Saving Nutcracker 4 Effects

[Grillhappy]

I am auditioning light Effects in Nutcracker 4 and have made some really cool ones for my Matrixes.  Within each of the Effects, I am amazed by what I can do with just a few clicks of the mouse.  How do I save these special Effects so I can use them in succeeding sequences?

[flyinverted]

Highlight the cells of the effects you wish to save. Then right click>Effect Presets>NewPreset and give it a name that's meaningful to you.  I like to use names that describe the effect like GarlandFillsButterly GRW(green red white)

Tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdi8MRSsufk&feature=youtu.be

[Grillhappy]

Just what I was looking for.  Thanks.

[Grillhappy]

Are there any Effect Galleries that others have made, so we can share our coolest Effects Presets? 

[flyinverted]

We can use the Show Assets sub-forum here. That would be a good place. You can just post all or part of your xlights_rgbeffects.xml file.

http://nutcracker123.com/forum/index.php?board=20.0

[Grillhappy]

So...I added some Effect Presets and hit Save.  Then, after I closed XLights 4 and reopened the software, my Effects were not there.  How do I save them so there are available to me time after time?

[flyinverted]

Can you make a video of you saving an effect, closing NC and opening NC and have the effect gone?
Use a cell phone if you have to.  Screencast-o-matic is free.

[Grillhappy]

Looking closer, I guess the only SAVING buttons I see in XLights 4 are to used to save the Sequence or the Perspective.  How do you keep from losing your Effect Settings when you exit and enter XLights 4?  I'd anticipated that when you selected OK on the Effect Presets button, the Effect would be saved.

[Gilrock]

You can look at the xlights_rgbeffects.xml file for the "<Effects>" section and see if you see any presets in there.  It should have save that file immediately.  With have like 15 actions that save that file in the program without you knowing about it.  I found that if the save crashes it trashes that file so the last release I started saving a copy as xlight_rgbeffects_backup.xml before we save any modifications.

[flyinverted]

Grill, as I go back and create an effect, it becomes apparent there isn't a SAVE button for the effect, but when you hit OK after giving the effect a name that is what writes the effect to the rgbeffects.xml file, essentially saving it.

[Grillhappy]

Thanks, guys.  Yep, the effects I previously saved are indeed in the .xml file.

How do I go about retrieving them if they don't appear in the Effect Presets box in XLights4? I hope you are all at the Christmas Expo in two weeks so I can shake your hand and meet you personally.  Within the past couple of months I've become acquainted to both LOR and XLights/Nutcracker and all the other programs.  The learning curve is steep but I've made great progress.  This year, I'm graduating from the Mr. Christmas stuff and off the shelf animated lights to LOR sequencing and XLights RGB sequencing this Christmas.  It's been a great ride so far!

[Grillhappy]

I went to the .xml file directory and tried to import the rgbeffects.xml file I needed, and hit OPEN, but nothing happened.  If the files are in the .xml directory, how did I lose them from my xlights program in the first place?

[Gilrock]

Can you attach your xlights_rgbeffects.xml?  We only need the <effects> section like shown below if you want to trim it down and not reveal your secret models.

  <effects version="0004">
    <effectGroup name="Favorites">
      <effect name="Twinkle Pastels" settings="XYZ" version="0004"/>
    </effectGroup>
  </effects>

[Grillhappy]

Sure. 

[Grillhappy]

As you can tell, I do not have many of these.  I want to make sure I can recover them before I really go to work making more Effects to save.