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Choreography Design System

Use the menu below to navigate through the Choreography Design System documentation.

FEATURES QUICKSTART VIDEOS TUTORIAL SUGGESTED WORK FLOW
Designer Ring and Waypoint Menus Mover Options Notecards Multiple Notecards Use with Performance Director FAQ / Tips and Tricks

FEATURES - DESIGNER RING AND WAYPOINT MENUS

These are the features on the Designer Ring and / or Waypoint Menus

ADD / DELETE WAYPOINT
ADD will add a waypoint slightly offset from the last Waypoint, ready for you to move into place using the "Edit Linked Parts" feature of the SL Edit Tool.
NEVER use the SL Edit tools to delete a waypoint, only from the menu.
​ADD: 
Left-click the Designer Ring and choose AddWP.  You can then use the SL Edit Tools to move that Waypoint into place.  

Once you have Waypoints out, you can left-click either the Designer Ring or a Waypoint to add another Waypoint.

DELETE: 
To delete a Waypoint, left-click the desired Waypoint and choose DeleteWP on the menu.  The remaining Waypoints will be renumbered accordingly.

ADD WAYPOINT BEFORE
Movement routes go in the order of the numbers of the waypoints. Users can click a waypoint and press the "AddWPBefore" button.  This will create a new waypoint, which will appear in the center of the designer ring, but the waypoints will all be renumbered, so the new one will be numbered BEFORE the waypoint clicked.
  1. Left-click the Designer Ring and choose AddWaypoint on the menu.
  2. Using the Edit Linked Parts of the SL Edit tool, move the Waypoint into position, making sure to point it in the direction you wish to face while traveling TO that waypoint.

AUTOPAUSE
Great for stage props, runway models and dancers who wish to use more of a freeform dance routine rather than a timed route, using the Autopause feature allows the Mover to go to a waypoint and pause until it receives a Play command from either Choreography HUD, the Performance Director HUD, or a chat command, or any HUD capable of sending a chat command, before continuing on the route.  You can still use regular sleep times on other waypoints in the route.
​
​Autopause is an On / Off toggle. In order for the Mover to be commanded from a typed chat command or a HUD, the Mover must be assigned a User Channel.  See @user_channel in Movers & Configuration Parameters.  
​
  1. Left-click the waypoint in which you wish to enable Autopause and choose Autopause on the menu. Do the same to turn it off.
  2. The mover accepts the commands PLAY, PAUSE and RESET.  If in motion and the command for PAUSE is given, the mover will pause at the next waypoint and wait.  

See Performance Director Commands & Hotkey buttons for sending commands to the mover.  ​

CHANGE WAYPOINT COLORS
Change Waypoint colors with the new "WP Colors" option in the advanced menu.   This allows you to change all waypoints for a specific design ring to a specific color.
Left Click the Designer Ring and click WP Colors on the Advanced menu.
Select a color on the next menu or to revert back to default, select WP Default.

CLONE (Shift+Drag Copy)
When using shift+drag to make a copy of a designer layout any previously set Times or SleepTimes on your source layout are transferred to the copy. This is useful particularly in conjunction with the Mirror feature, but not limited to that. You can also clone a Mover by following the same steps.
​
Keep in mind that Second Life's drag+copy feature leaves the copy in the original place, and moves the original. You MUST approve the popup Link/Delink permission request before you can do anything with the new copy.
  1. Left-click to Edit the Designer Ring.
  2. While holding the shift key, left-click one of the directional arrows and drag in the direction you wish the copy to be.
  3. Click YES on the popup menu asking for Link/Delink permissions.

DANCER NUMBERS
NEW IN 2.2
For use with Performance Director
Add your @spot_dancer numbers from the Designer Ring menu by entering the appropriate number.  If a dancer number is assigned, it will be included when doing a GetNotecard, or will apply to any Test Movers (see below) rezzed from the ring
1.  Left-click the Designer Ring and choose DancerNum on the Advanced Menu.
2.  Enter the desired dancer number to correspond with your dancer assignments in Performance Director.
​3.  Click Submit

GET NOTECARD
When you are finished with your design, this will generate the coordinates in local chat that you will need to copy and paste into your Mover notecard. Routes with more than 10 waypoints will be in 2 or more segments in chat.
See Mover Notecards for complete instructions.
  1. Left-click the Designer Ring.
  2. Choose GetNotecard on the menu.
  3. Look at local chat history (Control+H) and copy the text between and including #BEGIN NOTECARD and #END NOTECARD, by selecting it and pressing Control+C.
  4. Paste this into the Mover's Notecard.

HIDE WAYPOINT BEFORE
​Hide Waypoint Before.   Use the "HideWPBefore" to hide waypoints before a given number.   Example:  Selecting 6 will hide waypoints 1 through 5, but 6 and greater will remain visible.   This is useful when developing complex routes, where waypoints often overlap.
Left Click the Designer Ring and choose HideWPBef on the Advanced menu.
Type in the number and hit Enter.
​
To show the waypoints again, Left-click the Designer Ring and choose Show WPs

HIDE / SHOW WAYPOINTS
To temporarily hide waypoints during the design phase.
Note: The Designer Ring and Waypoints are not meant to be present during a performance. ONLY the Mover is needed.
  1. Left-click the Designer ring and choose “HideWPs.” All waypoints go 100% transparent.
  2. To see them again, left-click the Designer and choose “ShowWPs.” All come back into view.

MIRROR
​The designer has the ability to "Mirror" your layout about the central axis of the designer ring. This allows quick and easy replication of a route for dancers to the left or right side of your performance area saving you time and effort duplicating routes.
  1. ​Left-click the ring and choose Mirror on the menu.
  2. Left-click the ring and choose GetNotecard. This will now be an exact mirrored route (x axis) of the original.

NORMALIZE TIME
Allows you to select several Waypoints and tell the Designer to calculate the distance and time for a consistent speed between a subset of Waypoints.  That is quite a mouthful, but it can be better explained with an example.

EXAMPLE:
A routine was created with 2 waypoints, dancing atop a spiral staircase, then 5 waypoints have been mapped out, descending the staircase, where there are an additional 5 waypoints. (For a total of 12 waypoints). 

The creator would like the dancer to gracefully descend the staircase over a span of 20 seconds, moving at a consistent speed.

So, between Waypoint 2 and Waypoint 7 is the part of the route we need to adjust. Using the Designer Ring menu, the creator selects the "NormalizeTime" option in the advanced menu.  She enters the following in the Normalize Text box:

2:7:20

The syntax is "<starting waypoint number>:<ending waypoint number>:<total time in seconds>"

This means "Start at waypoint 2 and end at waypoint 7.  Make the total time travel between these waypoints 20 seconds, but divide the time between those waypoints (based on the distance between waypoints), so the dancer moves at a consistent speed across all of them.
  1. Left-Click the Designer Ring and choose the Advanced Menu
  2. Click NormalizeTime
  3. Enter the Waypoint numbers between which you'd like it to calculate and the time.
  4. Click Submit - the travel time on the Waypoints will change.

SYNTAX:
<starting Waypoint #>:<ending Waypoint #>:<total time in seconds>

EXAMPLE:
2:7:20

PARTICLES
​Pressing this option will create a string of particles following the exact route of your waypoints. Pressing it again will turn them off.

You can change the color of the particles as well via the menu after you have started a particle stream.
  1. Left-click the Designer Ring.
  2. Choose Particles on the menu.

Turn Particles off via the Designer Ring's menu.

READ NOTECARD
The designer has the capability of loading a movement card into it and reading it to generate the waypoints automatically.  This feature is perfect for editing routes at a later time or editing a route someone has shared with you. There is a notecard that comes inside the Designer Ring called Movement Card.
The Designer will read the first notecard it sees in its contents.
  1. Either drag your movement card into the Designer Ring contents, or copy and paste the coordinates into the Movement Card already in the Ring.
  2. Left-click the Designer and choose “ReadNotecard” from the menu.
  3. You will get the pop-up permissions request, press Yes.
  4. The waypoints will come out of the Designer in order and the chat window will show the coordinates of each while they’re coming out and say when it’s completed. This is NOT the chat to be put in the Mover!

RESET
To reset the Designer Ring and have all Waypoints removed, use this option. Be sure you've saved any routes you've created in your Mover or your inventory.
  1. Left-click the Designer ring and choose Reset.
  2. The Movers will immediately stop and move back to the starting position.

REZ MOVER
​Places a Mover in the center of the Designer Ring ready for you to paste the route into.
  1. ​Left-click the Designer Ring.
  2. Choose RezMover on the menu.

SET / DELETE PREFIX
To help you when creating several routes, you can distinguish between them by adding a Prefix to each Designer Ring which will show on all Waypoints.  For example, entering the prefix A on a designer ring will cause all the Waypoints on that ring to show as Waypoint A1, Waypoint A2, etc. ​
  1. Left-click the Designer Ring and choose SetPrefix.
  2. Enter the desired text in the popup dialog box and Submit.  All Waypoints will change to that Prefix.
  3. To turn Prefixes off, choose DelPrefix from the Designer Ring's menu.

SLEEPTIME
Allows you to specify a pause time, in seconds, at that particular Waypoint.  You can enter fractions of a second as well, such as 5.2.​
  1. Left-click the Waypoint you want to pause at and choose SleepTime on the menu.
  2. In the popup dialog box, enter the amount of seconds you wish to pause at that Waypoint.  Enter numbers only (Example:  5.2)

STATS - SHOW / HIDE

​Stats (Statistics) will calculate and show you in hover text above each Waypoint exactly when you will arrive and depart from that Waypoint based on the total travel Time and Sleeptime.  When you change a Time or Sleeptime, the Stats will automatically update.

See the Tutorial Video on the Statistics Feature
  1. Left-click the Designer Ring for the Menu and select Advanced.
  2. Click ShowStats
  3. Click HideStats to turn it off again.

TIME
Allows you to enter the travel time, in seconds, that you wish to take to get TO that Waypoint. You can enter fractions of a second as well, such as 5.25.

When used in conjunction with Turn Time (below), the travel Time cannot be lower than the Turn Time.  ​
  1. Left-click the Waypoint and choose Time on the menu.
  2. In the popup dialog box, enter the amount of seconds you would like the mover to pause at that Waypoint and click Submit.
    Enter numbers only - Example: 5.2

TEST MOVER
NEW IN 2.2
Rez a Test Mover to quickly test your route while working on it.  These yellow movers are for temporary use only.  Dancer numbers entered via the DanceNum menu (see above) will also be added and all dancers will be animated by Performance Director according to their numbers.

The Test Mover will play the route that is currently on the Designer Ring.  If you make a change to the waypoints, you must rez a new one.  

NOTE:  When finished creating, you must rez a regular (purple) Mover and do a Get Notecard.
Optional:  Add a dancer number by choosing DanceNum on the Advanced Menu.

1.  Left-Click the Designer Ring and choose TestMover from the Advanced Menu.  
2.  Sit on the yellow test mover that rezzes in the center of the Designer Ring.  It will show the dancer number, if entered.
3.  Press play on the Choreo HUD or on Performance Director.
4.  Press STOP on the HUD to have the Test Mover return to the Ring.

Edit your route as needed, and rez a new Test Mover to test it out.  Remember you will still need to rez a regular Mover and do a Get Notecard.  

TURN TIME
For more graceful turns (facing) between Waypoints that are not in a straight line, increase the Turn Time via the Waypoint's menu that you will be moving towards.  Always add a Turn Time on the Waypoint you are traveling TO.

The default turn time is 0.5 seconds (and has always been) but you can now stretch that time out less than or equal to the total travel time between two Waypoints.  

​Important:  
  • Turn Time cannot exceed the travel time between the two Waypoints.
  • If you do exceed the travel time, Turn Time will go to the max allowable Turn Time, which is the travel Time.
  • Be sure to enter the Turn Time on the Waypoint you want to slow down the turn TO.
  • Entering a Turn Time less than the travel time results in the turn being made in the beginning of the movement with the remainder of the time going straight.
  1. Click the Waypoint you want to slow down the turn TO and choose Turn Time on the pop-up menu.
  2. Enter the number of seconds (not exceeding the Time) and click Submit.

Example:

Your travel time to Waypoint 2 is five seconds and you want to slow the turn down to three seconds.

​Entering a 3 on Waypoint 2's menu will result in the dancer turning for the first three seconds and then going straight for the last two seconds of the travel time.