WANTED: info on using certain OBJs in SM

trogluddite · 1 Oct 2011

Hi there tinkergnome, welcome to SM (like the username! 🙂 )

Yes, the GUI parts are a bit confusing at first, the data flow is kind of 'back-to-front' compared to most other data!

Probably most important, is that to understand the GUI parts, you need to read the yellow view connections '(V)' from right to left - so for example...

Following right to left - the text will be displayed on top of the filled rectangle. The MGUI then puts those together and creates the panel for this individual module. Then the wireless 'view' receiver, 'transmits' (because the flow is 'backwards) this panel upwards through the schematic. This enables an individual control to have its graphics incorporated as a 'sub-panel' within a 'mother' module that acts as the container for the whole plugin.

Without that wireless connection (which should be left without a name), the graphics for a control will not appear on your main front panel

The area '(A)' connections tell it where to place the graphics - in this case I have read the 'area' of the 'view' - this finds the actual size and position on screen for that particular MGUI, so that you can freely position the control on screen and resize it when you arrange your main panel.

If you need to place things differently, you can do maths on the area co-ordinates from the MGUI. For this, you'll need the 'Area to Float' and 'Float to Area' primitives, to give you simple float values for the co-ordinates. Co-ordinates are always calculated in grid squares (as seen on the workspace 'graph paper' background). Horizontal co-ordinates start at zero (left) and go upwards to the right. Vertical co-ordinates start at zero (top) and go upwards towards the bottom (opposite to most other graphics programs!). The co-ordinates are relative to the top, left corner for each individual individual module.

Hope I haven't confused you even more! 😉 And yes, you are quite right about the documentation - this has pretty much been left to users to work out for themselves. 🙁 You can be sure of getting plenty of help here on the forum, though. The easiest way is to just experiment with connecting stuff, then, if it doesn't work, try a forum/wiki search for the component or technique you are having trouble with; if that doesn't help, then post here with your schematic file attached.

tinkergnome · 1 Oct 2011

no i don't think you've confused me. i understood that... since i posted that comment i explored the MGUI element & was able to augment the multi-sampler as of recent with a rounded rectangle shape control that when you mouse click on it acts as a non-animatory button to open the file dialog where you can select a *.wav and then ok it, then it replaces the sound. i then only have to add a bit of text over top of it to label it accordingly. i'm still trying to figure out how to separate objects into their own area on the front panel so that for example: the selector item in the multi-sampler is not part of the waveform lens (where when you load the sound you see the visual waveform how its structured as how you'd see it in a wave editor),..... i've only been exposed to this environment for about 6 - 10 days, pretty much i have much room to grow.

trogluddite · 2 Oct 2011

tinkergnome wrote: how to separate objects into their own area

The grouping follows the structure of the modules. Controls get grouped together if they are all inside the same module - modules within modules act as 'sub-groups'. When you are editing a panel, the selection box will enclose all the grouped controls, and show you the name of the module inside that holds the 'group' - double click the selection box, and the editor goes inside and highlights the module for you, so it's easy to find even if you have duplicate controls with the same name.

If you find yourself needing to move a grouped item independently, there are two options.

1) Go inside the module. The modules inside will usually have their own 'local' front panels (If they have any GUI). The control you can't move on it's own will be on one of these panels, along with the others from its 'group'. You can then edit the panel for the sub-module to re-arrange the relative spacing of the grouped items.

2) Alternatively remove the item from the 'group' by moving it outside of the sub-module. You can move most controls easily enough with cut-and-paste, but be careful to note what signals go where, so that you can reconstruct the links between the control and whatever parameter it was changing.

Sometimes, you might not be able to get the desired effect without editing the GUI primitives themselves - for example, it's possible to program view 'Areas' with calculated co-ordinates so that they automatically fill the space if a module is resized, or have hard-wired fixed co-ordinates.