Selecting & moving multiple nodes in Action?

[adamt]

Hi,

whilst i think i am getting a handle on the bigger concepts, what really keeps throwing me curve balls are those operations you'd think so simple as to be intuitive...

but...

how do you select multiple nodes in Action, and then move them around the schematic?

I could only find mention one method - select a node then cmd drag a marquee around the other nodes.  That selects them, but i cannot move them because any action i then do deselects everything!

Surely i can tidy up my schematic without doing it one node at a time?

thanls

Adam

[Anonymous]

This should help:

http://docs.autodesk.com/flamepremium2015/

Procedural Compositing with Batch and Batch FX > Selecting Nodes in the Batch Schematic

Similar rules apply for action.

I sent a comment to the docs team to ask about this kind of information in the section related specifically to Action

[joelosis · Accepted solution]

if u alt click and drag on the parent axis it will move everything below it as one, same applies for batch too except its anything before the node you select

[joelosis]

i will often add an axis as a parent to groups i want to move as one, similar to how you would use the mux node in batch/cfx to clean/organise your schematic

[adamt]

thanks for the suggestion, i was about to say it doesnt work, but then realised that the descriptions are different to what actually happens with a key combo.

I compared the flame and smoke lists, and whilst the descriptions match, the key combos are different, but then the action performed is different again to either description!!

it seems to move a bunch of nodes, i should hold ALT whilst moving a node...then the node and all its children will move.

Yet according to the instructions, that should move only one node in a selection.

So i tried every other combination in the list and only the first three actually behaved as described. I have notified Autodesk of this - its hard enough learning such a complex application as Smoke without the manual misdirecting us!

[Anonymous]

Your choice of hotkeys when you generate a user have some bearing on this.

I always choose flame hot keys - I'm a creature of habit.

[adamt]

ahh right! 

however the Flame instructions were less than clear because it related to a windows keyboard rather than a mac one, which use different names for the modifiers.

live and learn!!