Thanks Drew, I'll have some time this week to give the outlined workflow a go.  Thanks!

Hi George Tasick, thanks for the great report. For better or worse, the behavior you described is how the 'Script > Groups' feature currently works. If you Group, say, 5 items, the items are visually consolidated on the timeline and in the script window, but in reality there are still 5 rows of script. You can see this by going to the blue gear in the script window and turning off 'Show on row per group'. Now suppose you're viewing your script with groups collapsed into single rows - when you select a row that represents a group, what you're actually doing is selecting all 5 rows of script. This is the reason that editing the event time or other fields affects every line of script in the group. Instead of typing in an event time, try selecting the group and pressing Ctrl+F to bring up the 'Set time' dialog. In the future, maybe we can add some special handling for groups to achieve the result you expected. In the meantime, I think 'Script > Time adjustments > Set Time...' is a workable solution.

Hi George Tasick, thanks for the report, this is definitely a bug. Send me a minimal test case (MTC) show file with your slice on the timeline.

I use Finale 3D solely for product development and visualization. Cakes and single shot items, i'll design and simulate them in finale, then provide those renderings to to factories as a complement to technical documentation.   This provides the factories with a visual reference of what i'm asking for, which works around language barriers and provides much faster understanding of the request.   Additionally, Finale 3D is a great tool for visualizing as a product designer, working out the timing/composition/effect combinations in a consumer device before sending to the factory.   The photo/video renderings from Finale 3D are also helpful in marketing the products (pre-production demo videos) and as elements of product packaging (photo renderings of very specific effects).   With these use cases in mind ... the output format of my work is not timecode to be used on a shoot site as part of a live display ... my output is video and photos of the products i create, to be used as production reference and/or marketing materials.   As such, my feature request is to include compositional guides on any given 3D camera view ... including "safe frames, "thirds guides", and "center guides". These guides are very common in 3D programs where the final output is on a screen (TV, computer, mobile device, digital billboard, etc.)   Below is an example of safe frames ... though only the "action safe" and "title safe" are relevant. Also notice how the action safe box (yellow) has little center markings for composing elements of the scene. The safe frames where more relevant in composing video for screens in the CRT days, when overscan was a much bigger issue. With modern screens the issue is much less pronounced, because screens are built to specific pixel dimensions, though some TVs still scale the image slightly and some screens have thicker plastic bezels that partially cover the edges of the screen itself.     The image below shows both safe frames and a "thirds grid" ... the thirds grid is most helpful when framing up fireworks videos, because it always looks best on video (especially demo videos) when aerial effects break on the line between the top and middle third ...   This image shows safe frames and a center marker ... the center marker is especially useful when trying to center anything within the frame.   At present, Finale 3D can restrict the preview render to a 16:9 ratio ... however this only helps to see the boundaries of what will be rendered. Aligning anything within those boundaries is a real guessing game ... and the lack of these compositional guides makes it very difficult to be consistent from product to product, especially when a new project file is created.

Hey,   Ran into this bug when trying to develop consumer products, trying to group rows and then reposition using the "event time".   Started by organizing my effects in time as seen below ...     Then I grouped these effects to create a "row" of my cake ...     Then i tried to move the event time of the group. Instead of moving the group as a unit and maintaining the timing within the group, it changed the event time of each individual element within the group ... which defeats the purpose of a group ... which is to act as an individual unit.     I know it's possible to make a group of effects into a cake, but that creates other problems when you make individual rows into cakes ... then try to combine the rows into a cake (cakes within a cake). You can see that bug report here ... https://finale3d.com/groups/english/forum/topic/bug-mine-particles-increase-in-velocity-after-converting-to-cake/

The bug I'm running into happens while trying to create a consumer product, a cake in this case.   I start by creating and then arranging my effects for the first row, then I convert that row into it own "cake" so I can easily replicate and reposition that row wherever it repeats in the product.   The photos below show the timeline and the result of the simulation, which is the correct and intended effect of a low-level mine effect under the primary aerial effect.     However, when I combine the 6 rows into a single cake (making a cake out of cake slices), the velocity of the stars in the mine effect increases dramatically, propelling the mines to the same height as the primary aerial effect.   You can compare the above and below images.     I think the problem has to do with the fact that I made a cake within a cake (a "cakeception" if you will). However, there's no more effective way to organize a cake than what I've done here. Tubes are arranged into rows, rows are organized into a cake. This is the most common method for organizing and communicating a cake design to the factory.   It's also important that I make cake slices instead of just groups, because it's helpful to have cake slices saved as as an effect in the effects pane. Easy to reuse later in other products.   Additionally, simply grouping effects causes a problem when trying to reposition on the timeline using the Script pane. See that bug report here ... https://finale3d.com/groups/english/forum/topic/bug-relative-position-of-effects-in-a-group-when-setting-event-time/#post-1294460

Here's a video from the Help Center on importing empty cues from a spreadsheet: https://finale3d.com/video/importing-empty-cues-from-a-spreadsheet/

Hi George, you can adjust the resolution of the video (720p in Hobbyist, up to 4K in Pro) but there's no setting for bit rate. Aside from the resolution, the setting that will have the single biggest impact on video quality is the particle limit setting found in 'File > Render settings'. In your case, I think the problem is just that the background image is fairly low resolution - try adding your own skydome image from the Scenery menu.

Hey,   Is there a way to adjust the bitrate for rendering videos. There's A LOT of compression in the default background image and i can't tell if it's just the background image? Or if it's the bitrate of the video?   Thanks!

Hi George, this is a bug, thanks for posting. Your timing is perfect, we're right in the middle of a major project to improve effect sims, I'll make sure this one's on the list.