🖼️Advanced Presets Window

How to work with Advanced Presets

Open the Advanced Presets Window from the Timeflow menu, or use the shortcut Control + Alt + Shift + E

Presets are a powerful tool, but can also be improperly used. Be aware that if you apply presets without care it can lead to unnecessary components or conflicting setups. It is important therefore that you review each change and ensure that excess objects or components (if they occur) are disposed of. This will ensure your project stays clean, tidy, and performant.

Menu Bar

The top portion of the Advanced Presets Window displays menus and toggle settings. Each are explained further in order from left to right.

Solo Mode

Click the white filled circle to toggle solo mode. The solo mode corresponds to the collection, folder, and group selected. This isolates the view to display just the selection, making it easier to focus on a particular set of presets you are working with. To enter or exit solo mode, simply click the circle icon.

The Objects folder in solo mode

Solo mode directly corresponds to the folder and group selected in the drop down menus.

The Primitives group in solo mode

Foldout Collapse/Expand

The foldout displayed in the menu bar acts as a toggle to expand or collapse all folders and groups currently displayed. This can be very helpful especially when editing to collapse the view to more easily work with a long list.

Hold the Control key when clicking folder or group foldouts to expand/collapse their contents recursively.

Menus

The current collection, folder, and group may be selected from their respective drop down menus. When All is selected, all of the folders/groups are displayed in order and according to the layout selected. The menu selection also correlates to solo mode.

Note that the drop down for collections may be hidden if there is only 1 preset collection in the project.

Layout Mode

The view may be switched as needed between grid and list layout mode.

Grid

Use grid layout mode for a condensed view. The folders and groups are displayed as icon tabs. Only the selected tab in each is displayed.

The layout (unless configured otherwise) is responsive and automatically adjusts button sizes and labels to fit. Each preset defines a primary display name for large buttons, and a shortened label for small buttons. When buttons are too small even for their labels, then only initial letters may be displayed.

List

Switch to the list layout for an expanded vertical list of all presets. List layout is often best for editing and managing folders and groups.

Note that certain groups and folders may override the layout to enforce a specific display, such as the Keyframer presets shown above. This can be set in the config settings. See Configuring Presets

Renaming

When this option is enabled, the targeted object and/or channel names may be renamed by the preset when applied. This is useful when apply a preset denoting an important type or rig. Though when applying presets solely for behaviors and settings, renaming the target objects may not be desirable so this option can be toggled off.

Applying presets is undoable, so if a particular setting is applied by mistake, simply undo.

Track Colors

When this option is enabled it allows presets to modify the track colors of target objects and channels in the Timeflow view.

Application Mode

The last icon in the center group displays a drop down menu to select the preset application mode.

When applying a preset, hold one of the modifiers shown to force that mode. This temporarily overrides the mode selected in the menu bar. For example, if you want to instantiate a preset simply hold the Control key while you click the preset button.

Instantiate

This creates a new game object instance in the scene from the preset's prefab. This instantiates the whole prefab into the Timeflow view and optionally unlinks it from the source prefab.

Preserving prefab linking can be configured in the Advanced Presets Global Config settings.

Replace

This mode copies components from the preset's prefab to the target game objects. If matching components are found on the target objects, they are fully replaced by the new ones. This overwrites existing data, which may include animation. Use this mode when you want to overwrite the target.

Replacing will not remove or touch additional components which are not targeted by the preset. So if you have custom scripts or other components, they should be remain unaffected unless they are part of the preset being applied.

Combine

This mode merges the components from the preset's prefab onto the target object. Rather than destroying components, existing components are preserved, however their settings and certain data may be overwritten. This mode is good for combining presets additively.

In addition to the keyboard shortcuts mentioned above, you may also invoke the context menu for any preset by right-clicking it. Use this menu to apply one of the modes, edit the preset, or select its prefab in the project.

Refresh

Click the refresh button to force the Advanced Presets Window to update and redraw. This typically isn't necessary, however if you encounter a situation where the view is not displaying correctly, pressing the refresh button should correct it.

Edit Mode

Click the pencil icon to enable edit mode. This allows folders and groups to be renamed, reordered, added and removed. It also enables editing for presets, which expand to reveal their full settings.

For more about creating and editing presets, see Configuring Presets

Settings

Click the gear icon to show config settings for a collection, folder, or group. When the main gear icon in the upper right of the window is on, it also displays the global config settings which affect all preset collections. These settings are used to configure the display and behaviors when applying presets.

For more about the config settings, see Configuring Presets

Lock

When you are not editing presets, click the lock icon to hide the editing features and streamline the view.

Folders & Groups

Each collection is comprised of folders, which in turn contain groups. A collection may have any number of folders.

Showing the list of folders within the Standard collection

Showing the folders open revealing the groups within them.

Advanced Presets do not allow nested or complex folder structures. This is by design to keep the organization simplified and easy to navigate. You may create unlimited preset collections, each which may contain unlimited folders, and unlimited groups.

Only groups contain presets. Folders only contain a list of groups.

Solo Mode

This works in tandem with theSolo Mode in the main menu bar. When the solo button is pressed for a folder or group, that item becomes the sole focus in the view, hiding everything else.

Solo Mode Tips

• Click the toggle in the main menu bar to enter/exit solo mode at the collection level.

• Click the toggle for a folder or group to enter/exit solo mode at the folder/group level.

Settings

Click the gear icon for a folder or group to edit its settings. Here you may assign a custom icon, color, and set optional layout overrides.

To rename a folder or group, click the pencil icon (Edit Mode) and then the name can be edited directly.

Continue to the next section to learn more about editing and configuring presets.Configuring Presets