Removing duplicate cast members....

[TheFittest]

How can I remove duplicate cast members from my cast without my movie being screwed up? I've imported sprites from one movie into another, but by doing so it also imports the needed cast members (text in this case). These cast members were already in the new movie, since the're already used by another sprite, but Director for some reason doesn't check if the cast members already exist in the movie and use those...
Is there any way to have Director use the existing cast members and not import the duplicate ones?

Oh, and while I'm here.... ;-) Does anyone know if Director automatically removes unused cast members (and thus reduce filesize) from the movies when exporting to a projector?

 

[archerofloaf]

There is no way for Director to automatically do these things. First, you should highlight each sprite that references the duplicated cast members from the Score and likewise highlight the original cast member and use the Exhchange cat member function from the edit drop down menu or cntrl-E or command-E. But i am sure someone has come up with a custom script to handle this for Director.

Director to my knowledge does not remove unused cast members. To find unused cast members, go to Edit-Find-Cast Members. it opens up a menu so you can do searches of your cast libraries. There is a choice for Usage-select that and you will see a list of all unused cast members. But be careful, however, because it lists all cast members that do not have corresponding sprites, so cast members part of a film loop but not on the Score itself are listed.

 

[TheFittest]

OK, thanx for the help!
I guess I have one suggestion for Macromedia for Director 9...after all the versions.....why have't they thought of this yet...?! Bizarre...
OK, so if any Macromedia developers are reading this...make sure that in Director 9 I can automatically remove unused cast members and make copied sprites check if the needed cast members already exist in the new movie!!! ;-) (still a great product though :-D)