Problem (?) with Channel Editor

The issues found when using the Fixture Manager panel
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qlcpen
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:41 am
Real Name: Paul Nichols

If I remove a channel from a channel group, the change is not made in the scenes that use that channel group. Is there something I'm not doing correctly? I simply uncheck the particular channel in the channel group. Thanks for your help.
qlcpen
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:41 am
Real Name: Paul Nichols

Hi, I believe the problem exists too when I later add a channel to a channel group. The scenes are then not updated. Any help would be well received! Perhaps there is a setting somewhere?
siegmund
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Location: Germany
Real Name: Lukas

Hey,

please provide a sample workspace and a step by step instruction with expected and actual behavior so one can see the issue more clearly.

Regards,
siegmund
qlcpen
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:41 am
Real Name: Paul Nichols

Hi, Thank you for replying.

I have created a very simple workspace to show what I am referring to.

I have created 5 dimmer channels. I have assigned all 5 channels to the channel group 'My group'. I then created a scene called 'My Scene' and assigned 'My Group' to the scene and made the channel group 100%

Now, if I change my mind and remove Dimmer #5 from My Group by deslecting the channel, I would expect that dimmer to be removed from My Scene, but it remains.

Also if I add a new dimmer to My Group, the new dimmer doesn't appear in My Scene, which I thought it ought to.

I hope that gives you an idea of what I am experiencing. I need the flexibility to change what channels are in a channel group, knowing that all my scenes will have those changes includes, rather than having to delete scenes and recreate them, which is time-consuming.

Thank you for any assistance.
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siegmund
Posts: 703
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Location: Germany
Real Name: Lukas

I can confirm this on Xubuntu 14.04 (64Bit) with the latest source code (Qt5).
To discuss how to solve it, I have set up an issue on github: https://github.com/mcallegari/qlcplus/issues/960
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mcallegari
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Real Name: Massimo Callegari
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This is not a bug.
One thing is the fixtures you add to a Scene, another thing is the channels controlled by a channel group. They are unrelated.
The fact that in your test project they look the same is just a pure coincidence. And I'd say the usage of generic dimmers can be misleading in that sense.

You can have a channel group controlling 100 dimmer channels and just 5 single channel dimmers in a Scene. When you move the channel group, it will change the level only of those 5 channels of the Scene.

In other words, a channel group is just a 1-to-many channels representation, implemented for convenience when you need to quickly change many channels at once.
siegmund
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Location: Germany
Real Name: Lukas

Sorry but I'm not fully satisfied with this reply.
First you're right, this is most probably not a bug but some kind of missing feature.
mcallegari wrote: Sat Apr 08, 2017 10:31 am One thing is the fixtures you add to a Scene, another thing is the channels controlled by a channel group. They are unrelated.
Why then are all the fixtures associated in the channel group are added to the scene after adding the channel group to it?
I see your point, that it is possible to remove some fixtures again and still being able to adjust the remaining channels with the channel group slider.
Anyways - if the channel group is altered, e.g. a channel is deleted then it no longer belongs to the group and should be removed from the scene. Like if a fixture associated to a channel group is deleted (btw there is a bug with updating the scene editor after removing a fixture that was in a channel group).

I read and thought again through this and came to the conclusion that I had a completely wrong understanding of channel groups.
So sorry for the inconvenience.
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mcallegari
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siegmund wrote: Sat Apr 08, 2017 12:16 pm Why then are all the fixtures associated in the channel group are added to the scene after adding the channel group to it?
That's another convenience shortcut to be faster when creating a Scene.
In fact if you deselect a channel group in a Scene, it doesn't remove any fixture.

And I would add: since QLC+ doesn't read users minds, when a Scene is empty and you select a channel group, most likely it is because you need those channels in the Scene. When you deselect it, is it because you want to get rid of the fixtures or because you might want to switch to another channel group with a different set of channels ? In the doubt, QLC+ doesn't perform any destructive operation.
fgibaux
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Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:07 pm
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Hi,

I think that for me the UI is a bit misleading. I thought like Paul & Siegmund that there was some kind of a link/relation between the channel group and a scene. I guess it's because of the panel "channel groups used in this scene" with check-boxes.

Yet I understand the use case to apply a channel group on a subset of his fixtures.

In the case of fixtures groups, it's pretty clear that it's only when you click on "add fixtures" and select a group that it adds the current fixtures to the scene.

Maybe a similar way for channel groups would be more understandable ?

Another (complementary?) idea could be that channel group appear automatically as soon as there are (at least 2?) fixtures in the scene that involve them (and the check-boxes/selection in the panel to choose if the corresponding tab is displayed).
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