Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 10/2/2003, 3:43 PM
Two ways, both somewhat clumsy.

The so-called automatic way is use the selection tool to select all your buttons then (in theory) they should all resize. So for example if you insert a scene selection menu and have 4 thumbnails per page DVD-A will set them to a certain size. If not to your liking you can resize as a group which will make them all smaller or larger. In practice is doesn't work very well

The more accurate way (what I do) is first you have to have something to size in the workspace. First select the object. Once you do then click on View then check the Transform Bar. At the bottom of the workspace 4 boxes are added allowing X,Y placement of any object and W & H for exact sizing.

The other alignment tools work well so by selecting multiple objects you can align their edges in a variety of ways. You also can show the grid and enable snaping. I changed the size of the gird system to make it easier to positon the size of thumbnails I usually use.
snicholshms wrote on 10/2/2003, 4:00 PM
Thanks for the direction, Billy Boy. Now, how do you change the grid size?
BillyBoy wrote on 10/2/2003, 6:12 PM
Under Options, just remember to check use for all projects if you want to reuse. More specifically what I did when I first started using DVD-A was to experiment with the size of the thumbnails I like, then I adjusted the grid spacing according so its equally divided with so many cells on either side of the thumbnails and with a little fiddlilng around you can get very close to having the grid cells come out even. That way when you're making a menu that has rows and columns it goes together fairly quickly and all the pages can be the same.
sbs56 wrote on 10/2/2003, 7:43 PM
Good idea changing the grid spacing to quickly size (and position) thumbnails (why hadn't I thought of that?). Thanks for the tip.
snicholshms wrote on 10/3/2003, 12:17 AM
Thanks for your help, Billy Boy! I re-adjusted the grid and that makes menu button sizing a whole lot easier.
Baylo wrote on 10/3/2003, 11:07 AM
Just to add to that briefly, you can select multiple objects and then type in the size parameters to affect all of them at once. There is no need to do them one at a time.

So, for example, if I have two rows of three buttons, I do the following:

1) Select them all and type in the size parameters

2) Select the top row and type in the 'x' coordinate to line them up horizontally. Repeat with the second row.

3) Select the first column and type in the 'y' coordinate to line up vertically. Repeat with the other columns.

This is not ideal, but it works reasonably quickly for me.

Mark
johnmeyer wrote on 10/3/2003, 6:40 PM
Bottom line on this thread: It sure isn't as easy as it ought to be.
BillyBoy wrote on 10/3/2003, 9:00 PM
I'll second that. ;-)
OldTimer wrote on 10/5/2003, 7:03 PM
I even tried a crazy way of doing this. I just dragged a smaller thumbnail onto the top of another thumbnal that was the correct size, than changed the size of the one on top & dragged it back into position. This was done for each thumbnail until they were all done. Then you had to use the other tool to align them.

Another problem with the thumbnails comes earlier in the process when you enter how many thumnails you want on a page. You are given the option of having say 9, but you won't know if you are getting a set that is 2 rows with 5 & 4 or 3 rows of 3.
jetdv wrote on 10/6/2003, 10:24 AM
If you have ONE thumbnail the right size and want all others to match that size, just use the resizing tools - one button will make all the same height and another one will make all the same width. To see how this is done, read issue #8 of the Vegas Tips, Tricks, and Scripts Newsletter.
BillyBoy wrote on 10/6/2003, 10:52 AM
The trouble with that suggestion is you CAN'T in one motion resize and reposition to your satisifaction. Any attempt totally screws things up. Either one or more thumbnail doesn't move with the group. I've attempted this countless times and once you have more than 3-4 thumbnails it is nearly impossible to easily resize or repostion EVERYTHING selected in anything even close to a fluid motion, if the group has more than a few items. This is a VERY SERIOIS flaw in DVD-A and needs to be addressed.

Before anyone jumps to the incorrect conclusion that I'm not doing it right, be aware this type of "adjusting" has been common in many applications like desktop publishing for example for MANY years. Only DVD-A does it this poorly.
jetdv wrote on 10/6/2003, 11:44 AM
The trouble with that suggestion is you CAN'T in one motion resize and reposition to your satisifaction.

Why not? It works for me. You just have to select all of the buttons (NOT the text areas), make sure the "good size" is the LAST one picked (will have yellow square outlines instead of white) and then click on the "Make Same Width" and "Make Same Height" buttons. Works whether you have 2 or 20 buttons to resize.

As for repositioning, same thing applies: Get ONE in the proper place, select a row or column of buttons making that ONE the last on selected, and click on any of the align buttons (whichever is appropriate for how these need to be aligned).
BillyBoy wrote on 10/6/2003, 12:49 PM
Duh! If you don't capture the text captions of the thumbnails, what's the point of trying to move as a group? Because of how POORLY DVD-A is designed it by default overlaps the bounding area of the thumbnail with the text. This means sometimes you grab it, others times you can't. All the repeated efforts defeats the purpose of trying to do it in one shot
jetdv wrote on 10/6/2003, 1:05 PM
OK, Now I understand where you are coming from. Yes, I then have to go in and reposition the text areas which I do the exact same way: Align them all by their tops and then align each one centered on it's thumbnail.
BillyBoy wrote on 10/6/2003, 1:14 PM
My point is I'm not asking how to do it... rather saying HOW its done is what needs fixing. I don't understand the HUGE overlap of the default selection box that far exceed the boundry of the underlying thumbnail. If they were the exact size of the thumbnail, then everything could be selected in a single step and then perhaps resize as a group.