Import from Project

Import from Project takes the content of another Exaplay project into the one that is open: its compositions (timelines and playlists, with every track, clip and cue), its devices, custom controls, user panels, schedules and watch folders. The Stage of the open project — its screens, outputs and fields — stays exactly as it is; the imported compositions are put on fields of the open project that you choose in the dialog.

Use it to:

• Rebuild a show on a fresh Stage. When a project's output setup has gone wrong, start a new project, set up the outputs once, and import the show's content instead of recreating it.
• Reuse content between shows — the same intro timeline, the same projector list, the same user panel — without copying the other show's wall.
• Merge two shows that were programmed on different machines.

Importing

1. Click the burger menu (☰) at the right of the header and choose Import from Project. (Not offered on a multi-client client: a client's project is owned by its master.)
2. Pick the other project file (.vpp, or a .bak backup) and click Next. The file is read on the engine machine; nothing changes yet.
3. Choose what comes along:
   • Compositions — all of them are ticked; untick what stays behind. Each row says whether it is a timeline or a playlist, how many clips it has and which fields of the other project it plays on.
   • Screens — one row per field the chosen compositions use: the field in the other project on the left, the field of this project it should play on, on the right. The dialog pre-fills a field with the same name, else a field on a screen of the same name, else the first field. Not assigned lets a composition play on this project's first field, which is what a composition without a field does anyway.
   • Also import — the project-level lists: projectors (PJLink), DALI gateways, TCP devices, input devices, custom controls, user panels, schedules and watch folders, each with the number of entries the other project has. These are off until you tick them.
4. Click Import. The compositions appear as new tabs in Produce & Play, and a message says what came in.

The open project is not saved by the import — save it when the result is what you want, or load the saved file to go back.

What happens to the imported content

• Every imported composition is a copy with its own identity. References between the imported compositions follow (a cue in one that starts another still starts it); a cue that pointed at a composition you did not import points at nothing afterwards.
• Field references go through your field map on the composition, its tracks and its clips. A cue action that named a screen of the other project is cleared, because the screen is not here.
• Clip paths written relative to the other project file (an exported project's media/ folder) are resolved against that file's folder, so the clips keep playing from where they are. Absolute paths and live sources are taken as they are. Media that is not on this machine is reported the way it is after Load: the clip is marked as missing and Relink finds it.
• Lists are merged: an entry this project already has (same id) is kept as it is; a schedule or watch folder that targets a composition you did not import is skipped; a user panel keeps its tiles for imported compositions and drops the rest.
• Imported devices and controls are not told to the other machines of a fleet beyond what any edit is: the master carries the project, and clients receive it with the next project push as usual.

What is never imported

Imported	Not imported
Timelines and playlists, with tracks, clips, cues and data tracks	Screens, outputs and the output assignment (the Stage)
Projectors, DALI gateways, TCP devices, input devices	Fields — the imported compositions use this project's fields
Custom controls, user panels, schedules, watch folders	This machine's own inputs (mouse, game controllers, microphone)
	The other project's PCs (its fleet) and Stream Deck setup
	Calibrations, LED mappings and projection setups, which belong to the outputs

Related

• Project Export — the other direction: pack a whole project with its media into one archive.
• Check Project — find missing media after an import.