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In the S5 Sequencer, the sequence grid supports cut, copy, and paste operations on 2 types of data:

 

•The copying and pasting of timing marks is covered in the Timing Mark sub-menu topic.

•The copying and pasting of lighting effects is covered in this section.

 

The Sequencer supports basic cut, copy, and paste operations on lighting effects. But it also supports more advanced operations. All operations can be accessed from the toolbar.

 

 

From the toolbar you can:

 

•Select And Manage Clipboards

•Choose The Paste Mode

•Cut

•Copy

•Paste

•Paste Special

•Repeat

 

Cut, copy, paste, and paste special can also be accessed using keyboard shortcuts or from the right-click menu.

 

 

Select And Manage Clipboards

 

Clipboards are used to copy (or cut) and paste lighting effects from one area of the sequence grid to another.  In the Sequencer, you can have multiple different clipboards, allowing you to keep several different sets of effects available to be pasted. However, only one clipboard can be active at any given time.

 

You can also lock clipboards so that they cannot be copied into (thus preventing accidental overwriting of their contents):

 

 

The default clipboard is named "Std Clipboard" and it cannot be locked. The active clipboard is shown on the toolbar with an icon to indicate whether it is locked or unlocked.

 

 

Click on the name of the active clipboard to open the Clipboard Management window.

 

 

Choose The Paste Mode

 

When pasting in the sequencing grid, use the paste mode selector on the toolbar to choose the desired mode before you paste. There are 4 different paste modes:

 

•Paste By Cell

•Paste By Time

•Stretch to Fit

•Repeat to Fit

 

 

Paste By Cell

 

Paste by Cell pastes effects based upon the relative durations of the copied cells and the cells where they will be pasted.  

 

For example, consider timings at 0 seconds, 1 second, and 2 seconds.  Between 0 and 1 is a fade up, and between 1 and 2 is a fade down:

 

 

These events will be copied, and pasted to the time starting at 5 seconds.  There are timings at 5 seconds, 7 seconds, and 7.5 seconds:

 

 

If "Paste by Cell" is selected, then there will be a fade up from 5 to 7, and a fade down from 7 to 7.5:

 

 

Paste By Time

 

Paste by Time pastes effects based upon their durations as they were copied.

 

For example, consider timings at 0 seconds, 1 second, and 2 seconds.  Between 0 and 1 is a fade up, and between 1 and 2 is a fade down:

 

 

These events will be copied, and pasted to the time starting at 5 seconds.  There are timings at 5 seconds, 7 seconds, and 7.5 seconds:

 

 

If "Paste by Time" is selected, then there will be a fade up from 5 to 6, and a fade down from 6 to 7.  The timings at 7 and 7.5 are ignored; only the original lengths of the events are used:

 

 

Stretch to Fit

 

Stretch to Fit stretches (or compresses) effects to fit into the area that you have selected, without regards to any timings within that area.  

 

For example, consider timings at 0 seconds, 1 second, and 2 seconds.  Between 0 and 1 is a fade up, and between 1 and 2 is a fade down:

 

 

These events will be copied, and pasted to the time starting at 5 seconds, with the area between 5 seconds and 7.5 seconds selected.  There are timings at 5 seconds, 7 seconds, and 7.5 seconds:

 

 

If "Stretch to Fit" is selected, then since the copied effects totalled two seconds in length, and since the area being pasted to is two and a half seconds in length, each effect will be stretched to 125% of its original length (since 2.5 seconds is 125% of 2 seconds).  Therefore, there will be a fade up from 5 seconds to 6.25 seconds, and a fade down from 6.25 seconds to 7.5 seconds:

 

 

Repeat to Fit

 

Repeat to Fit repeats (or cuts off) effects to fit into the area that you have selected, without regards to any timings within that area.  

 

For example, consider timings at 0 seconds, 1 second, and 2 seconds.  Between 0 and 1 is a fade up, and between 1 and 2 is a fade down:

 

 

These events will be copied, and pasted to the time starting at 5 seconds, with the area between 5 seconds and 7.5 seconds selected.  There are timings at 5 seconds, 7 seconds, and 7.5 seconds:

 

 

If "Repeat to Fit" is selected, then since the copied effects totalled two seconds in length, and since the area being pasted to is two and a half seconds in length, there will be one full copy of the copied effects for the first two seconds, followed by the first half second of a second copy of the effects.  That is, there will be a fade up from 5 seconds to 6 seconds, a fade down from 6 seconds to 7 seconds, and the first half of a fade up from 7 seconds to 7.5 seconds:

 

 

 

Cut

 

The Cut command removes the selected effects from their original position in the grid and stores those effects on the current clipboard. If the current clipboard is locked, an error message is displayed.

 

 

Copy

 

The Copy command copies the selected effects onto the current clipboard. If the current clipboard is locked, an error message is displayed.

 

 

Paste

 

The Paste command copies the effects in the current clipboard onto the selected area of the grid, taking into account the current paste mode. The source row doesn't necessarily need to be of the same type as the destination row, as shown in the table below.

 

 

 

 

Paste Special

 

The Paste Special command will open a dialog window, allowing you to specify additional options when pasting.

 

 

 

 

Paste Mode

 

The paste mode down-down box is initially set from the value shown on Toolbar #2. However, you can change the value here before pasting. Changing the value here does not update the value shown in Toolbar #2.

 

Repeat Across Time (Horizontally)

 

Specify the number of times the clipboard data should be repeated horizontally.

 

The Spacing entry can be used to control the spacing between copies as shown in the picture below. If pasting by cell, then the spacing value is the number of cells. For all other paste modes, the spacing is specified in seconds and fractions of a second. Every time you open the Paste Special dialog, spacing will initially be set to 0, regardless of any value you might have entered before.

 

 

Checking the Flip Horizontal box will cause the clipboard data to be pasted in reverse (horizontally). In the example below, the 3 by 3 section on the left was copied to the clipboard. Then Paste Special was used with the Flip Horizontal option checked, with the result shown in the selected area.

 

 

Repeat Across Channels (Vertically)

 

Specify the number of times the clipboard data should be repeated vertically.

 

Checking the Bottom Up/Flip Vertical box will cause the clipboard data to be pasted from the bottom of the selection first -- the first row in the clipboard will be pasted into the bottom row of the selection. This will reverse the clipboard vertically if the clipboard data and the selection have the same number of rows. In the example below, the 3 by 3 section on the left was copied to the clipboard. Then Paste Special was used with the Flip Vertical option checked, with the result shown in the selected area.

 

 

Source and Destination

 

The "Source" box controls which portions of the copied effects will be pasted:

 

•"Background" means that only areas that are completely off will be pasted;

•"Foreground" means that only effects will be pasted;

•"Both", which is the default, means that off areas as well as effects will be pasted (i.e. foreground and background).

 

For example, consider the following portion of a sequence, and imagine that the simple chase on the left will be copied and pasted on top of the twinkle effects on the right:

 

Before pasting the chase on top of the twinkling

 

For now, assume that the "To" box (which we will discuss momentarily) is set to "Both".  Then if the "From" box is also set to "Both", then the entire copied area - including the off effects - will be pasted:

 

After pasting, from Both to Both

 

But if "From" is set to "Foreground", then the empty areas are not pasted, leaving some of the cells twinkling:

 

After pasting,  from Foreground to Both

 

Or if "From" is "Background", then only the off areas are pasted:

 

After pasting, from Background to Both

 

The "To" box is similar, but it controls which of the cells in the area being pasted into will actually be overwritten.  For example, if "From" is set to "Both":

 

Before pasting

 

After pasting, from Both to Background

 

After pasting, from Both to Foreground

 

After pasting, from Both to Both

 

You can even combine "From" and "To".  For example:

 

Before pasting

 

After pasting, from Foreground to Foreground

 

 

Repeat

 

The Repeat tool can be used to automatically place a copy of the selected area immediately after the selected area.  For example, consider the following:

 

Before repeating

 

Then pressing the Repeat button will make the following:

 

After repeating once

 

And you can repeat as many times as you like thereafter; for example, pressing Repeat three more times will make the following:

 

After repeating four times