Link several objects at once ?

Reply to Link several objects at once ? on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:18:46 GMT

troublegum — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:18:46 GMT

I'm using pd for a while now, and I always wondered if it's possible to link several objects at once. sometimes I have dozens of modules that are outputed to the same object. and doing the links one by one takes an awful amount of time.

Reply to Link several objects at once ? on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:33:22 GMT

Flipp — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:33:22 GMT

Whats about some [send]'s and [receive]'s ?!? At least this works well with copies...

Reply to Link several objects at once ? on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:41:03 GMT

troublegum — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:41:03 GMT

not sure you got what I meant.

I was just wondering if it's possible to select several modules (objects, messages...) and link them to a single other one by doing a selection (instead of doing each wire/link manuallly, which is quite boring when you have 80 stuff to link to 1 object).

btw I already overabuse of sends & receives.

Reply to Link several objects at once ? on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:29:27 GMT

mod — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:29:27 GMT

i don't think there's a simple way to connect several objects to a single one automatically.

usually, if i have to do something repetitive like that, my first approach would be to take a good look at the patch, and see if there's some way the various repetitive bits can all be simplified / joined into one object chain.

if not, then the next option is to make an abstraction that contains all the basic framework, and can accept the variables as creation arguments.

for example, if i want to send numbers from my QWERTY keyboard keys, then i would just make an abstraction like:

[keyname $1]
|
[t b]
|
[f $2]
|

then, name that abstraction something like [key2num], and just make lots of copies of that in my patch, like:

[key2num q 1]
[key2num w 2]
..etc

with a [r keynumber] in the main patch

it's a lot easier to cut, paste and edit abstractions like than it is to change values in a whole heap of subpatches, and then connect each one to some other object, etc...

anyway, in short - when you find youself doing ANYTHING overly repetitive in pd, that's when you need to have a good look and a good think about how you can do it more simply. this not only helps the patch you're working on at the time, but also helps you to find ways in which future patches can also be streamlined.

Reply to Link several objects at once ? on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:35:45 GMT

Flipp — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:35:45 GMT

So if I get you right, you want to use pds graphical interface to do multiple connections... that might lead to pd0.43 where gui-plugins can be used... I don't know if that can be done with gui-plugins but there already are some interesting plugins to use...
Anyways thats a good idea, so maybe try to find someone who is able to implement that stuff.

...But if you want to use like pd0.42.5 (or cant find anyone...) there is the possibility to use some "connect xy"-messages and send them directly to pd. But that's rather a workaround..
...and really works well if you keep track of the objects creation-order, since pd needs to know what objects you want to connect... ...then you could make a kind of script for pd in pd!!