Thanks to this forum I learned how improve my working style with multi-chapter mlt-files by saving the single chapters in explicit mlt-files and dragging them into the timeline of the master-mlt.
But by doing so, I experienced that this only reflects the status of the chapter-mlt from the point in time when I dragged them to the timeline … later changes in the chapter-mlt will not be reflected in the master-mlt.
Is there a possibility to add the chapter-mlts to the master-mlt in a way they keep the reference to the original files so that later changes to those files will automatically be reflected in the master-mlt?
It does keep a reference to the chapter MLT file. But the instance of Shotcut with the master MLT does not know when to reload the chapter MLT file if you change it. You have to close the master project and reopen it to see the changes in the chapter MLT file.
It does, but you need to reload the parent project after you change a child project. However, there is a limitation still that if you extend the duration of the child project, you cannot extend the child XML clip within the parent project timeline. You can plan ahead and place a transparent color clip on a much later point in the timeline of the child project. That creates an artificial duration. When you place this within the parent project, you can trim the ending (out point) as needed. Alternatively, you can easily edit the parent project XML to remedy this until we add Properties for a child XML clip:
You search for the child .mlt in the parent .mlt (newsticker.mlt in this example), and then edit the length property above. You can set it longer than it actually is, and that does not cause a problem. The time format is hours:minutes:seconds with a fractional part with a period separator only. The above example is 1 minute and 133 milliseconds.
Thank you!
This was the essential hint!
I got my impression that there is no referencing, because I was running my tests with changes in the timing of the clips, which ended in changes of their extension.
Therefore I never saw those changes.
@shotcut leader: Can you confirm that there is also a "limitation if I reduce the extend of the child project. During my tests I observed that the duration of the child in the master always stays on it’s original value. If I make it shorter, it seems to fill up the resulting gap by freezing the last frame.
To be honest in my use-case to a large extent this kills the benefits of this wonderful chaptering-approach .
I’m doing technical training videos with loads of maskings and transitions controlled by keyframing. Timing is essential and needs to be tweaked a lot to achieve good rhythm.
I had to learn that with all this keyframing and masking things get laggy and choppy pretty quick (even after applying those performance tweaks like proxy and reduced preview resolution presented in all the wonderful support-videos) … so I hoped that chaptering would help to keep things performant.
What it does in deed.
But nearly all my later changes in the child-mtls refer to tweaks in the timing and do result in a changed duration.
I appreciate the provided workarounds, but if you lean back and think what this would implicate for a master file consisting of more than 20 chapters you will admit that things get quite a struggle.
Is it realistic to hope for a full referencing in the nearer future or is there another method you can share to devide and conquer a mtl that starts getting laggy.