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Or are you trying to add a new window to FCP's user interface, and have it display the time code to the user of the application?

Yap, that one :)

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Reading TC from FCP From: Darrin Cardani <dcardani@apple.com> Date: Thu, June 07, 2007 12:03 pm To: mike@b-scenefilms.com Cc: pro-apps-dev@lists.apple.com

I'm still not clear on what you're trying to do. Are you trying to display the time code (possibly with conversion to feet or frames) on the video? Or are you trying to add a new window to FCP's user interface, and have it display the time code to the user of the application?

FxPlug is for manipulating frames of video data. It isn't for adding functionality to the application. It doesn't provide any way to add windows or menu items to the host application. In fact, an FxPlug won't even be instantiated until the user applies it to some footage. So unless you're planning on burning the timecode into a frame of video (possibly after converting it to feet/frames), you probably don't want to use FxPlug.

You'd probably be better off writing a stand-alone application that does what you need. You might see if you can get the current playhead position via AppleEvents and use that to do what you need. You can make your application's window be an "always-on-top" window so that it is in front of FCP's windows and still usable when your app isn't the front-most application. (Or maybe there's some other better way - that's just an idea off the top of my head.)

Darrin

On Jun 7, 2007, at 11:53 AM, mike@b-scenefilms.com wrote:

...

Basically, I want to be able to read the current TC value from the timeline (dynamically updating in my panel) for the plug-in. Then I can implement TC calculation functions such as +-/* as well as convert to feet/frames etc. That kind of thing.

...

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Reading TC from FCP From: Darrin Cardani <dcardani@apple.com> Date: Thu, June 07, 2007 11:46 am To: mike@b-scenefilms.com Cc: pro-apps-dev@lists.apple.com

On Jun 7, 2007, at 11:32 AM, mike@b-scenefilms.com wrote:

...

I posted to another FXPlug group and was told that the FXPlug API does not expose any of the TC data in the current FCP project. My intent was to create a simple TC calculator/converter plug in as an exercise to learn FXPlug. However, I see that Digital Heaven reads the TC out of FCP with their app "Big Time". Admittedly, it's not an FXPlug application. Does anyone have a good idea how they might be doing this?

Mike, FxPlugs can get some timing information starting with FCP 6 and Motion 3, but it's not clear what you mean when you say you want time code data. Can you describe in more detail what you're trying to accomplish? It may be possible to do what you want. Looking at DigitalHeaven's website for BigTime (<http://www.digital- heaven.co.uk/bigtime/>), it appears that it's probably making itself available as a MIDI device, and rather than sending the data out to some actual MIDI hardware, it's displaying the information. That's just speculation on my part, though. It's an interesting idea! I believe that FCP 6 also has some AppleScript capabilities. I haven't worked with them, but it may be possible to get some information out of FCP via that route, too. But if you're just trying to learn FxPlug, definitely have a look through the FxPlug sample code, and feel free to ask questions about what you're specifically trying to do or learn.

Darrin -- Darrin Cardani dcardani@apple.com

-- Darrin Cardani dcardani@apple.com

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