg on a tree (I hope you get the point).
My show is set up as
"Show" which has three groups House, yard, Signs.
Those groups all have multiple groups in them. House has windows, eves, snowflakes
Again they each have groups in them
Windows has win-1 through win-4
Each of those window groups has five groups top, right,botom,left,middle
Each of those has some number of pixels. I tend not to break a pixel into its component LEDs.
Thank you. So frustrating when it is the simple stuff that gets you stuck.
I have got the left hand side of the display screen sorted but having grouped my elements into a super group, 4 subsections and various elements under that, I am lost on what now to do on the RHS. I had that working Ok with discrete elements ( and low level groups) each with a (E1.31) controller, with a universe sequence for each to match the physical controllers. I have no idea how to do this with one controller with thousands of channels. Should I be configuring controllers for elements before moving them into groups? I have read that's wrong thinking but I don't know the alternatives.
MartinMueller2003
Supporting Member
Assuming you have set the left side filters so that your pixel elements are all properly defined/
The next step is to create your controllers. Dont worry about pixels. The transport from show player to controller is a CHANNEL operation. FYI: Of the choices available, E1.31 should be the last choice. FPP remote should be your first choice and DDP is the close second.
Step one is to assign the props to a controller. This is a logical (in your head operation). I use a spreadsheet to track this. Assigning props to a controller will tell you how many ports on the controller you are going to need and how many channels the controller will support. Once you know how many channels you are putting on a controller, then you can create the controller on the right side of the screen and set its channel count. If you do make the mistake of using E1.31, then divide the number of channels by 512 and add one to get the number of universes you will need. (NumChans / 512) + 1 = num universes.
The next step is patching. We will go through that once you have created the controllers.
The next step is to create your controllers. Dont worry about pixels. The transport from show player to controller is a CHANNEL operation. FYI: Of the choices available, E1.31 should be the last choice. FPP remote should be your first choice and DDP is the close second.
Step one is to assign the props to a controller. This is a logical (in your head operation). I use a spreadsheet to track this. Assigning props to a controller will tell you how many ports on the controller you are going to need and how many channels the controller will support. Once you know how many channels you are putting on a controller, then you can create the controller on the right side of the screen and set its channel count. If you do make the mistake of using E1.31, then divide the number of channels by 512 and add one to get the number of universes you will need. (NumChans / 512) + 1 = num universes.
The next step is patching. We will go through that once you have created the controllers.
I took a long time reading up and many trials before I decided to use ethernet for comms and now discovering its drawbacks, so I'm not surprised by your comment on that. However, there is not enough year left to change course; that will be a next year development if I am still up for the Christmas lights malarky. Actually I have had 4 different home made E1.31 controllers working simultaneously with Vixen generated sequences delivered by FPP on a Raspberry Pi controlling a mix of pixel props, 31V icicle strings, a creation with WS2811 chips controlling strings for roof purlins, various other custom props so I'm not sunk yet. I wanted to step back a bit and review the overall grouping so that I can coordinate whole display effects, and use Vixen for Scheduling. I am not far enough ahead with that to formulate a proper question (witness my OP) but I will likely come back when I have. Many thanks.
MartinMueller2003
Supporting Member
I am not saying Ethernet is bad. My objection is with the way people interpret the concept of a universe and how wasteful E1.31 is of network resources. E1.31 is a mechanism to transfer channel data over an Ethernet network. At that it does an OK job. DDP is far less wasteful of network resources, making it the (IMO) superior choice.
From your post, it sounds like you know how to patch so you should be good to go at this point. Just keep in mind: E1.31 works, DDP works better, FP Remote works best
From your post, it sounds like you know how to patch so you should be good to go at this point. Just keep in mind: E1.31 works, DDP works better, FP Remote works best