9. Editing a Recording

Raw recordings almost always benefit from a few touch-ups. Right-click a profile and choose Edit to open the Record Edit view.

Figure 6. The Record Edit view. (1) Manually select and drag point. (2) Select and edit individual or consecutive data points in the grid, (3) apply a smoothing filter with a numeric gain, or shift the playback speed and amplitude using Point Interval and Scale Points.

Editing individual data points

Recorded points appear in a table and on the chart. You can:

• Click a cell in the table and edit time, position, speed, or torque directly.

• Right-click a row and choose Insert to add a new point, or Delete to remove one.

• Right-click on the chart to insert or delete a point at the cursor location.

Copying and pasting data points

A quick way to populate a new profile or insert a block of points into an existing one is to use copy and paste. This is especially useful when you have position values prepared in a spreadsheet or text file.

To copy points from the grid:

1. Select one or more rows in the Record Edit grid.

2. Press Ctrl+C. Contours copies the position (Y) values of the selected points to the clipboard — one value per line.

Note. Copy captures position values only, not time values. Time is always recalculated automatically on paste based on the current Point Interval setting.

To paste points into a profile:

1. Prepare a list of numeric position values — one value per line — in your clipboard (for example, copied from a spreadsheet column or a text file).

2. In the Record Edit grid, click the row where you want the new points to be inserted.

3. Press Ctrl+V. Contours inserts the pasted values at the selected position, with time values assigned automatically based on the current Point Interval.

This works both when the grid is empty (building a new profile from scratch) and when inserting additional points into an existing profile.

Note. Only plain numeric values are accepted. Each line must contain a single number. Blank lines are ignored. If any value cannot be parsed as a number, the paste is cancelled and an error sound plays.

Applying the smoothing filter

The Smoothing Filter Gain field at the top of the edit view controls a low-pass filter. Values range from 0.0 (no smoothing) to 1.0 (very heavy smoothing).

1. Enter a gain value — start around 0.1 and increase if needed.

2. Click Apply. The chart updates immediately.

3. If you do not like the result, click Cancel to revert to the un-smoothed data.

Caution. Heavy smoothing softens fast movements and can flatten intentional accents. Always compare the smoothed curve against the original before committing with Save.

Adjusting interval and scale

• Interval — change the time between points. Increasing it plays the show back more slowly; decreasing it speeds the show up.

• Position Scale — multiply every position in the recording by a factor. Use this to exaggerate or damp the whole motion at once.

Click Save to commit your edits back into the profile, or Cancel to throw them away.