<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  The Light-O-Rama Software Package > Sequencer > Sequence Tab > Item List > Grid View Groups

A grid view group is a set of regular channels or RGB channels or Motion Effect rows or beat channels (or, conceivably, other grid view groups) that is nested together, so that it can be collapsed down to a single row in the sequence grid, or expanded to show all of its members.  

 

Note that the Sequencer has 2 ways to create groups: Preview Groups and Grid View Groups. Preview Groups are often the preferred method of creating groups, as they are automatically shared by all of the sequences using the same preview. On the other hand, Grid View Groups can only be shared with another sequence by exporting the grid configuration from one sequence and importing it into another.

 

When a grid view group is first created, the grid view group is shown as a single row:

 

 

Click the "+" button on the left to expand the group, and the "-" button to collapse it.

 

 

Notice that the "Unit ID 06: Strobes" row has been hidden in the picture above because this is the sequence grid's condensed view.  Sequences often have many rows and it is usually important to display as many rows as possible to make sequencing go faster. This is the purpose of the condensed view -- to show as many grid rows as possible. So when a parent (the grid view group) is expanded, the parent node is hidden and only the child nodes (the channels) are displayed. For new users this can sometimes be confusing, so the Sequencer allows condensed mode to be turned off. Condensed mode is turned on or off from the Grid View menu.

 

 

In the picture above, condensed mode has been turned off and now you can see both the parent "Unit ID 06: Strobes" and its 4 children, which makes clear the parent/child relationship. Now you can see that a grid view is a hierarchical tree!

 

But what happened to the sequence grid on the right -- it is showing an "X" pattern? Well, that is the other thing that condensed mode does: collapsed parent rows (where a "+" button is at the beginning of the row) display the effects for their first child in the grid. So in the top picture, the grid row for "Unit ID 06: Strobes" was actually showing the effects for "06.01-Strobes-A". When condensed mode is turned off, there is nothing to be displayed for the parent, which is what the "X" pattern indicates.

 

The rest of this topic will show the sequence grid with condensed mode enabled.

 

So again, when a grid view group is collapsed, the effects displayed on its row are the events of its first member (be it a regular channel, RGB channel, or motion effect row).  However, applying a tool to the row actually applies it to ALL of its members.  For example, with the grid view group collapsed, if you apply the Fade Up tool to its first cell, the result will look like this:

 

 

But when you expand the grid view group, it becomes apparent that the Fade Up tool was applied to all of the grid view group's members:

 

 

If you then collapse the grid view group, and apply the Chase tool to it while it is collapsed, no change will be evident from what is displayed:

 

 

But a change did happen - the Chase tool was applied to the entire grid view group.  The only reason that no change is evident from what is displayed is because when the grid view group is collapsed, only the effects of the first channel are displayed, and the Chase tool did not alter the effects of the first channel.  Expanding the grid view group reveals the change:

 

 

You can convert existing channels (and RGB channels, etc.) so that they become part of a new grid view group, by right-clicking on a channel, prop, or group name on the left side of the grid and select "Convert to Grid View Group" on the pop-up menu.  You can also "degroup" a group --  that is, remove the group node and leave the group's children in its place -- by using "Degroup" on that same pop-up menu.

 

 

The complete menu is described in the Item List topic.