Wish Bulk Unlink Globals

sprint

sprint

Axe-Master
Though I find Global blocks very useful I've burned myself a few times where I made a change to a linked block in a preset forgetting/not noticing the block was linked, and then saved the preset - doh!. Of course all the presets with links to that Global Block were changed accordingly. On such occasions, I've tried to back out with restores from previous backups of the inadvertently changed preset but that will not restore the changed global block. I think I could get a global block back with a system file restore but I won't want all the other system parms restored. To mitigate this I regularly copy all my presets (32) to secondary preset positions (33-64) and unlink each copy 1 by 1 using the "Unlink All Blocks from Global" command in the preset menu. This protects me from making such mistakes as I can get a copy of any unlinked block from a preset's backup positon (not sure if others might be using this strategy or have different inventive ways of protecting against this - I thought snapshots might be another answer but they save the links so no go).

To make this type of backup procedure less labour intensive my wish is to have the "Unlink All Blocks from Global" command in the preset menu also appear in the "Manage Presets" tool right click menu so that a group of selected (highlighted) presets (33-64 in my case) could all be disconnected from Globals in bulk instead of having to do the unlinking of each preset one by one.
 
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sprint said:
I've tried to back out with restores from previous backups of the inadvertently changed preset but that will not restore the changed global block. I think I could get a global block back with a system file restore but I won't want all the other system parms restored.
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Just wanted to confirm that is how you could restore your globals.

You can also use the snapshot button in the editor to save temp copies of the preset as you work. They can get you back to previous states and restore global block setting as well (just remember to save after reverting a preset to a snapshot).
 
iaresee said:
and restore global block setting as well (just remember to save after reverting a preset to a snapshot).
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Was trying snapshot again but I don't see that it restores global blocks back to previous value. If I open a preset, snapshot It, then change global linked block and resave the preset again (the doh! move), restoring snapshot does not revert the global block back to the values it had at the point the snapshot was taken. Maybe I'm missing something.

Good to know global blocks will come in with system parameters restore (I see now it says that in Fractal-Bot), but I may not want the system items other than global blocks restored.

So I'm still thinking "Unlink Globals" for multiple highlighted presets in manage presets would be handy for this (and maybe other) use cases.

fyi - I also thought about having a special "utility" preset with all my global blocks in it, and then a copy of that utility preset unlinked from globals. This way, if I clobbered any global block across all my presets by inadvertently saving changes over it, I could go to the single "utility" preset backup and get the previous version of that global block back. The problem with this method is that if you start using a lot of global link slots for a given block, you would not be able to store them all in a single "utility" preset and backup - gets messy.
 
sprint said:
Was trying snapshot again but I don't see that it restores global blocks back to previous value. If I open a preset, snapshot It, then change global linked block and resave the preset again (the doh! move), restoring snapshot does not revert the global block back to the values it had at the point the snapshot was taken. Maybe I'm missing something.
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Oh. Hmm. That's a bug. It...used to.

sprint said:
So I'm still thinking "Unlink Globals" for multiple highlighted presets in manage presets would be handy for this (and maybe other) use cases.
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Aye. Yup. I'd use the heck out that feature.
 
Globals seem handy but imo they're a trap you'll come to regret, especially if you can't selectively restore only them from system settings.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Globals seem handy but imo they're a trap you'll come to regret, especially if you can't selectively restore only them from system settings.
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You tread a little carefully but it's not so bad. Every now and then I'll export a preset with them unlinked to save the block settings.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Globals seem handy but imo they're a trap you'll come to regret, especially if you can't selectively restore only them from system settings.
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I use globals a lot with some global block instances connected to all my presets. Great to be able to make single global changes that take effect accross all my presets for some blocks where I don't need/want any variation (would love to even have global modifiers but that's another wish). That said, it can be dangerous with inadvertent changes to a global block having a big inadvertent impact accross multiple presets - hence the global block only restore strategy noted above, and the wish for bulk unlinking to make it less labour intensive.

If one delves into globals without understanding it well, then ya, the possibility of regrets escalates quickly😳😳
 
I have a method for backing up globals.

First, I keep track of my global blocks. Example attached.

I have a single preset with all my globals. I save that to 3 backup slots. In the 1st backup slot, I set all blocks to global instance 1, then unlink the globals and save the preset. In the 2nd backup slot, I set selected blocks to global instance 2 (only the ones which use instance 2), then unlink the globals and save the preset. 3rd slot: likewise.
I use 3 backup presets because none of my global blocks go beyond instance 4.

May sound like a lot of work but actually it's just 2 minutes or so.

When something goes wrong and I need to restore an individual block / channel, I only have to copy a block / channel from one of these backup presets, paste it to a preset with linked blocks (using the right global instance) and save it.
 

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sprint said:
I actually think the snapsot feature (4) should stay as-is and not save global info as this would make it inconsistent with preset export/import, and thus confusing, unless there could be an option switch for it also. Bulk global unlink (14) in manage presets would be a logical addition within current design.
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Yes, I only wish that creating a Snapshot would also create a separate backup of the System data.
 
yek said:
I have a method for saving backing up globals.

First, I keep track of my global blocks. Example attached.

I have a single preset with all my globals. I save that to 3 backup slots. In the 1st backup slot, I set all blocks to global instance 1, then unlink the globals and save the preset. In the 2nd backup slot, I set selected blocks to global instance 2 (only the ones which use instance 2), then unlink the globals and save the preset. 3rd slot: likewise.
I use 3 backup presets because none of my global blocks go beyond instance 4.

May sound like a lot of work but actually it's just 2 minutes or so.

When something goes wrong and I need to restore an individual block / channel, I only have to copy a block / channel from one of these backup presets, paste it to a preset with linked blocks (using the right global instance) and save it.
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That's cool - was going along these lines at one point but wasn't sure about handling the global slots. I guess, if one had gone nuts on using the global slots, you'd have a maximum of 10 utility globals backup presets. Think I'll try doing it this way for a while instead of keeping copies of all my presets unlinked.
 
sprint said:
That's cool - was going along these lines at one point but wasn't sure about handling the global slots. I guess, if one had gone nuts on using the global slots, you'd have a maximum of 10 utility globals backup presets. Think I'll try doing it this way for a while instead of keeping copies of all my presets unlinked.
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While there are 10 global slots per block, the firmware / memory doesn't support using them all. At a certain point it will stop storing them. So economical use is recommended.
 
yek said:
While there are 10 global slots per block, the firmware / memory doesn't support using them all. At a certain point it will stop storing them. So economical use is recommended.
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There are a few blocks that don't allow for globals that I wish did - ie MBC. I'd trade having some of those be able to do globals for a few less global slots available.
 
yek said:
While there are 10 global slots per block, the firmware / memory doesn't support using them all. At a certain point it will stop storing them. So economical use is recommended.
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Really? Is that a limitation on the overall number of saved blocks if all types? Per block type? Is this documented anywhere?
 
Dave Merrill said:
Really? Is that a limitation on the overall number of saved blocks if all types? Per block type? Is this documented anywhere?
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Memory space allocated to global block storage and the changing size of the data for the blocks over time.
 
What happens to presets that use the discarded global blocks when you run out?
Do they lose their settings?
Or just become unlinked?
Neither is great.

None of this is enticing me into the global blocks fold, gotta say.
 
Dave Merrill said:
What happens to presets that use the discarded global blocks when you run out?
Do they lose their settings?
Or just become unlinked?
Neither is great.

None of this is enticing me into the global blocks fold, gotta say.
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Don’t worry, there’s plenty room to play with.
 
Dave Merrill said:
What happens to presets that use the discarded global blocks when you run out?
Do they lose their settings?
Or just become unlinked?
Neither is great.

None of this is enticing me into the global blocks fold, gotta say.
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I only ever use 1 ir 2 slots so 10 is overkill for me which is why I would trade some of those slots for global linked modifiers and/or having a globals option for some blocks that currently don't.
 
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