Can't get pinwheel effect out of preview

[msiebri]

Hi,

I was playing with the pinwheel effect on my arches.  I added it to the first one, then accidentally did "Copy Effect Across Row" instead of just copying it to the rest of the arches.  Now I can't seem to get it to quit showing up in the preview.  I even deleted the affected rows, saved, then re-added the rows.  The effect continues to show on all of my models for that time period.  Am  I doing something wrong?

Martin

[jnealand]

You would have to replace all those miscopied cells with new effects or by putting in a color wash of black in each of those cells.  Xlights is basically additive and only replaces those things that are in the nutcracker window.  Your other choice is to save your file, erase the xseq, then create a new musical sequence and specify that you have an xml file.  Then when you save the file it will create it a totally new file without any residual effects.  I've had to do this myself more than I want to admit.  For me it takes longer to save the new file than to do all the other steps.  My stupidity / forgetfullness is just annoying sometimes.

[msiebri]

So I tried something else.  I deleted the xml table rows that were causing me problems.  I opened the file again and everything seems fine, I was able to re-add my rows and now the pinwheel is gone.  Was this a bad idea?

Martin

[jnealand]

How did you delete and add rows?

[msiebri]

I downloaded XML Notepad 2007 from Microsoft.  Then opened the xml file for my sequence.  It was pretty easy to find the entry for the bad lines, the start time is the first td value.  Once I found the right rows, I just right-clicked on the tr folder and deleted it.  Saved when I was done.  I attached a couple of screenshots.

Martin

[attachment deleted by admin]

[jnealand]

Sean generally recommends the use of notepad++ to use when looking at the xml files.  It's free and that is what I use.  The reason I asked is that you add and delete in the nutcracker window also.  When editing using an xml editor you need to be careful that you don't accidentally mess something else up.  You can always delete the xseq (only the xseq) and start from scratch using the 3rd option of the open dialog and specifying your original xml file.  That will recreate the xseq and delete any accumulation of accidental garbage.

[sean]

it is safe to delete lines that begin
<tr>
..
</tr>
Be sure you delete all lines between both tags including the <tr> .. </tr> lines

It is not safe to delete actual models
do not delete
<td>
..
<.td>

[msiebri]

Thanks for the confirmation.  I will have to look at Notepad++, I've never tried that before.  I'm familiar enough with XML that I'm comfortable modifying the files.

Martin

[sean]

Thanks for the confirmation.  I will have to look at Notepad++, I've never tried that before.  I'm familiar enough with XML that I'm comfortable modifying the files.

Martin

when you download Notepad++ from http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.6.9.html
next go into "Plugins,Plugin manager,XML"

this allow syou to pretty print xml and also detect of xml files are corrupt.