Graphics

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

I was able to get the script to work with the existing take IDs! I had 2 issues, (1) I was activating the group which overrode the scene's script, and (2) I was changing the values in ((10 * rnd) + 1) to the exact take IDs I wanted to play. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other take items in the group to play after the first one is chosen at random.

dim takeItem1 as xpTakeItemdim randVal as Integerdim takeID as IntegerrandVal = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID = 61 + randValengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(takeID, takeItem1)If Not takeItem1 Is Nothing Then	takeItem1.Execute()End If

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

Hi Nick,

If your randomly repeated take items are all the same duration, you can create a second group where you place that scene, which triggers the random start, twice. Then set that group to be timed with whatever interval you want, and configure it to repeat when done."

I was able to get the script to work with the existing take IDs! I had 2 issues, (1) I was activating the group which overrode the scene's script, and (2) I was changing the values in ((10 * rnd) + 1) to the exact take IDs I wanted to play. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other take items in the group to play after the first one is chosen at random.

dim takeItem1 as xpTakeItemdim randVal as Integerdim takeID as IntegerrandVal = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID = 61 + randValengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(takeID, takeItem1)If Not takeItem1 Is Nothing Then	takeItem1.Execute()End If

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

Hi Juha,

Unfortunately the take items are all different durations so that wouldn't work for us.

Hi Nick,

If your randomly repeated take items are all the same duration, you can create a second group where you place that scene, which triggers the random start, twice. Then set that group to be timed with whatever interval you want, and configure it to repeat when done."

I was able to get the script to work with the existing take IDs! I had 2 issues, (1) I was activating the group which overrode the scene's script, and (2) I was changing the values in ((10 * rnd) + 1) to the exact take IDs I wanted to play. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other take items in the group to play after the first one is chosen at random.

dim takeItem1 as xpTakeItemdim randVal as Integerdim takeID as IntegerrandVal = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID = 61 + randValengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(takeID, takeItem1)If Not takeItem1 Is Nothing Then	takeItem1.Execute()End If

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

So I think I found a work around. I can reassign the take IDs with new random values and the operator can sort everything by Take ID and run the group as normal.

dim takeItem1, takeItem2, takeItem3, takeItem4, takeItem5, takeItem6, takeItem7, takeItem8, takeItem9, takeItem10  as xpTakeItemdim randVal1, randVal2, randVal3, randVal4, randVal5, randVal6, randVal7, randVal8, randVal9, randVal10 as Integerdim takeID1, takeID2, takeID3, takeID4, takeID5, takeID6, takeID7, takeID8, takeID9, takeID10 as Integerengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(62, takeItem1)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(63, takeItem2)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(64, takeItem3)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(65, takeItem4)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(66, takeItem5)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(67, takeItem6)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(68, takeItem7)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(69, takeItem8)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(70, takeItem9)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(71, takeItem10)randVal1 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal2 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal3 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal4 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal5 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal6 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal7 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal8 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal9 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal10 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID1 = 61 + randVal1takeID2 = 61 + randVal2takeID3 = 61 + randVal3takeID4 = 61 + randVal4takeID5 = 61 + randVal5takeID6 = 61 + randVal6takeID7 = 61 + randVal7takeID8 = 61 + randVal8takeID9 = 61 + randVal9takeID10 = 61 + randVal10takeItem1.ID = takeID1takeItem2.ID = takeID2takeItem3.ID = takeID3takeItem4.ID = takeID4takeItem5.ID = takeID5takeItem6.ID = takeID6takeItem7.ID = takeID7takeItem8.ID = takeID8takeItem9.ID = takeID9takeItem10.ID = takeID10

Hi Juha,

Unfortunately the take items are all different durations so that wouldn't work for us.

Hi Nick,

If your randomly repeated take items are all the same duration, you can create a second group where you place that scene, which triggers the random start, twice. Then set that group to be timed with whatever interval you want, and configure it to repeat when done."

I was able to get the script to work with the existing take IDs! I had 2 issues, (1) I was activating the group which overrode the scene's script, and (2) I was changing the values in ((10 * rnd) + 1) to the exact take IDs I wanted to play. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other take items in the group to play after the first one is chosen at random.

dim takeItem1 as xpTakeItemdim randVal as Integerdim takeID as IntegerrandVal = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID = 61 + randValengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(takeID, takeItem1)If Not takeItem1 Is Nothing Then	takeItem1.Execute()End If

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

Hey Nick!

I wrote this earlier for someone else, this should work for what you want to do. Place this in a Keyboard Shortcut script, select the group you'd like to randomize:

dim tig as xpTakeItemGroupIf Engine.Sequencer.GetFocusedTakeItem(tig) Then	dim itemCount as integer = tig.ItemCount	dim bottomIndex, topIndex as integer	dim firstItem, lastItem as xpTakeItem	tig.GetFirstTakeItem(firstItem)	tig.GetLastTakeItem(lastItem)	bottomIndex = firstItem.Index	topIndex = lastItem.Index	Randomize()	dim groupID as integer = tig.ID	dim firstID as integer = groupID + 1	dim lastID as integer = groupID + itemCount	dim tiFirst, tiLast as xpTakeItem	Engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(firstID, tiFirst)	If Not Engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(lastID, tiLast) Then		MsgBox("Unable to find final expected ID; have you renumbered (Ctrl+R) the entire list to make items sequentially numbered?")		return	End If	dim message as string = "Randomizing from " + vbCrLf + CStr(firstID) + ": " + tiFirst.Name + vbCrLf + "to" + vbCrLf + CStr(lastID) + ": " + tiLast.Name + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + "Does that sound right?"	dim response = MsgBox(message, vbYesNo, "Randomizing Items")	If response = vbYes Then		For i as integer = 0 to itemCount - 1			dim ti as xpTakeItem			Engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(groupID + 1 + i, ti)			dim futureNum as integer = CInt(Math.Floor((topIndex - bottomIndex + 1) * Rnd())) + bottomIndex			Engine.Sequencer.MoveTakeItemByIndex(ti, futureNum)		Next	End IfEnd If

So I think I found a work around. I can reassign the take IDs with new random values and the operator can sort everything by Take ID and run the group as normal.

dim takeItem1, takeItem2, takeItem3, takeItem4, takeItem5, takeItem6, takeItem7, takeItem8, takeItem9, takeItem10  as xpTakeItemdim randVal1, randVal2, randVal3, randVal4, randVal5, randVal6, randVal7, randVal8, randVal9, randVal10 as Integerdim takeID1, takeID2, takeID3, takeID4, takeID5, takeID6, takeID7, takeID8, takeID9, takeID10 as Integerengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(62, takeItem1)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(63, takeItem2)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(64, takeItem3)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(65, takeItem4)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(66, takeItem5)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(67, takeItem6)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(68, takeItem7)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(69, takeItem8)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(70, takeItem9)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(71, takeItem10)randVal1 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal2 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal3 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal4 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal5 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal6 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal7 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal8 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal9 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal10 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID1 = 61 + randVal1takeID2 = 61 + randVal2takeID3 = 61 + randVal3takeID4 = 61 + randVal4takeID5 = 61 + randVal5takeID6 = 61 + randVal6takeID7 = 61 + randVal7takeID8 = 61 + randVal8takeID9 = 61 + randVal9takeID10 = 61 + randVal10takeItem1.ID = takeID1takeItem2.ID = takeID2takeItem3.ID = takeID3takeItem4.ID = takeID4takeItem5.ID = takeID5takeItem6.ID = takeID6takeItem7.ID = takeID7takeItem8.ID = takeID8takeItem9.ID = takeID9takeItem10.ID = takeID10

Hi Juha,

Unfortunately the take items are all different durations so that wouldn't work for us.

Hi Nick,

If your randomly repeated take items are all the same duration, you can create a second group where you place that scene, which triggers the random start, twice. Then set that group to be timed with whatever interval you want, and configure it to repeat when done."

I was able to get the script to work with the existing take IDs! I had 2 issues, (1) I was activating the group which overrode the scene's script, and (2) I was changing the values in ((10 * rnd) + 1) to the exact take IDs I wanted to play. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other take items in the group to play after the first one is chosen at random.

dim takeItem1 as xpTakeItemdim randVal as Integerdim takeID as IntegerrandVal = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID = 61 + randValengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(takeID, takeItem1)If Not takeItem1 Is Nothing Then	takeItem1.Execute()End If

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.

Hey Zachary,

Thank you for the help. It seems that my version of Xpression doesn't have access to "takeItem.Index" or "MoveTakeItemByIndex". I can kind of get around the first one with "takeItem.UserData", but I don't have access to any move methods for Engine.Sequencer.

I'm operating on Xpression Studio v10.55 build 1002.

Hey Nick!

I wrote this earlier for someone else, this should work for what you want to do. Place this in a Keyboard Shortcut script, select the group you'd like to randomize:

dim tig as xpTakeItemGroupIf Engine.Sequencer.GetFocusedTakeItem(tig) Then	dim itemCount as integer = tig.ItemCount	dim bottomIndex, topIndex as integer	dim firstItem, lastItem as xpTakeItem	tig.GetFirstTakeItem(firstItem)	tig.GetLastTakeItem(lastItem)	bottomIndex = firstItem.Index	topIndex = lastItem.Index	Randomize()	dim groupID as integer = tig.ID	dim firstID as integer = groupID + 1	dim lastID as integer = groupID + itemCount	dim tiFirst, tiLast as xpTakeItem	Engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(firstID, tiFirst)	If Not Engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(lastID, tiLast) Then		MsgBox("Unable to find final expected ID; have you renumbered (Ctrl+R) the entire list to make items sequentially numbered?")		return	End If	dim message as string = "Randomizing from " + vbCrLf + CStr(firstID) + ": " + tiFirst.Name + vbCrLf + "to" + vbCrLf + CStr(lastID) + ": " + tiLast.Name + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + "Does that sound right?"	dim response = MsgBox(message, vbYesNo, "Randomizing Items")	If response = vbYes Then		For i as integer = 0 to itemCount - 1			dim ti as xpTakeItem			Engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(groupID + 1 + i, ti)			dim futureNum as integer = CInt(Math.Floor((topIndex - bottomIndex + 1) * Rnd())) + bottomIndex			Engine.Sequencer.MoveTakeItemByIndex(ti, futureNum)		Next	End IfEnd If

So I think I found a work around. I can reassign the take IDs with new random values and the operator can sort everything by Take ID and run the group as normal.

dim takeItem1, takeItem2, takeItem3, takeItem4, takeItem5, takeItem6, takeItem7, takeItem8, takeItem9, takeItem10  as xpTakeItemdim randVal1, randVal2, randVal3, randVal4, randVal5, randVal6, randVal7, randVal8, randVal9, randVal10 as Integerdim takeID1, takeID2, takeID3, takeID4, takeID5, takeID6, takeID7, takeID8, takeID9, takeID10 as Integerengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(62, takeItem1)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(63, takeItem2)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(64, takeItem3)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(65, takeItem4)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(66, takeItem5)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(67, takeItem6)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(68, takeItem7)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(69, takeItem8)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(70, takeItem9)engine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(71, takeItem10)randVal1 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal2 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal3 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal4 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal5 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal6 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal7 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal8 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal9 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)randVal10 = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID1 = 61 + randVal1takeID2 = 61 + randVal2takeID3 = 61 + randVal3takeID4 = 61 + randVal4takeID5 = 61 + randVal5takeID6 = 61 + randVal6takeID7 = 61 + randVal7takeID8 = 61 + randVal8takeID9 = 61 + randVal9takeID10 = 61 + randVal10takeItem1.ID = takeID1takeItem2.ID = takeID2takeItem3.ID = takeID3takeItem4.ID = takeID4takeItem5.ID = takeID5takeItem6.ID = takeID6takeItem7.ID = takeID7takeItem8.ID = takeID8takeItem9.ID = takeID9takeItem10.ID = takeID10

Hi Juha,

Unfortunately the take items are all different durations so that wouldn't work for us.

Hi Nick,

If your randomly repeated take items are all the same duration, you can create a second group where you place that scene, which triggers the random start, twice. Then set that group to be timed with whatever interval you want, and configure it to repeat when done."

I was able to get the script to work with the existing take IDs! I had 2 issues, (1) I was activating the group which overrode the scene's script, and (2) I was changing the values in ((10 * rnd) + 1) to the exact take IDs I wanted to play. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other take items in the group to play after the first one is chosen at random.

dim takeItem1 as xpTakeItemdim randVal as Integerdim takeID as IntegerrandVal = Int((10 * Rnd) + 1)takeID = 61 + randValengine.Sequencer.GetTakeItemByID(takeID, takeItem1)If Not takeItem1 Is Nothing Then	takeItem1.Execute()End If

base take id number

I'm also trying something like this but for videos playing randomly giving the impression an animation guy is talking. Do you have the change the play out mode of the group? Also when I compile the code it come back good but does nothing when taken online other than play the one scene.

 Idk what value to put here

Base 1000 + random - <--change this to your value-->

i just put a 8 as that's the amount of scenes I have?

if you could also help me out I'd appreciate sorry for the ignorance.

yeah what you could do is have a dummy scene that you always take online i.e 1000 and then inside that scene onOnline have this script. 

I'm wondering if there's a way to shuffle play a take item group in Xpression. We normally have the playout mode of the groups in our projects set to either Manual or Timed, but there's a possibility in the near future that we'll need to play the take items in a group in a random order. I've looked through the script editor, but I'm not savvy enough to know if there's a custom script to achieve this.

If there isn't a way, I think I'll just make a few groups with the same take items, but in different orders.