MGP Feedback - Running List

[McDub]

Hey! Been MIA while finishing up a project and learning how edit video at a more academic level. But I now have totally badass grid sets for Final Cut Pro, CapCut, and DaVinci Resolve! Haha.

Current state: MGP 1.7.3 , MetaServer 6.1.3, MacOS 26.5.2, iOS 26.5.2

A few things have popped up as of late:

• When building menu buttons, there seems to be glitch where I am now able to enter a seemingly infinite number of macros in the macro list. I got as far as 31 macros on one try. The entire list appears in the re-order window and can be fully re-ordered. However, MGP still displays 13 macros no matter what when the button is active.

• Also for menu buttons, I’ve found that tapping outside the menu to close it will sometimes trigger something else. I don’t know why, it just happens. I’ve taken to making my last macro in every one of these menus a blank “CLOSE” so there’s a hard visual reference, but even a little “X” at the top of the menu would be sufficient as a hard reference to close it and prevent any random launches or actions.

• I’ve noticed that some of your older presets are no longer fully functional in MacOS either because the app menus have changed or shortcut sets have been modified. This all seems to be tied to Tahoe. It’s worth your time to simply go through them and make sure they’re fully working. I’ve kept a list of what I’ve found, but I haven’t gotten through everything.

• When overwriting a palette MGP hangs for a long time before actually letting you confirm overwriting. The process does work, but the hang lasts so long people might think MGP is frozen, especially since Overwrite is basically instantaneous in every other case.

• In experimenting with the iPad’s Display Zoom feature, I noticed that text sizes in MGP are pretty radically affected by having that feature turned on or off. In some cases, it’s the difference between the text being clearly readable and not so much. This may well be an iOS thing, but it does have a pretty significant effect on dense grid layouts that use smaller text sizes.

• I’m still regularly locked out from moving buttons to new locations. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. I can’t figure out a consistent cause, but it happens a lot.

• In the Cubase integration macros “Copy Notes: Octave Above” still doesn’t work. It copies notes up a half step. This has been a long-running broken macro.

• Wish list: Bulk export of buttons. One at a time is brutal on a dense grid after building a new one or making lots of changes on an old one.

• Wish list: I’ll say it again. No confirmation button after a successful upload/export. I’m being completely 100% honest when I say I’ve been keeping track of this in other apps and so far none of them utilize this. They only pop an error dialog if something goes wrong. It may not seem like much, but when you’re doing things in bulk having to keep tapping “OK” gets really tiresome. Look at it this way, imagine if the OK button was a human being shouting “All good!” every time you exported something. After about ten times you’d be throwing your keyboard at them shouting “Yeah, I got it!”

As a final note, MGP is, without a doubt, a best-in-class app at this point. In my own experience, getting people to convert out of fixed control environments like StreamDeck continues to get easier and easier. All of things that used to hold them back are gone and they simply can’t argue with the scalability or flexibility of MGP, let alone not having to pay for extra hardware. So, great job! You’ve come a very long way in the last couple years.

[MetaGrid_Admin]

Thank you for the detailed report.

The two latching-switch editor problems were observed on MetaGrid Pro 1.6.19. Several latching-switch improvements were implemented during the 1.7.x release cycle, so please repeat those two tests on the latest available 1.7.x build and let us know whether either problem remains.

Regarding switch states across grids: MetaGrid Pro is intended to cache incoming MIDI feedback and apply the latest cached state when another grid is displayed. After reviewing the current implementation, we found problems in that replay path, including MIDI-port and channel matching. This is now scheduled for correction in the MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 hotfix.

The multi-iPad synchronization proposal is broader than this cache correction and will remain a separate improvement request.

[MetaGrid_Admin]

Thank you so much, Michael—not only for this exceptionally detailed feedback, but also for your very kind words about MetaGrid Pro. Your encouragement means a great deal.

Several of these items are now scheduled for the MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 Hot Fix:

• Menu Buttons will be limited to the 13 entries supported by the runtime, while preserving larger legacy objects safely.
• Tapping outside an open menu will be corrected so dismissing it cannot activate an object underneath.
• The delay before palette overwrite confirmation will be investigated and improved.
• Bulk export for buttons will be implemented.
• Successful exports will use non-blocking feedback instead of requiring an additional OK tap.

For the older presets affected by macOS Tahoe, could you please share your list and include the preset name, target application, and the action that fails?

Display Zoom changes the effective iPadOS layout scale. MetaGrid Pro objects retain their authored dimensions and text sizes rather than automatically rescaling the complete grid, as doing so could significantly alter carefully designed layouts. If you encounter clipping, overlapping text, or unusable controls, please send screenshots and specify the selected Display Zoom mode.

The intermittent difficulty moving objects will be addressed as part of the complete grid-layout refactor planned for MetaGrid Pro 1.8 this summer.

The Cubase Logical Editor preset for “Copy Notes: Octave Above” has also been checked. MG117 is mapped correctly, and the Mac and Windows preset bundles contain the expected +12-semitone value. Please reinstall the current MetaServer presets and test it again. If it still moves notes by only one semitone, please let us know your exact Cubase version so the behavior can be verified directly in that environment.

Thanks again for taking the time to document all of this—and for the encouragement. It is genuinely appreciated.

[JTB]

minor issue worth noting:

With macros, if I tap ‘Clear’ > ‘Macro Reset’ > ‘Yes’ and then tap undo, the macro doesn’t reappear in the right pane.

I’d also like it if Metaserver launched minimized.

[McDub]

Hey!

Just the usual gremlin drop-off here. Been working away on new grids and keeping track of things that pop up.

• This is something I can’t find a clear answer for. Is it possible to switch target apps for a button using a Menu Command once one has been assigned on a certain grid? I ask because there have a been a couple instances of me selecting the wrong app and once MGP commits to that app, any other button I try to make on that grid only sees that original choice of app.
• The “Escape” key command in the Macro Builder is exhibiting a weird behavior. When you use “Escape” as part of macro in a Menu Button, that command works when the macro is open and tested using the “Try” button, BUT when the Macro Builder is closed and the button resumes normal operation, that “Escape” command doesn’t trigger.
• This is a UI question that I monkeyed around with in Affinity Photo just to see what it looked like before asking. Is there a reason why the individual step/action bars in the Macro Builder are so big? You could easily halve the height of those, see twice as many actions without having to scroll, and not lose clarity or overly constrain the tapping area in seeing the list. It’s purely about condensing the view a bit. Same thing in the channel/CC editor. It would be cool if it was one page with the channels at the top and the CC numbers underneath so you only open one page instead of two
• The “Repeat On Hold” function on buttons needs re-calibration. Very Slow isn’t very slow at all. If I’m using it to trigger more complex macros, it often gets ahead of the app very quickly and causes errors. The “Very Slow” setting could be as long as a full second.
• In addition to that, I don’t know if this is an MGP thing or an app thing, but holding down the button for repeats buffers them in the app so that when I let go of the button, the function keeps going until the buffered repeats are executed. This can cause the app to keep going doing something far beyond where you intended to stop.
• Single rows always copy correctly as a block, multiple rows rarely do, even if I’m super careful about matching the selection sequence exactly.
• This might be something you’re planning on, but a way to pre-determine an element split size would be super helpful while re-designing grids. Instead of having to split everything down to one cell and re-merge, selecting something like “2X2” or “2X3” etc., prior to splitting would streamline that process immensely.
• Both the inspector window and the style menu have a bizarre “snapping” behavior where de-selecting or selecting certain things causes the entire menu to suddenly snap to a different viewpoint and it’s really easy to lose your place. It’s pretty confusing.
• When editing the “Text” field in the macro builder in an already-built macro, oftentimes the edit doesn’t stick, as in I’ll do the edit, close the macro and it reverts right back to what it originally was. Even if I hit return after entering the text, it still happens. The only way I can make it stick is to activate other steps in the macro, make a change and return them to the OG state. It’s not reliable.
• Auto-resize does not trigger when trying to re-size faders or buttons that are one cell wide.
• “Hide Cap Text” does not style-copy on faders
• Is there any way to alphabetize folders used for custom icons? They move around all the time and not only does my list of folders go beyond the screen edge, the folders are rarely in the same order from one day to the next. I THINK I brought this up before, too, that searched-for icons don’t show up in the same order in consecutive searches using the same term.
• It would be cool if there was a way in the Macro Builder to mini-label or somehow indicate what key commands/shortcuts are for. With so many different combinations in and among each app, it’s very easy to forget what the keyboard combo is for.
• If there is a way to do this I haven’t figured it out, but I can’t style copy a button to a Latched-On/Active state of a switch. The style copy only applies the Off-State. This makes it more difficult to edit switches with new design schemes and make sure they’re consistent because those on-states have to be built manually each time.
• Also, in a switch, the icon size can’t be set to change between states.
• Last switch thing. This isn’t consistent and I can’t figure out what causes it, but changing the gradient setting on the On-State side gets “stuck” as in, if you set 2-gradient, you get one color box. Set it to 3 and you get two color boxes. But it is a bit random in happening.

I think you announced that you’re working on a fader re-design. The two things that come up in that department a lot are labeling and width. The text size being fixed is very problematic design-wise and oftentimes, the perfect width for the fader would be BETWEEN 1 and 2 cells, as in 1.5. 1 is a little too thin if you’re doing an array and 2 cells is a little too much wasted space when you’re using a number of faders. I don’t even know if 1.5 is possible. Detented would be cool, too, for step entry of a fixed set of parameters. More like a toggle switch, I guess?

That’s the whole list! Hopefully there’s something useful in there. Overall, building raw grid sets is downright efficient at this point. Getting to the aesthetics happens very quickly. Big thumbs up on that!

M.

[MetaGrid_Admin]

Thank you for this extremely useful and detailed list—and for the encouraging words about the grid-building workflow. Each point has now been reviewed against the current implementation.

1. Changing the target application

Target applications are assigned to individual buttons. If the wrong application has been selected, open the button’s Target Application section and choose the intended application before selecting its Menu Command.

That choice should not permanently lock the complete grid to one application. If newly created buttons continue to offer only the original application after the target has been changed, please let us know and send us the affected grid so the inherited application assignment can be examined.

2 — Escape works in Try but not during Menu Button execution

Thank you — the Escape command itself is encoded correctly, so this appears
more likely to involve the Menu Button’s target-application routing. The Try
button sends the macro to the currently active application, while normal button
execution uses the target application assigned to the button.

Could you please let us know which application the Menu Button targets, whether
the same problem occurs with a newly created Menu Button, and whether Escape
works normally when the button’s target is set to the current profile
application? That will help confirm whether this is part of the target-app issue
or a separate Menu Button defect.

3 — Denser Macro Builder rows and combined MIDI parameter editing

That is fair feedback. The current Macro Builder action rows use more vertical
space than necessary, particularly when working with longer macros. The MIDI
workflow is also more fragmented than it needs to be because parameters such as
the channel and CC number are edited through separate selectors.

The Macro Builder is being redesigned for the next major MetaGrid Pro version. Denser action
presentation and more efficient MIDI parameter editing are exactly the kinds of
improvements this work is intended to address. We will include both suggestions
in the editor-design review.

4 — Repeat On Hold speed calibration

You are right about the Repeat On Hold timing. The current “Very Slow” interval
is only 0.3 seconds, which is still too fast for longer or more complex macros.
This has now been recalibrated for MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4, which is scheduled for
release this week: “Very Slow” will use a one-second interval and “Slow” will
use a 0.3-second interval. The three faster settings remain unchanged. We are
treating the continued execution after releasing the button as a related but
separate issue, which we are reviewing next.

5 — Repeated macros continue after release

The continued execution after releasing the button has also been confirmed.
Each repeat currently submits another complete macro to MetaServer. Releasing
the button stops further submissions, but any macros already accepted into
MetaServer’s execution queue still run to completion.

The slower Repeat On Hold timings coming in MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 will
substantially reduce how easily this queue can build up. A complete solution
requires repeat-aware queue limits and cancellation handling, and this is
included in the new macro execution engine being developed for the next major
MetaGrid Pro version.

6 — Multi-row copy reliability

The inconsistent copying of multiple rows has been confirmed. The current grid
engine does not preserve a sufficiently reliable spatial order when a larger
selection is assembled, so carefully selecting the objects in a particular
sequence cannot always guarantee the expected copied layout.

This area is being replaced in the next major MetaGrid Pro version as part of
the new data model and grid engine. The new implementation treats multi-object
selections and copied layouts according to their actual grid positions rather
than depending on selection order, which will make multi-row copying
deterministic and reliable.

7 — Predetermined element sizes when dividing a grid area

This is exactly the kind of workflow the new grid engine is intended to make
easier, although the solution will work differently from adding more options to
the current Split command.

For the next major MetaGrid Pro version, the grid engine has been completely rebuilt for easier
operation, extremely fast performance, and much greater responsiveness. The
manual Split functionality is being removed. Instead, you will be able to
select an area and use smart creation tools to generate multiple objects within
that selection. This will make it possible to build regular arrangements
efficiently without first splitting everything into individual cells and then
merging the pieces again.

8 — Inspector and Style Copy panels lose their position

The Inspector and Style Copy panels should not jump to a different position
when an option is selected or deselected. We have confirmed that the current
panels can reload and recalculate their complete contents after a change without
reliably preserving the visible position, which causes the snapping you
described.

The Inspector architecture is being rebuilt for the next major MetaGrid Pro
version. Stable scroll position and predictable updates are explicit
requirements for the new implementation, so changing an option will no longer
make you lose your place in the panel.

9 — Existing Text action edits revert

Thank you — the unreliable Text action editing has been confirmed. Under
certain editor transitions, the text field can finish editing after the
selected macro action has changed or been cleared, causing the new text not to
be saved.

This will be corrected in MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4, scheduled for release this week.
Pending text edits will be committed reliably when pressing Return, closing the
Macro Builder, or dismissing the editor.

10 — One-cell-wide controls do not expose resize

Thank you — this limitation has been identified and corrected in the rebuilt
grid engine for the next major MetaGrid Pro version. Objects that are one cell wide or one cell
high will remain resizable along their other axis. Only a true 1×1 object will
omit the resize control.

11 — Hide Cap Text does not Style Copy on faders

Thank you — this omission has been confirmed. “Hide Cap Text” is currently
stored on the fader but is not included among the properties handled by Style
Copy.

This will be corrected in MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4, scheduled for release this week.
Fader Style Copy will include the cap-text visibility setting alongside the
other cap appearance properties.

12 — Custom-icon folder and search-result ordering

The unstable ordering is confirmed. Custom-icon folders currently inherit
their order from the underlying file enumeration, which is why they can move
between sessions. Repeated searches can suffer from the same underlying
ordering problem.

The icon selector is being rebuilt for the next major MetaGrid Pro version.
Folder names will be sorted alphabetically, search results will use a stable
deterministic order, and long folder lists will be handled more cleanly.

13 — Descriptive labels for Keyboard Shortcut actions

This is a very useful suggestion. Keyboard Shortcut actions currently store the
key combination but not a descriptive name, which can make larger macros
difficult to understand later.

The rebuilt Macro Builder in the next major MetaGrid Pro version will support
an optional compact label for a keyboard shortcut, allowing descriptions such
as “Open Mixer,” “Next Marker,” or “Close Window” to appear alongside the key
combination. Existing shortcuts will continue to work without requiring a
label.

14 — Copy a normal button style into a switch active state

This limitation has been confirmed. Style Copy can currently apply Off and On
state properties, but it always maps each source state to the corresponding
target state. It cannot use a button’s normal Off-state appearance as the
source for a switch’s active On state.

The styling workflow is being rebuilt for the next major MetaGrid Pro version.
It will support explicit source and destination states, making it possible to
copy a normal button appearance directly into a switch’s active state.

15 — Different icon sizes for switch states

This limitation has been confirmed. A switch can currently use different icons
and icon appearance settings for its Off and On states, but icon sizing is
shared by the complete switch. It therefore cannot change when the state
changes.

The rebuilt button model for the next major MetaGrid Pro version will support
independent icon sizing for the normal and active states. Existing switches
will retain their current appearance, while newly edited switches will be able
to use different icon sizes for each state.

16 — Active-state gradient controls become inconsistent

Thank you — the intermittent active-state gradient problem has been identified.
The editor can currently read the gradient layout from the button’s runtime
state instead of the Off or On state selected for editing. This can leave the
wrong number of color controls visible after changing the active-state fill
type.

For clarity, the main Background Color is the first gradient color. A two-color
gradient therefore adds one further color control, while a three-color gradient
adds two.

The state-selection problem will be corrected in MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 so the
visible gradient controls always correspond to the state currently being
edited.

17 — Fader redesign

The current Fader object will be replaced in the next major MetaGrid Pro
version by the new Meta Controller object.

Meta Controller includes the requested improvements—more flexible sizing and
labeling, stepped or detented control, and much more. It is designed as a
significantly more capable and adaptable replacement for the current fixed
Fader object.

[McDub]

Today, I found a peculiar behavior. After building a grid on one iPad and uploading it to my iCloud drive, when I subsequently downloaded the grid to another iPad, the Snapshot orientation was flipped. Also, the flipped Snapshot element defaults to 4 pads no what the original number was, the style defaults to gray, and the pad labels default to non-colored letters. I checked this using Profile, Workspace and Grid imports and all three did the same thing. It happens in every instance. Here are a couple screenshots of before and after. Notice the snapshot element.

Before:

After Import:

:

[MetaGrid_Admin]

Thank you for reporting this. MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 contains a targeted fix for Snapshot Pad export and import, including the orientation, number of pads, labels, colors and styling. The update is scheduled for release today.

After updating both iPads to 1.7.4, please export the original, correct content again and import this newly created file on the second iPad. An export already corrupted by an older version may not contain all the original settings.

[MetaGrid_Admin]

Thank you again for the detailed reports. MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 is now publicly available, and several items raised in this thread are included in the release.

Latching switches and incoming MIDI

MetaGrid Pro now preserves the MIDI-port identity and correct channel matching when replaying cached incoming MIDI state. When a grid is displayed, its latching switches should now reflect the latest received state correctly.

Please test this with the same switches and MIDI ports used previously.

Menu Buttons

The following issues are fixed:

• New and currently edited Menu Buttons are limited to the 13 entries supported by the runtime.
• Larger legacy Menu Buttons remain accessible without losing their existing entries.
• Tapping outside an open menu dismisses it without activating an object underneath.

Palette and export workflow

• The delay before palette overwrite confirmation has been reduced.
• Multiple selected buttons can now be exported together.
• Successful exports no longer require dismissing a blocking confirmation alert.

Macro editing

• Undoing a confirmed Macro Reset restores the macro and reconnects the open editor to the restored content.
• Existing Text actions retain edits made before pressing Return, Done or closing the Macro Builder.
• Repeat On Hold has been recalibrated: Very Slow now uses a one-second interval and Slow uses 0.3 seconds.

The broader issue of already-queued macro repetitions continuing after release requires the new macro execution engine and is not part of this hotfix.

Faders and switches

• Fader Style Copy now includes the Hide Cap Text setting.
• Switch gradient controls now follow the Off or On state explicitly selected in the editor instead of being influenced by the switch’s current runtime state.

The broader requests for independent switch-state styling, different icon sizes between states and the redesigned fader remain planned for the next major MetaGrid Pro version.

Snapshot Pad transfers

Profile, Workspace and Grid transfers now preserve Snapshot Pad orientation, pad count, labels, colours, transparency, selected state and styling.

Please create a fresh export from the original correct content after updating. Files already damaged by an older export may no longer contain all the original Snapshot Pad settings.

MetaGrid Pro 1.7.4 requires MetaServer Mac 6.1.4 or MetaServer Windows 6.0.4. After updating the complete release stack, please let us know if any of the corrected behaviours above still reproduce.

[McDub]

The one-second Very Slow change works GREAT! No more backing up the buffer in the app. The action stops when I let go of the button. Yes! One note of trivia: in my testing of Keyboard Maestro macros running on Intel and Silicon CPUs, .4 seconds is the minimum “safe” pause time for keeping a macro running clean on Intel without tripping up. .3 seconds is good on Silicon. So, just to be safe, you might consider changing “Slow” to .4 seconds.

[McDub]

Here’s an interesting one. I just discovered that you can’t add a secondary action to a macro in a menu button. This came up because I was trying to consolidate a bunch of buttons that go to static common grids I use for specific things across all apps. Those buttons have a secondary action assigned and nothing else. So, if I wanted to put those secondary actions into a menu button that simply opens other grids it looks like there’s not way to do that. Kind of ironic since it’s an MGP function! Hah. I’m still trying to figure out any other way to do that and I’m stumped. Maybe I’m overfocused on what should be obvious and missing the solution.

Couple other little discoveries:
• When in Find mode in the icon selector, the only way to return to the main window is to close the selector and re-open it. You can’t escape out of Find mode.

• The Escape key works to close some windows, but not others. For instance, if you’re trying to name and save a Workspace, Escape closes the edit window. But if you’re trying import/export a Workspace, Escape doesn’t work. You have to tap “Cancel.” This might be an iOS behavior, I don’t know for sure.

[JTB]

@McDub

Here’s an interesting one. I just discovered that you can’t add a secondary action to a macro in a menu button.

Yeah, I mentioned that here:

https://forum.metagrid.app/t/mgp-feedback-running-list/1433/36?u=jtb