Improved fixture order window for generator

[DJ Gwystyl]

The generator is largely an amazing tool and I love using it. If you need to edit the order the fixtures change in however it's a huge pain and time suck. Being required to individually move the fixtures one space/line at a time becomes extremely cumbersome when you have a lot of fixtures. If you're dealing with something like a Chauvet Freedom Stick for instance, in which there are 16 RGB options, and if you happen to have 16 lights, that alone is 256 different groups that have to be moved individually. Add individual RGB's from moving heads, par cans, etc and there are a lot of things to re-arrange if you're trying to create a specific effect. Trying to make a random/sparkly effect is extremely laborious and time consuming.

Some suggestions that would make this more functional would be:

- Randomize button which would automatically take all fixtures in the list and order them in a random order. This idea has been requested several times in the forums and there have been several people adding that it's a desirable option. Personally this is one that I would love to see, I have spent far too many hours re-arranging fixtures because every time I add some lights or take them out of the lineup I have to redo this, and a sparkle or random order is one I use quite often.

- Double pane or start/end. If you had the fixtures listed out in their current order, then a second window to drag/drop them into their new order that would allow a much faster option and greater flexibility. Perhaps a left/right arrow option would be better than the drag/drop though, or perhaps the default function is that the light is always dropped at the end of the list so you don't have to scroll through them all to drop a the end of the list. If this made more sense to the programmers, I'd personally be fine with this as it would still remove the requirement in the above scenario (which I'm currently programming..) to have to press the mouse button or space bar 200+ times as I'm re-ordering. I would be able to select the

- Ability to use Ctrl and Shift (and Ctrl+Shift) to select multiple fixtures at a time, then maintain that selection when you use the up/down buttons so you can move all the selected lights together

- Reverse button to automatically take all selected fixtures and reverse their order

[support]

Hello,
Thank you for this feedback.
We are presently focused on the new version of our software (V_II), which is still in beta state for now.
Its Generator module has a lot of improvements.
We suggest you to have a look at it.

[gwystyl]

I was going to add a vote for this, saw the response and tried looking at the new version. It's completely different, and not actually very intuitive. I guess abandoning this version is why it's become unstable, that's very sad and might require looking for an alternative option to run on the computer.

[support]

A new GUI may look not intuitive when you are friendly with another one.
This is another story for a new user who does not know both software versions.

[gwystyl]

HI, thanks for the reply, although it doesn't make sense to me about a different user. It's not about whether this version is different from your new program GUI, it's whether it's intuitive or not. I used several programs before ShowXpress, and tested several paid programs as well. I liked this interface, and this was way back on version 6 I believe, maybe version 7. This was easier to use, made sense in how everything was laid out and how it functions together. So much so that I've never had to ask about a manual, or even read a manual. While there is truth to that I might just need more time to tinker with the new program, that doesn't change that it may very well result in needing to purchase new hardware once this version is finally far enough outdated that it's no longer functional.

[support]

The version 9 of our software is still relevant.
If there is a problem with your lightshow, we could fix it if we are able to reproduce it. To reproduce it we need your lightshow and some explanation telling how to get the problem.