[ANSWERED] Frame or panel in edit environment just for overview-purposes

plem

We all know that our patches can get quite extended at times. And a little messy.

Wouldn’t it be an idea to have a comment like panel that can lie under the actors just to mark an area with actors that belong together. It also could be a frame. The comment-actor almost could do the job, but unfortunately it cannot be layered and shifted behind other objects.

Maybe that layering might be a problem. But then, as said, a “comment-frame” could do the job.

Peter

Juriaan

@plem

Try a Background :) You can shift it behind your actors.

DusX

@plem said:

an area with actors that belong together.

Here I use the 'Background' actor to highlight the section of the patch creating a Background fill.
The Background actor can have its color changed by double clicking its title, and can only be selected by click its title (shift + Click for multi-select when moving groups)
Renaming your Background actor to reflect the function of the included actors is a great Idea.
NOTE: you can tag a Background actor (or any actor) by renaming the actor so that it starts with a pound sign (eg: #Background ) This causes the actor to be listed in the Show Tagged Actors list, and when selected in this list will take you directly to this section of your patch.

Using the Show Tagged Actors pull down, located bottom right of the Isadora window (left of the Information panel above the scene list.

ps: I added two '#' characters to actor names from the above patch so that this list would generate.

Kathmandale

@dusx I love the tip about about making background search-able. Whenever I'm building a patch for or with someone else, or as an example of students, it's always covered in backgrounds and comments explaining what's within each background. Making that 'search-able' to jump to a different section of a patch is a great tool to help people navigate a workflow, #effects, #cameras, #mapping...

I'd not utilised it before as I'd never considered using it with re-named actors; I'm always wary of re-naming actors when teaching as I want students to be able to find things for themselves when building their own patches, so I tend to leave the names of things alone. Using backgrounds would avoid any confusion.