In Helm 4.1.1 we have improved the way you set the behaviour of buttons. In previous versions you had to “know” that a Group Index of 0 means momentary, -1 means latching and any other positive index assigns the button to an interlock group. Now we have added new properties that make all this much more obvious. And that is one less thing to have to remember!
New buttons are momentary by default
A momentary-action button is active when the mouse is clicked on it. And it stays active for as long as the mouse is down and the pointer is over the button.
Changing the button mode
Button mode is now a dropdown providing choices of Momentary, Interlocking,and Latching operation.
Latching buttons
Latching buttons are click on – click off.
Interlocking buttons
Interlocking buttons are a set of buttons that operate like “radio buttons” so that only one button in the group is active at any time.
To achieve this selectButton Mode as Interlocking and enter a number in the Interlock Group field to assign the buttons to an interlock group. Here for example we have three Buttons that are set up so that only one will be active at any time. Mode is Interlocking and Interlock Group is 1. We can easily set up a second button group with a different interlock group e.g. 2 so that thes operate independantly of the first group.
Interlock Group ID’s do not have to be numbers – in fact it makes a lot of sense to label them by their function. That way if you need to add another button (see below) it is much easier to find the right group ID.
Setting the interlock group
Interlock Group displays a dropdpwn of all existing interlock groups defined on the panel so you can easily add a button to a particular group. Or you can also enter new group ID’s in the field.
Here I’m adding a new button Whizz to the Fade speed group. The Interlock group dropdown makes it very easy for me to select the right group.
finally…
The Button Group Index property is deprecated and no longer used. Existing panels will import correctly setting their buttons up according to the old Group Index property. If you have any scripts that modify the Group Index property of Buttons ( rather unlikely ) will need to be rewritten.
We think you’ll agree that this change makes it much easier and more intuitive to set up panel buttons.