CSV export (Excel "X-sheet") improvements

[D.T. Nethery]

This was brought up in another thread (about the "Timesheet" function) , but I think my comments about the CSV export got lost in the discussion about the Timesheet, so I'm starting a separate topic about it here.

I find that the current CSV export is cluttered and difficult to read . Is it possible to refine how the data is imported to the Excel .csv file ? Perhaps some sort of custom script that restricts that data exported to the columns , so it ONLY exports the Instance Name ? (I don't know scripting at all, so I have no way of knowing if that is possible, but I suspect it may be ... ?)

For example , here is a simple scene with 5 layers: 1.) Eye Blink Line , 2.) Eye Blink Color , 3.) Cat Line , 4.) Cat Color , 5.) BG

CAT_SC_01_Timeline.jpg (28.87 KiB) Viewed 15583 times

Using Mads Juul's Tracker Shortcuts panel , I've named each instance with an identifying Prefix and the Numbering corresponding to the frame numbers.

When I export this to .CSV file , many extra bracketed numbers are inserted in front of the instance names , creating a somewhat cluttered, unreadable document :

I don't know why it needs all of the extra numbers in brackets inserted in front of the instance names.

It would be so much cleaner to have the CSV export look like this, with only the instance Prefix_Number :

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The extra bracketed numbers inserted seem redundant to me . The first set of bracketed numbers seem to be the Layer number [001] , then the next set of bracketed numbers is the frame number [00009] ... But we already have the frame count along the left in Column A . So why insert the frame number again in front of the instance name in each column ? We can see how many layers there are , so the layer number doesn't need to be inserted in front of the instance name. If all of those extra bracketed numbers could be eliminated and instead only have the instance name in the columns , it would be cleaner .

However, if it is not possible to eliminate those extra bracketed numbers that are inserted in front of the instance name , can it be scripted to show the instance name in BOLD font for better readability ? And can HOLDS (repeats) be shown in lighter grey font ? See the next screen shot . This shows the column for the the cat's Eye Blink Line , which occurs from frame 9 to frame 30 , however the eye drawing 25 is HELD 6 frames, so it only appears in BOLD font at the head on frame 25 , then the repeated/held frames 26 , 27, 28, 29, 30 are in light grey text . This makes it easy to spot the holds at a glance when reading the Excel sheet.

[click image to see it larger]