The Play Menu

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The Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor's Play menu contains menu items enabling you to play open sequences and to affect the behavior of the Sequence Editor during play.

 

The following items are available on the Play menu:

 

Start This Sequence
Start All Sequences
Stop
Lights Off Now
Play Again
Play Range
Full Sequence
Selection
From Selection
To Selection
Visible Screen
Loop at End
Lights Off at End
Control Lights
Control Holiday Lights Designer
Control Visualizer
Move Grid with Play
Vary Color of Channel Buttons
Vary Color of Channel Button Fonts
Highlight Current Event
Highlight Current Time
Speed

 

PlayMenu

The Play menu

 

Start This Sequence

 

Selecting this item from the Play menu will cause the currently active sequence to start playing.

 

You can also start play by using the Play button on the Standard toolbar.

 

Start All Sequences

 

Selecting this item from the Play menu will cause all open sequences to start playing.  However, only one musical sequence can be playing at a time, so if you have more than one musical sequence open, you will instead be told that you have to close all but one if you want to play all open sequences.

 

You can also start play by using the Play button on the Standard toolbar.

 

Stop

 

Selecting this item from the Play menu will stop all playing sequences.

 

You can also stop play by using the Stop button on the Standard toolbar, or by simply waiting until the sequences naturally complete (unless "Loop at End" is enabled).

 

Lights Off Now

 

This item from the Play menu will turn off any lights that had previously been turned on during play.  It is only available when "Lights Off at End" is turned off, and play is stopped, and lights had been sent commands since the last time it was used.

 

Play Again

 

Selecting this item from the Play menu will play the same thing that you last asked it to play.  An example of how this could be useful:

 

If you are working on some particular section of a sequence, you might set the play range to "Selection", and select the cells in the time range that you are currently interested in.  When you start play, only that time range will be played.  You might then notice something that you want to change about the lighting effects in that portion of the sequence.  Doing so would change what time range was selected, so if you simply started play a second time, the portion of the sequence played would be different than your original selection.

 

You could re-select the original selection before starting play, but it would be easier to simply use "play again".  It would play the same time range as you had originally selected, even though a different time range is now selected.

 

The Play Again button on the Standard toolbar also does this same thing.

 

Play Range

 

When playing a sequence in the Sequence Editor, you can choose what portion of the sequence will be played by setting the play range in the Play menu.  The following play range modes are supported:

 

Full Sequence
Selection
From Selection
To Selection
Visible Screen

 

Additionally, freeform play mode can be used to play any time range that you specify.  Freeform play mode is not available on the Play Range menu; instead, please refer to its help page for details on how to use it.

 

Full Sequence

 

If you set the Sequence Editor's play range to "Full Sequence", then whenever it plays a sequence, it will start at the beginning of the sequence, and stop at the end of the sequence.

 

Selection

 

If you set the Sequence Editor's play range to "Selection", then whenever it plays a sequence, it will play only that time  range of the sequence which is currently selected (i.e. the cells that are currently surrounded by a thick black border).

 

Note that all channels in the sequence will be played, even those outside of the current selection.  Only the time range is set by this option.

 

From Selection

 

If you set the Sequence Editor's play range to "From Selection", then whenever it plays a sequence, it will play the time  range from the start of the current selection (i.e. the cells that are currently surrounded by a thick black border) to the end of the sequence.

 

Note that all channels in the sequence will be played, even those outside of the current selection.  Only the time range is set by this option.

 

To Selection

 

If you set the Sequence Editor's play range to "To Selection", then whenever it plays a sequence, it will play the time  range from the start of the sequence to the end of the current selection (i.e. the cells that are currently surrounded by a thick black border).

 

Note that all channels in the sequence will be played, even those outside of the current selection.  Only the time range is set by this option.

 

Visible Screen

 

If you set the Sequence Editor's play range to "Visible Screen", then whenever it plays a sequence, it will play only that time range of the sequence that is currently displayed.

 

Note that all channels in the sequence will be played, even those currently above or below the visible portion of the sequence.  Only the time range is set by this option.

 

Loop at End

 

If "Loop at End" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence and reaches the end of the play range, instead of stopping, it will automatically loop back to the beginning of the play range and continue playing.  The sequence can still be stopped manually, via "Stop" on the Play menu or the Stop button of the Standard toolbar.

 

You can control whether or not "Loop at End" is enabled by default via "Loop at the End of a Sequence by Default" on the Play Preferences dialog.

 

Note that this should not be confused with loops within a sequence.

 

Lights Off at End

 

If "Lights Off at End" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence and reaches the end of play, it will automatically turn off all lights in that sequence.  If it is disabled, then any lights that happen to be on at the very end of the sequence will remain on.

 

Control Lights

 

If "Control Lights" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence, the Sequence Editor will send lighting effect commands to your controllers, causing your actual lights to be used.

 

Note that you will additionally need to have the channels in your sequence set up appropriately with information such as the unit IDs and circuit IDs of the controllers that are hooked up to your computer.

 

Control Holiday Lights Designer

 

If "Control Holiday Lights Designer" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence, the Sequence Editor will send lighting effect commands to Holiday Lights Designer, a third party add-on by Holidaysoft® which can be used to virtually place lights and decorations on images of your home or business.

 

Please also see the Holiday Lights Designer Preferences dialog.

 

Control Visualizer

 

Enabling "Control Visualizer" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor causes lighting effect commands to be sent to the Light-O-Rama Visualizer.

 

Please also see the Visualizer Preferences dialog.

 

Move Grid with Play

 

If "Move Grid with Play" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever a sequence is played, the portion of the sequence's grid that is currently displayed will change as play progresses so that the current time is always displayed.  Otherwise, the grid's display will simply remain static.

 

Vary Color of Channel Buttons

 

If "Vary Color of Channel Buttons" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence, the color of a channel button will vary based upon the lighting effect taking place on that channel at that moment during the sequence.

 

You can control whether or not "Vary Color of Channel Buttons" is enabled by default via "Vary the Color of Channel Buttons during Play by Default" on the Play Preferences dialog.

 

Vary Color of Channel Button Fonts

 

If "Vary Color of Channel Button Fonts" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then if "Vary Color of Channel Buttons" is also enabled, then whenever it plays a sequence, the color of the text of a channel button will vary to try to give a readable contrast with the color of the channel button at that moment.

 

This setting has no effect if "Vary Color of Channel Buttons" is not enabled.

 

You can control whether or not "Vary Color of Channel Button Fonts" is enabled by default via "Also vary their font colors" on the Play Preferences dialog.

 

Highlight Current Event

 

If "Highlight Current Event" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence, the timings closest to the current time will be highlighted with thick black lines, moving as play progresses.

 

You can control whether or not "Highlight Current Event" is enabled by default via "Highlight Current Event during Play by Default" on the Play Preferences dialog.

 

Highlight Current Time

 

If "Highlight Current Time" is enabled in the Play menu of the Sequence Editor, then whenever it plays a sequence, the current time will be highlighted with a dashed vertical line, moving as play progresses.

 

You can control whether or not "Highlight Current Time" is enabled by default via "Highlight Current Time during Play by Default" on the Play Preferences dialog.

 

 

Speed

 

The Speed submenu of the Play menu can be used to instruct the Sequence Editor to play sequences at different speeds - quarter speed, half speed, normal speed, double speed, or quadruple speed.

 

Slower speeds may be useful, for example, when you are trying to precisely adjust the time at which a lighting effect takes place; faster speeds may be useful to get a quick overview of how the sequence looks.