PLEASE lock Video Router Input!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[manymanyhaha]

This is going to drive me mad. Please, for the love all that is good in this universe, give us the ability to lock the Input in Video Routers.

Am I the only person that uses Video Routers? And multiple layers? Am I the only person that likes to add and subtract layers?

This is madness. I asked for this years ago and someone on here poopoo'd it but frankly, why would you just give us this ability and then just have Input roam when layers are added and subtracted? Makes absolutely no sense.

I use a lot of Video Routers, love them. But every time I forget about this silly limitation, I end up spending hours putting the Inputs back.

Please, lock the Inputs!

[amsh]

Agreed! I just added a couple layers and now I have to go and edit every single slice transform to point them at the layer.

At the very least, Keep the input pointed to the same NAME.

If I rename a layer "LOGOS" and then I point my video router to input "LOGOS" layer, it should stay using whichever layer has the name "LOGOS" regardless of where it is in the stack.

[Zoltán]

If you have two layers named LOGOS, which one should it point to then?

[cat]

It doesn't matter as long it follows a pattern, the lowest numbered in layer, or the highest, as long as it is know thats fine, it the case of renaming you would presumable change the layer name (ie duplicate names) then rename the first one to swap the router. I'll be honest I use groups a lot, and add remove layers within the groups and assign the router to the group. This also goes for slices, I never assign a layer as all too often that will change as the project grows, but I often have groups of 1 layer, which is also a dumb way of working. Then you add a new group or have to move the order and that all goes tits up. Use Descriptive names, as a check box even would help. Personally I'd like a videorouter input to wire, especially if that could work with transitions, then you could dynamic mask layers/bumpers very flexibly.

[Empyfree]

If you have two layers named LOGOS, which one should it point to then?

I’d be very happy with a side effect of the proposed update being that you couldn’t have two layers with the same name. You’d have to have “logos 1” and “logos b”

It’s pretty common for layers/clips/things elsewhere to have to be unique.

I also love adding layers, and always forget to go through and fix all my routers that are now wrong!

[KevinHughes]

+1

Really, all references to layers should be references to an internal layer ID that never changes, so when layers are renamed automatically or manually this kind of thing never happens. I cannot count the hours of time I've wasted trying to hunt down busted video router input layers because the content shifted when I added, deleted, or moved a layer in a totally different deck! And I would definitely have ruined shows if I didn't catch and fix this in time.

If you wonder what would happen when you import video routers from other compositions where the target layer ID does not exist, Avenue/Arena could try matching by layer name first. If no layer with that name exists, the input could then be set to "Layers Below" by default.

I personally think all references in a composition from one part of a composition to another part within the same composition should be handled the same way as well, like references to groups. It just makes things more robust, especially if one adds, inserts, duplicates, reorders, deletes, and renames cells, layers, groups, and columns a lot like I do.