hi guys, as you can see from my previous message i am pretty new to this program so pls excuse my basic questions. the way i am going about learning is by copying and pasting examples from the help files to a blank new 'project'. this seems to work some of the time but sometimes it doesn't eg. when i try and copy an object that has a number of layers or contains another set of objects. this happens when i try and copy an output object from the help files, not all of the output copies and it doesnt work. if anyone could help me out with this or let me know howw to copy examples that have a number of 'layers' then i would be really grateful.
thanks in advance for any help.
cheers
ali

the bits that won't copy are abstractions. they are links to other patches saved in the same folder as the parent patch. if you don't know the difference between abstractions and subpatches, then you're gonna need to learn that...and it takes a little while to understand.

but, anyway

there are two ways you can copy these bits:

1. if you are working on a patch, then you need to save the "output.pd" abstraction in the same folder as the patch you are working on. you can then make [output] work just like a normal object.
2. open the offending [output] layer in it's original help file, and copy the contents to your clipboard. then, in your blank project, make an subpatch called [pd output] copy your clipboard contents into that.

(by the way)

i said: "you need to save the "output.pd" abstraction in the same folder as the patch you are working on"

but, i forgot to mention this won't work with a "blank project". you will need to save your project somewhere, and put the abstractions (output.pd...etc) in the same folder

wow, thanks hardoff. i have just saved the ouput patch as you said in the same folder as my project and put an object box with output and copied the example to my new project and i have the a major scale. this is a big step for mee understanding how subpatches work. as far as i can gather you can save a subpatch such as an adsr or filter or something in thr project folder then just put it's name in an object box and there it is!
thanks for the advice, i am hoping that one day i will laugh about my simple mistakes!
ali