How to Add tracks to an empty project?

zzzzzz9125 wrote on 1/15/2024, 9:28 PM

I'm a script beginner. I want to implement a function, which can nest selected events into a new project, without opening the new project. I tried the following code, but it reported an error.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using ScriptPortal.Vegas;

namespace Test_Script1
{

    public class Class1
    {
        public Vegas myVegas;
        public void Main(Vegas vegas)
        {
            myVegas = vegas;
            foreach (Track myTrack in myVegas.Project.Tracks)
            {
                if (myTrack.IsVideo())
                {
                    foreach (TrackEvent evnt in myTrack.Events)
                    {
                        if (evnt.Selected)
                        {
                            MediaStream mediaStream = GetActiveMediaStream(evnt);
                            VideoStream videoStream = (VideoStream)mediaStream;
                            String filePath = mediaStream.Parent.FilePath;
                            String nestedPath = filePath + ".veg";
                            Project nestedProject = vegas.CreateEmptyProject();
                            VideoTrack track = nestedProject.AddVideoTrack();
                            nestedProject.SaveProject(nestedPath);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        public MediaStream GetActiveMediaStream(TrackEvent trackEvent)
        {
            try
            {
                if (!(trackEvent.ActiveTake.IsValid()))
                {
                    throw new ArgumentException("empty or invalid take");
                }

                Media media = myVegas.Project.MediaPool.Find(trackEvent.ActiveTake.MediaPath);
                if (null == media)
                {
                    MessageBox.Show("missing media");
                    throw new ArgumentException("missing media");
                }

                MediaStream mediaStream = media.Streams.GetItemByMediaType(MediaType.Video, trackEvent.ActiveTake.StreamIndex);
                return mediaStream;
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("{0}", e.Message);
                return null;
            }
        }
    }
}


public class EntryPoint
{
    public void FromVegas(Vegas vegas)
    {
        Test_Script1.Class1 test1 = new Test_Script1.Class1();
        test1.Main(vegas);
    }
}

The problem seems to be on line 28, and when I comment out that line, everything is fine. Can anyone help?

Comments

zzzzzz9125 wrote on 1/17/2024, 8:07 AM

Could someone help me please? I'm going to write a very useful script (at least I think...)

iEmby wrote on 1/17/2024, 8:58 AM

try asking to ChatGPT bro... its so awesome writing scripts with ChatGPT.

zzzzzz9125 wrote on 1/22/2024, 9:00 PM

Hi @jetdv, do you know how to solve this? I need your help 👋

jetdv wrote on 1/23/2024, 9:48 AM

My biggest concern is that it sounds like you're trying to have two projects open at once. VEGAS only allows one open project at a time so I'm not sure how you're planning on creating a second project without closing the first project.

This would be my thought - and something that CAN be done from a script:

Save the project
Delete everything except the events you want in the nested project
Move all of the events to the beginning of the timeline if there is space in front of the events
Save this as a new project
Open the original project
Delete the events that were left in the second project
Add that new saved project to the timeline where the old events were located

I've actually never used the "CreateEmptyProject" command so I'd need to do some research on what it actually does.

zzzzzz9125 wrote on 1/23/2024, 11:08 AM

My biggest concern is that it sounds like you're trying to have two projects open at once. VEGAS only allows one open project at a time so I'm not sure how you're planning on creating a second project without closing the first project.

This would be my thought - and something that CAN be done from a script:

Save the project

Delete everything except the events you want in the nested project

Move all of the events to the beginning of the timeline if there is space in front of the events

Save this as a new project

Open the original project

Delete the events that were left in the second project

Add that new saved project to the timeline where the old events were located

I've actually never used the "CreateEmptyProject" command so I'd need to do some research on what it actually does.

You are right. I thought I could use the "CreateEmptyProject" command to operate the new project without closing the original project, but failed. The conventional method works well, but it can be tricky. Thank you anyway 👍👍👍

jetdv wrote on 1/23/2024, 4:03 PM

@zzzzzz9125 Well... I did get it to not crash using this code:

                            Project nestedProject = vegas.CreateEmptyProject();
                            VideoTrack vidTrack = new VideoTrack(0);
                            nestedProject.Tracks.Add(vidTrack);
                            nestedProject.SaveProject(nestedPath);

However, the "new track" was added to the current project (and it created an endless loop of adding a new track). It did properly save the "nestedProject" as an empty VEG file, though.

Changing to this did NOT work:

                            Project nestedProject = vegas.CreateEmptyProject();
                            VideoTrack vidTrack = new VideoTrack(nestedProject, 0, "");
                            nestedProject.Tracks.Add(vidTrack);
                            nestedProject.SaveProject(nestedPath);

zzzzzz9125 wrote on 5/12/2025, 3:07 AM

Let me answer this question of mine now. To properly modify the project we created in the script, we must wrap it with UndoBlock, just as we do in Custom Commands.

Wrong one:

Project nestedProject = vegas.CreateEmptyProject();
VideoTrack track = nestedProject.AddVideoTrack();
nestedProject.SaveProject(nestedPath);

Correct one:

using (Project nestedProject = vegas.CreateEmptyProject())
{
    using (UndoBlock undo = new UndoBlock(nestedProject, "Undo Block Label"))
    {
        VideoTrack track = nestedProject.AddVideoTrack();
    }
    nestedProject.SaveProject(nestedPath);
}

When I first wrote this post, I hadn't learned how to create Custom Commands yet, so I didn't know that we should use Undo Blocks. Now, I can finally understand the key point of this problem.

jetdv wrote on 5/13/2025, 1:01 PM

@zzzzzz9125, thanks for this. I'm getting a better understanding of how these work now. I can say that the first "using" is not required. I.e. this works too (although I can see where it might be useful to have the outer "using"):

                Project nestedProject = myVegas.CreateEmptyProject();
                using (UndoBlock undo = new UndoBlock(nestedProject, "Undo Block Label"))
                {
                    VideoTrack track = nestedProject.AddVideoTrack();
                }
                nestedProject.SaveProject(nestedPath);

Using the longer method to add a video track (which gives more control over positioning/name/etc...) will also work:

                    VideoTrack track = new VideoTrack(nestedProject, 0, "name");
                    nestedProject.Tracks.Add(track);

I've also figured out how to add Generated Media and Video Events to that new project as well. Haven't tried Audio Events but they should be the same as the video. It's an interesting concept.

jetdv wrote on 5/26/2025, 12:52 PM

@zzzzzz9125 I have a new tutorial series starting today based on this find of yours!