~ helpful hidden tips thread ~

nix · 2 Aug 2012

one for initiates- hold ctrl to move graphic elements independantly of the grid. mouse wheel zooms ctrl c & v to copy and paste code

edit-another tip: you can make sub-menus in drop downs by using <<category>> or some such

Xtinct · 2 Aug 2012

If you make a part of your schematic that was previously poly into mono remove any poly readouts first or instant crash

trogluddite · 2 Aug 2012

- If things start to get very messy when using synchronised modules... CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+'S' to remove synchronisation from all modules in the whole schematic.

- Some soundcard drivers (especially DS) don't always play nicely with SM. So it is always best to upload schematics to the forum with the audio inputs/outputs turned OFF. This gives folks the chance to set up the audio in the way that works best for their system - rather than risking that your cool new plugin will instantly crash their machine on loading.

- CTRL clicking the little 'P' icon for the properties panel of a module will pin it open - so that it doesn't automatically close when you move to another module. Just click the icon again to return to the normal 'Auto-close' behaviour.

- Most times, if you connect a string to a number or array input, SM will cleverly handle the 'translation'. But sometimes this doesn't quite work - if so, sticking a string primitive 'in line' will often force the correct behaviour.

- When using an 'M2F' to convert stream to 'green' remember that there is no trigger at the output unless the stream number value has changed.

- ReDraw Area will update all graphics that lie inside the defined area of the screen, even if some of those graphics happen to be inside a completely different module. Use this to your advantage to save CPU when drawing overlapping graphics.

- Tidy, Tidy, Tidy! - a schematic that looks like a Jackson Pollock painting, with mysterious unlabelled connectors, will be very difficult to de-bug or add new features to. This is even more important if you wish other forum users to help you out with a problem - every 'helper' here is an unpaid volunteer, so please make it easy for us to help you!

infuzion · 5 Aug 2012

Sometimes you want to double-check math results outside SM, or you want to more accurately evaluate a constant expression (eg Pi * 2), I find online calculators handy. - Google used to have double-precision results, but no longer 🙁 They do have a fancy new calculator GUI though. + double-precision here: http://www.alcula.com/calculators/scien ... alculator/ ++ DuckDuckGo uses Wolfram|Alpha, which gives you more decimal resolution than you need to shoot a rocket into space.

Keep up the good tips; I'm learning & being reminded of alot!

philter5 · 5 Aug 2012

just a small hint: sometimes you will get mono streams connected to greyed out poly (e.g. after creating a parent module)

right clicking to force the connection is annoying with too many connections and sometimes (like in the example picture) not possible. to save time just select the connections you want to make blue (in the example picture = the combiners)

make them a module

and then select undo from the menu. now all streams will turn blue

MegaHurtz · 6 Aug 2012

shift + control for connecting anything to anything

oddson · 6 Aug 2012

Ctrl-Click the toolbox filters to do AND searches... (especially the data-type filters)

Want to find the Float to Area in a hurry... Control-click on the Float and Area data-type filters and you're down to only eight primitives.

Or when you can't think of the name but know the data-types. I can never remember the name Trigger Switch but Control-Click on Trigger and Boolean (Green) and it's down to a small enough number to pick it out.

Or when you don't even know if there is a primitive that does what you want but you know what data types would be involved if there is... in the early days I learned a whole lot of primitves this way.

trogluddite · 6 Aug 2012

...while we're on the subject of the toolbox...

- The 'Tooltip' primitive isn't just for floating tooltips - any tooltip text within a module also gets checked out when you do a toolbox search. So when you are adding new custom modules to your collection, you can make them much easier to find in the future by adding some useful 'tags' with a tooltip prim' - or even add/edit tooltip text inside stock modules so that they appear nearer the top of a search (shame we can't do this for primitives).

- Need a float box in a hurry - just press 'F'. There are a few primitives which have letters on the right hand border of their toolbox 'cell' - these are their shortcut keys. (NB - remember that if you have the "PC Keyboard" selected as your MIDI input, it completely hi-jacks the keys so that shortcuts will stop working!).

- If you accidentally delete a favourite module from your toolbox, don't panic - it probably hasn't gone far. To get it back, just do this. First highlight any other custom module in the toolbox - then go to the menu item "Toolbox -> Show Module File...", this will open your "User" toolbox folder in Windows explorer. Now navigate up one level, and you will see a 'Deleted Modules' folder - here you will find your deleted module safe and sound, and ready for pasting back into the "User" folder. While you are there, you can also do a backup of your "User" modules, or pop them on a USB stick for porting to another PC.