Creating Templates From Groups or Selections

In the GUI Tree, you can create templates from a group or a selection. This is useful if you want to use this specific combination of elements as one entity on your macro pages.

Procedure

  1. In the GUI Tree toolbar, click Create New Element and add a Text and a Knob element.
  2. Select the knob element, and specify its bitmap in the Bitmap field in the Properties section.
  3. In the Resources Tree, create a Font element and make settings for the font in the Properties section.
  4. In the GUI Tree, select the text element, and select the created font in the Font field in the Properties section.
  5. Arrange the text and knob elements graphically on the canvas.
  6. In the GUI Tree, select the text and knob elements, open the context menu, and select Create Template <template name> from Selection.
  7. As template name, enter Knob_with_Text.
  8. Select the knob element and activate the Export Property button for the Value parameter.
  9. Do the same for the text element.
  10. Select the template Knob_with_Text in the GUI Tree.

    The Properties section now contains a Template Parameter section where the two Value parameters are listed.

  11. Enter the same name for both Value parameters.
  12. When you are done setting up your template, click Switch Back to Macro Page/Parent Template in the top right corner of the GUI Tree.

Result

When you use the template, it will show both controls in a single connection. They appear as a combined template parameter on the parent. You can now connect the template and both the Text and Knob values will react to parameter changes in HALion.

Note

You can add default values for exported parameters by typing in a string or a value, even though the Export Property button is activated. As long as this string or value is not overwritten in the template instance, it remains active.

For an example, look at the exported label parameters of the library controls. You will see that they are all set to Label. This means that when you add such a template to your macro page, the control will show this default label. Setting the Label parameter of the template will overwrite the default value and show the new name instead.

After Completing This Task

You can now name the template and finalize it by exporting the required parameters, adding additional components, or setting up attachments, for example.