parameter-design

Design

MUST READ before creating or designing custom parameters on any COMP: pages, styles, ranges, help text, naming, ParGroup gotchas.

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Parameter Design

Help Text

Every custom parameter MUST have help text set via par.help = "...". Help text appears as a tooltip when users hover the parameter name in the dialog. Describe what the parameter controls and what its values mean.

Good: "Maximum number of rows displayed in the manager list. Set to 0 for unlimited."
Bad: "Max rows" (just restates the label)
Unacceptable: no help text at all

In TDN files, include "help": "..." in the parameter definition. Embody exports and imports help text automatically.

Section Breaks

Use par.startSection = True on the first parameter of each logical group. This draws a horizontal separator line above the parameter, visually grouping related controls.

In TDN: "startSection": true in the parameter definition.

Parameter Ordering

Parameters appear in the order they are appended. Keep related parameters together and maintain a logical flow within each page:

Primary controls first (what users interact with most)
Secondary/advanced settings after
Read-only status/info parameters last

If reordering after creation, use par.order (accepts float values like 11.5 to insert between existing positions).

Page Organization

Group parameters into pages by function. Use comp.appendCustomPage('PageName') -- pages appear in creation order.

Common patterns:

Page	Purpose
Main / Settings	Primary configuration
Tags	Externalization tags, strategies
UI	Visual and display options
About	Version, build, author (read-only)

Naming

First letter MUST be uppercase, rest lowercase letters and numbers only
No underscores, spaces, or special characters
Examples: Speed, Maxrows, Autosave, Envoyenable

Style Selection

Use case	Style	Notes
On/off toggle	`Toggle`	Values are `0`/`1`
Fire-once action	`Pulse`	No persistent value
Enumerated choices	`Menu`	Set `menuNames` and `menuLabels` separately
Editable dropdown	`StrMenu`	Free-text input with suggestions
Numeric value	`Float` or `Int`	Set range properties (see below)
Text input	`Str`	Free-form string
File/folder path	`File` / `Folder`	Opens system dialog
Operator reference	`OP`, `COMP`, `TOP`, `CHOP`, `SOP`, `DAT`, `MAT`	Filtered by family
Section header	`Header`	Visual label only, no value

Numeric Ranges

For Float and Int parameters, configure the range:

Property	Purpose
`min` / `max`	Minimum and maximum values
`clampMin` / `clampMax`	Whether to enforce min/max as hard limits (`True`) or allow values outside (`False`)
`normMin` / `normMax`	Slider range in the UI (what the slider covers visually)

Example:

p = page.appendFloat('Speed', label='Speed')[0]
p.default = 1.0
p.min = 0.0
p.max = 10.0
p.clampMin = True
p.clampMax = False    # Allow values above 10 via manual entry
p.normMin = 0.0
p.normMax = 5.0       # Slider covers 0-5, but values up to 10+ accepted
p.help = "Playback speed multiplier. 1.0 = normal speed."

Read-Only Parameters

Use par.readOnly = True for status and informational parameters that users should see but not edit (version, build number, connection status).

Defaults

Always set par.default = value. This enables "Revert to Default" in the TD parameter dialog and ensures TDN round-trips produce consistent results.

Creating Custom Parameters

All page.append*() methods return a ParGroup (tuple-like), not a single Par. Index with [0] to get the Par object:

page = comp.appendCustomPage('Settings')
pg = page.appendFloat('Speed', label='Speed')  # Returns ParGroup
p = pg[0]                                        # Get the Par
p.default = 1.0
p.help = "Playback speed multiplier."
p.startSection = True