There seems to be a 1) fundamental misunderstanding on  my part or 2) a fundamental element missing in this software - the concept of scene as a grouping element in the timeline.  I was trying to use VS for semi-technical explanations of software flows & integration - a situation needing lots of elements across multiple scenes. At some point the timeline became unmanageable (e.g. needing to add elements to early scenes was really painful). 

Is there a way to handle this (other than simply making multiple scribes)?

You could make each scene into a single SVG.

-Mike (videoscribe user)

 

Thanks Mike. So is this basically doing separate scribe files and then mashing them together in a video editor?

It's more like making each scene into a drawing by itself.

for example if you have 10 scenes and each one has 8 people in it.
Then instead of using 80 images, you can combine 80 people into each SVG (or jpg or png) image.. .so you only have 10 images for your 10 scenes.


(If you are using SVGs, this requires some understanding of illustrator or inkscape)

instant answer for making your own images: SVG tutorial
tips for making SVGs that draw well: How to make SVGs that draw well in videoscribe

If you are using PNGs or JPGs then you can edit them in photoshop or GIMP

-Mike (videoscribe user)

 

Hey Mike - thanks again. I'll give this another shot. Your link to making the svg content drawable was really well written and very helpful Dave