Menus Are Truncated

[storyteller]

The creation of OTR and orchestral workflows has managed to push Reaper's limits with the menus it seems. There seems to be some type of a hardcoded limit regarding how Reaper handles the menus. For example, my Reaper theme for OTR has hundreds of Track Layouts. The list of TCP and MCP layouts will not properly display in the Track Layout sections of Reaper due to what appears to be a truncation issue. The menu just quits rendering.

I was able to workaround this by creating my own menu for track layouts that nests various track layout lists within folders. The truncation still occurred - and it seemed maybe like a character limit - but it caused me to have to create an artificial structure for the layouts to work around this issue.

The same thing has happened with Track Templates.

Overall, OTR - and the OTR user base - tends to use long track names and have hundreds and thousands of track templates due to the volume of sample libraries and instruments they setup. This truncation issue is creating a major workflow hurdle.

Could we get this limit removed?

I'm on Big Sur, but this seems to happen across all platforms.

[schwa]

There is limited dynamic menu space available, partly for technical Windows reasons. I think the layout space is limited to 300 entries, and the track template space is limited to 100. Are there any limits that are causing a critical workflow issue?

[storyteller]

Originally Posted by schwa

There is limited dynamic menu space available, partly for technical Windows reasons. I think the layout space is limited to 300 entries, and the track template space is limited to 100. Are there any limits that are causing a critical workflow issue?

Apologies for just getting back to you. Thank you for clarifying on what is happening within the menus. To answer your question, yes, the truncation actually presents workflow issues with large, intricate setups. There are some possible workarounds... so I am not sure I would consider it "critical" - but the issues the truncation creates causes major workflow issues for your film score/orchestral composer user base (even with the workarounds). Admittedly this is probably a small portion of your overall user base, but these are also the power-users that have come to utilize all of Reaper's strengths in a professional market.

For one truncation example, with OTR, I removed the various track prefixes/suffixes that allowed for much of the automation in the OTR template workflow by moving the prefix/suffix combinations into a custom theme's TCP and MCP layouts. This allowed users to not rely on the clunky track name method for automation, but rather allow for it to happen behind the scenes. However, due to the sheer number of TCP and MCP layouts included in the theme (most are used behind the scenes in the scripting), the Reaper menu truncates the layout options... so there is no TCP/MCP layout control from within Reaper. Not critical, but it limits any theme customization to custom-built menus.

Additionally, many orchestral composers are using large templates... typically in the 1000-3000 track range. To keep the processing down, track templates are utilized with a right-click->insert template command. But, having a large number of track templates causes the Reaper menu system to become truncated and unusable. Instead, users have to drag-and-drop from a folder into the Reaper project.

These are a couple of examples. They aren't grave issues, but they are certainly inconveniences for power users that rely on 1000+ template workflows. Hope this helps clarify.

[storyteller]

Originally Posted by schwa

There is limited dynamic menu space available, partly for technical Windows reasons. I think the layout space is limited to 300 entries, and the track template space is limited to 100. Are there any limits that are causing a critical workflow issue?

Hey - Just wanted to follow up on this. As I've been developing out bigger and bigger templates for composers (and also with OTR), the truncation has become much more of an issue - especially in the TrackTemplates section.

For example, I am working with major sample library developers to bring their entire product lines into templated setups for Reaper. However, the right click menu for track templates has become severely limited with this regard. It is the perfect library/filing system, but can barely handle a single vendor's product catalog. Is this something that could be addressed? Or do you have a possible workaround in the interim?

BTW - thanks for everything you do with Reaper. It rally is an incredible software experience.