The time tool dilemma

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Deece
Posts: 96
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:42 pm
Real Name: Derek

My favourite is Massimo's 2nd option. A floating tool over the page.
I don't like the expanding row idea, though. To me it looks clumsy.
Perhaps in its 'options' you can choose where it pops up? 1) Under the pointer/selection, 2) Center of screen, or 3) xy coords.
Maybe all popup tools could have the xy option?

For the record, I'm a mouse/kbd user.
I had to shout loud enough to get my theatre group let me buy a new led fixture; a touchscreen I'd have to scream my head off. :D :(
Deece
Posts: 96
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:42 pm
Real Name: Derek

So the tool could look something like this :
Screen2.png
The button top left would colapse the tool, leaving only the title bar visible with the set time.
You could then open several tools at the same time, and take up minimal space?
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mcallegari
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Sorry but I don't like it.
It's huge and it has a lot of unused space.
Also I don't quite find a sense to waste so much space for the hours control. Most likely nobody will ever use it.

In general I have a few doubts that scrollbars is the way to go.
Deece
Posts: 96
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:42 pm
Real Name: Derek

No worries, Massimo. It was just an idea..
With second thoughts, it wouldn't work anyway.
Rolling over from one column to another for instance. (getting to say 60 secs +1 would need the bar resetting and moving the Minute bar up 1...)

Did you see the other ideas?
1) Put the set time in the title bar?
2) A 'collapse' button in the title bar. - Collapse the tool leaving the title bar visible? (As in Frames atm) - Could have many tools open at a time.
3) User options as to where the tool apears - a) Under cursor, b) center screen, c) at a user set x,y screen position?

I like the idea of Tabbing thru TimeOption settings (FadeIn/Hold?FadeOut) - this would maybe mean the collapse button not needed?
Also use a mouse wheel for this?

Possibly use Shift-Click to increment each column by 10? and mS by 100
nixs
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 7:48 am
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Hi Massimo,

Consider this:
- Click on the field of the time: open the pad
- Click on the arrow pointing upwards: closed pad and sends the values
- Stacked values in the units of measure: easier to read
qlctime.png
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mcallegari
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Real Name: Massimo Callegari
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nixs wrote:Hi Massimo,
Consider this:
- Click on the field of the time: open the pad
- Click on the arrow pointing upwards: closed pad and sends the values
- Stacked values in the units of measure: easier to read
Interesting view but: the tool wouldn't be floating anymore, so if you needed to copy the time value from the next row, you couldn't

Questions:
- why the need to apply the time only when the tool is closed ? Am I missing a usage case I didn't consider ?
- what do you mean by "Stacked values in the units of measure" ? Just "some space between the time nibbles" ?

I will come back to this topic as soon as I can. As usual, I got dragged into another million of things so I couldn't dedicate more effort to progress on this
hugo584
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Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2016 8:52 pm
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I'm sorry if this counts as "digging up" an old topic but after my last project I might have got some ideas for the time tool problem:

First about the positioning: It's definitely necessary to see other steps when editing the time. I constantly had to copy other scenes' times into new ones. but when combining Massimo's very first idea (putting the time tool in the same row) and nixs' idea of opening a box right below the number it becomes way easier to read while still maintaining view of the other scenes.
timetool_idea01_hugo.jpg


Secondly: Working a lot with Adobe Photoshop i got used to clicking and dragging names to change the numbers in the fields they resemble. So in order to work "as fast as possible" with both mouse or touch input, one could combine the sliders and the traditional button-layout.
Once you click/touch and hold the number you want to change (ms, s, m or h) you can drag up or down to change the value.
To help identifying the number while doing some touch input, a simple "tooltip" could be added, that shows the current value right above your finger.
timetool_idea03_hugo.jpg
timetool_idea04_hugo.jpg
In case of a mouse input, the cursor could simply change to a vertical resize, so the user knows what it does.

Both Ideas are of course independent from one another. I'm sure some would appreciate to have both options of positioning the time tool.
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andres robles
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Real Name: Andres Robles

hello massimo, I personally like a good idea ... to think according to uses can be effective .... I think it would be good to have a gadget for virtual console for control times, but showing the time of the scene or chase that is in the active time, for example, if I have 4 windows in cv chase, and I want time control for each chase live, I have to add 4 windows and allocate time to chase affects ..... would be good a time window that can read and modify the time of the chase or scene that is running ... (more management control to live), and space-saving cv. greetings to all, are only suggestions which, according to my understanding in a real live use, can make life easier .... (as operator lighting)

admirable project. Congratulations
Silicon_Knight
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2015 10:33 pm
Real Name: Greg Cotton

I know that I'm late in jumping on this discussion (and that the design might already be complete), but I thought I'd throw in my input anyway.

First, Massimo, keep up the good fight! There are so many of us who still use QLC+ 4 regularly and are eagerly anticipating QLC+ 5!

Second, as powerful as the time tool was in QLC+ 4, I do find it often cumbersome to use. So, I like the concept of a floating tool that pops up as you need it. Being a keyboard+touch user, I also like the idea of tabbing between time fields for entry (the tool would continue to shift focus to each next field as tab is repeatedly pressed). Also, ESC for closing the tool (so I can see what was underneath) would be a nice shortcut.

Finally, supporting the time string is a VERY powerful capability that allows very simple precise timing or ensuring that multiple items are synchronized, so please keep some ability to type in a "time string" as you put it.

I use this tool for Theatrical Productions (mostly musicals), which I know wasn't a primary use case, but it works great for 95%+ of what we need, and has such wonderful tech support!

Thanks again to everyone who keeps this project going!
igorrobertifoc
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:17 pm
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Hello Massimo, you have done a great job. I don't speak very well english, so I hope to be not off-topic..

In my view there is the possibility to include in separate page common time tools and in the chaser the possibility to link to these common time tool.

common time tool can be timers, beat catcher for make step, ... make it generic. Try to integrate the concept of the loopback inside these new object will be a very good thing.

Thank you very much for your effort.

Bye
benste
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Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2016 6:36 pm
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I'd prefer Siegmunds idea with the sliders vertically expanded per scene which is curently selected.
Personally i'll usually tap the times using an external controller, so as long as all fields would be individually adressable by MIDI input everything would work for me.
in regards to the fader idea - i disaggree that this would not work well with keyboard / mouse - it depends on the scale - for sure using linear time this wouldn't work, but using exponantial x-axis labels might do the job. In addition on could doubleclick the slider in order to get the original posts idea of showing an inplace possibility to manually write the numbers as well as increase or decrease by component.
The only thing i didn't like about the original post was that its really hard to see which field is currently edited. using the vertically expanded current scene could differentiate that part in a sufficient manner.

EDIT - didn't see 2nd page
Also agree with the ideas of - hugo584 » Sun Jun 19, 2016 11:44 pm
Furthermore i would support the last posters message that for my own usage it is by far more important to be able to edit fade in out and hold times independant from selecting the individual scenes. just like the bottom rigth faders from a e.g. https://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_lc2 ... chpult.htm
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GGGss
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Location: Belgium
Real Name: Fredje Gallon

If I might give my 2 cents:

A 'universal time controller' ??
universal-selector.jpg
on selecting a field (f.i. hold) it opens somewhere
you can:
* directly type in the time in ms (QLC4 alike) + [Set] (screen stays open)
* go to the next/prev field (f.i. Hold-Time -> fade-out), press [>] + type in value + [Set]
* go to the next/prev line in your chaser -> press [down] + type in value + [set] (problem : will you know in which field you are ?? normally if in hold-time and next = hold time of the next step in chaser)**
* quick adjust a segment of the value: fi. hold-time = 1:01,1s -> change it to 2 minutes 1,1s : press 'm' button (highlights) press [+] + [set]
* quick adjust a segment of the value: fi. hold-time = 2:01,1s -> change it to 2 minutes 0,0s : press 's' button (highlights), press [-], press [ms] (highlights), press [-]+[set]
* infinite-values: press the infinite-button + [set]
* close window: press X

** additional: have some kind of display above num-keys with f.i.

Code: Select all

Step 5 - Fade-in - 0:12.0
if you press [>] (next field) display changes to

Code: Select all

Step 5 - Hold - 2:00
To prevent unwanted manipulation. If you start changing a value the [set]-button gets an other colour (visual clue) like the [m] button above. If you press the X with [set] lit -> a warning.

This way you quickly can adopt all timings in a chase or wherever timing is important.

ToDo: beat-button + BPM indication???

my 2 cents in contributing to this marvelous project.
I hope you guys like it
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