@oid I didn't think I was doing any dynamic patching. All three arrays have already been created, $1-array was added using the "Put" menu and the other two, $1-velocity and $1-duration, using [array define]. I'm not creating any new objects while the patch is running, I'm just modifying the properties of an existing object.

Anyway, I added a [namecanvas] object to my abstraction and sent it a "dirty 0' message. That seems to do the trick, even if I deliberately save it anyway. The line declaring the array doesn't get changed from "$1-array" to "nnnn-array" in the patch file, even after a save. I don't understand why this works, but anyway, thanks.

@dfkettle You are not doing dynamic patching, but it is the same mechanism which causes the argument to be expanded, or so I thought. Not sure of what is happening here and why dirty 0 inhibits the expansion. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

@dfkettle Very nice with the [color $1( message. I once build a complicated object to modify the color of an array. https://forum.pdpatchrepo.info/topic/11184/colarray-a-graphical-array-where-color-and-line-width-can-be-set Didn't know the message.

@ingox Do you know if the colour values are documented anywhere other than in the source code?

@dfkettle For the properties window it is the Tcl/Tk Palette..... in [pd_colors] ....
However looking at @ingox's patch the "Data struct" subpatch in [pd_colors] seems to be the one to use with integer values.......
I have included an rgb (text) table in the zip because colours can also be set by name if Tcl/Tk is involved behind the scenes........ and the table gives the rgb values.
colours-Pd.zip
David.
(P.S.) also added [tk_palette] but [sys-gui] is required to send messages to Tk. It opens the palette chooser which gives rgb, hue etc. for any colour available.

@whale-av The message to the array object just takes a single integer. rather than an RGB triplet. So I guess it depends on the context, or what kind of object is the target. I'll try the values in your patch.

Thanks.