Hierarchy panel

The Hierarchy panel lists every element of your show as a tree. After this page you can select, nest, reorder, hide, copy and delete elements.

Read the tree

The Show row holds the design. Launch Pads and Audio sit beside it at the top level. The Environment is not in the tree; you open it from the top bar.

Each row shows, from left to right:

• An eye button for visibility. It appears when you hover over the row, and stays visible on hidden elements.
• Guide lines that show what sits inside what.
• A small arrow on rows that have children. Click it to collapse or expand them. The tree remembers this.
• An icon for the element type.
• The element name.

A Formation group's icon also tells you its status. Orange means it has no slots yet, so a Track clip pointing at it does nothing. Green means it holds at least one slot. See Formations and groups.

To add an element, press the + at the right end of the tab strip. It opens the same menu as Add.

Select elements

Action	Result
Click a row	Selects that element only.
Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) + click	Adds the row to the selection, or removes it.
Shift + click	Selects every row between the last click and this one.
Cmd or Ctrl + A with the pointer over the list	Selects every row you can see.
Click empty space in the panel	Clears the selection.

Selected rows are highlighted. With several elements selected, the Timeline shows the channels of all of them, and the Properties panel shows a count instead of settings.

Rename

1. Right-click the row.
2. Choose Rename.
3. Type the new name.
4. Press Enter, or press Esc to cancel.

You can also click the name at the top of the Properties panel.

Drag to reorder and nest

Drag a row to a new place in the tree. Where you drop decides what happens:

Drop on	Indicator	Result
The top or bottom edge of a row	A line between rows	Places the element before or after that row, at the same level.
The middle of a Show, Formation group or Compound spline row	The whole row highlights	Puts the element inside it, as the last child.

Dragging shapes into a Formation group

Some limits apply:

• The Show, Launch Pads and Audio can be reordered at the top level, but they cannot go inside anything.
• You cannot drop an element into itself or into one of its own children.

You can also drag a Formation group row onto a Track clip in the Timeline. The clip then flies the drones to that group. See Drone events.

Hide and show

Click the eye on a row to hide the element in the viewport. Click it again to bring it back. Hide and Show in the right-click menu do the same.

Hiding has a real effect inside a Formation group: a hidden child gives none of its slots to the group, so the group's slot count drops.

Context menu

Right-click a row to open its menu. The items depend on the element.

Item	Appears on	What it does
Rename	Every element	Edits the name in place.
Duplicate	Everything except the Show	Makes a copy next to the original.
Copy	Everything except the Show	Copies the element for pasting.
Split into characters	Text with at least 2 visible characters	Makes one Text element per character and hides the original. Your drone count is shared among the characters.
Convert to Point Cloud	Shapes, splines, text and other elements with slots	Turns the current slots into points you can edit by hand. The original is hidden, not deleted. See Point clouds.
Export font debug (JSON)	Text	Saves a diagnostic file about the text layout. You do not need it for normal work.
Export SVG	SVG elements	Saves the current SVG, with your edits, as a file.
Export Formation (.fsf)	Formation groups	Saves the group as a file you can load into another show. See Share formations.
Import Formation Group…	The Show	Loads a .fsf file under the Show.
Paste	The Show, when something is copied	Pastes what you copied.
Hide or Show	Elements that can be hidden	Same as the eye.
Delete	Everything except the Show	Removes the element.

Right-clicking empty space in the panel offers Paste when something is copied.

Right-clicking a row that is not selected selects it first. Right-clicking inside a multi-selection keeps the selection, and Duplicate, Copy and Delete act on every selected element. The menu shows how many, for example Delete 3 elements.

Duplicate

Duplicate copies the element and everything inside it, adds (copy) to the name, places it right after the original, and selects the copy.

Copy and paste

1. Select one or more elements and press Cmd C / Ctrl C, or right-click and choose Copy. Anything inside them is copied too.
2. Press Cmd V / Ctrl V, or right-click the Show row or empty space in the panel and choose Paste.

A pasted element lands under the Show, and a pasted Launch Pad lands at the top level. It keeps its inside structure, and what you pasted becomes the selection. You can still paste after deleting the original.

To move a design to another show, use Share formations.

Delete

Select the row and press Delete or Backspace, or right-click it and choose Delete. The element goes at once, with no confirmation, and everything inside it goes too. The Show cannot be deleted.

Changed your mind? Press Cmd Z / Ctrl Z to bring it back. See Undo and Redo.

Keyboard

Delete, Cmd C / Ctrl C and Cmd V / Ctrl V act on the selected elements. See Keyboard shortcuts.

During bake playback

The left panel stays on the Drones tab while a bake is loaded, so the Hierarchy is out of reach until you press Exit.

Next

See your fleet in the Drones panel.