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OpenMarch

Getting Started

Welcome to OpenMarch! Make sure to download and install the app if you haven’t already.

Setting up your project

  1. Create a new file. On the launch page, click “Create New”, and make a new .dots file.

  2. Now start off by adding some marchers. Open the marchers sidebar by clicking the “Marchers” button in the topbar. Then click “Add” and fill in your marcher info, for quantity and section. Then create the marchers. Repeat this step for multiple sections if you want.

    Creating marchers in the marcher sidebar dialog

  3. If you have music you would like to write on top of, follow this step. If you don’t and are just checking the app out, skip this step.

    Make sure you have a MusicXML and audio file on hand. In a notation software like MuseScore, you should be able to export both.

    Now go into the music modal by clicking “Music” in the topbar. Start by importing the MusicXML file by clicking “Import MusicXML”

    Then import your audio file by clicking the empty “Audio File” box at the bottom, and import your file. You may have to refresh the app Ctrl/Cmd+R for your audio file to appear. Once it does, make sure it’s selected.

    The music modal

  4. Now, start adding pages by going into the “Pages” sidebar. Click “add” and fill in the quantity. You don’t have to fill in the counts and subset right now, you can actually edit the counts and subset in the sidebar when a page is selected.

    The create pages sidebar

  5. If you’d like to change the field type, go into the “Field” sidebar. We have support for Highschool, College, Pro, and different indoor fields as of 0.0.5.

Titlebar
  • You can open, create, and save your file in the top left. This is also where you export individual coord sheets.
Toolbar
  • Most tools are in the topbar/toolbar.
    • Playback
    • Project setting dialogs
    • Toggle viewing the marcher’s prev/next paths
    • Marcher alignment (lock x, lock y, snap to nearest whole)
    • Aligning marchers
    • Copying marchers to prev/next
  • You can edit the selected page’s properties in the sidebar.
  • You can only view the selected marcher’s properties right now in the sidebar.
  • Select multiple marchers with Ctrl/Cmd+A. or holding Shift when dragging on the field
  • With multiple marchers selected you can perform more advanced alignment tasks in the sidebar
Timeline

In the timeline (bottom) you can select a page, and view the counts and measures in a page.

Writing drill

You’re ready to write some drill now! Here’s an overview on the tools.

Alignment

You can select different marchers that are on different points on the field, and press the different alignment buttons to make really basic lines.

Alignment buttons in the topbar

Lines

With multiple marchers selected, you can make lines way easier by clicking “Create line”, then choosing 2 points and clicking “Apply coordinates”.

Create line button

Shapes

This is the most exciting drill writing feature right now. With multiple marchers selected, and after drawing a line, click “Create shape”. A shape is a group of multiple marchers on top of a line (SVG) path. You can copy the shape to the prev/next page, or ungroup it.

You can add multiple segments, and make curved shapes. Each segment has multiple handles, which you can move. Right now, the segment types are Line, Single Curve, and Double curve. When you have multiple segments, there is also Move and Close.

Move will move the next point to somewhere else, making a gap in the line. Close will close the shape, going back to the first segment, useful for making rectangles.

A demo shape

Support

That’s about it for getting started! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask in the Discord!

Please also report any bugs you encounter in the GitHub by making an issue, or the Discord.