Quick start

Two people, two TouchDesigners, one shared network. This gets you connected with the Set Up window in a few minutes. Everything else is in the docs.

1. Both of you: add TDXCollab

During the private beta, TDXCollab.tox comes from the download link in your welcome mail (request an invite if you have none yet).

1. Use the same release on both sides: a partner on another version may be refused.
2. Drag TDXCollab.tox into your project.
3. Set Up opens by itself the first time. To open it again later: right-click TDXCollab in TouchDesigner's main menu bar → Set Up…

Nothing changes until the last step, so you can look around freely. Back goes a step back; Not now or Esc closes the window.

2. One of you starts the session (the host)

1. Start a session, or join one? → Start a session
2. Where are your partners? → Anywhere, over the internet (a private room on the TDXCollab relay: no ports, no router setup)
3. What may new partners do? Pick one; you can change it per partner later:
   • Full Edit: everything (operators, wires, DAT text, expressions)
   • Adjust Parameters: parameter values and the timeline only
   • Observe: they watch along; what they change stays on their side
4. How do partners see you? Your name and colour. They mark your cursor and selections on the other side.
5. What do you share? The Collab Zone is the COMP whose network everyone mirrors. Keep the one you have, use the network you're in, or make a new, empty one.
6. Ready to start → Start. The first time, tick I trust the people in this session: anyone who can edit can run Python in your TouchDesigner, so invite only people you trust.
7. Your room is open. The invite (a tdxcollab://… link) is now on your clipboard. Send it to your partner, and only to them: anyone with it can join. Lost it? Copy the invite again, or later Copy Invite on TDXCollab's parameters.

3. The other one joins

1. Copy the invite you were sent.
2. In Set Up: Join a session → An invite
3. Paste the invite. If it's on your clipboard, it's already filled in.
4. How do partners see you? Your name and colour.
5. Where does the shared network go? Pick a COMP for the Collab Zone. Joining with an empty project? Tick Make it a copy of the host's zone when I join, so you start with exactly what the host has.
6. Ready to join → Join. The first time, tick I trust the people in this session: the host, and anyone who can edit, can run Python in your TouchDesigner. Joining as a copy of the host's zone replaces yours, so save your project first.

4. Working together

• Work inside the Collab Zone. Operators, wires, parameters, DAT text, selections and cursors there are mirrored to your partner; anything outside it stays yours.
• Watch the TDXCollab chip in the main menu bar:

  Colour	Meaning
  grey	off
  amber	connecting
  blue	connected, nobody else here yet
  green	with partners
  orange	your copies differ: right-click → Resolve Drift and choose whose copy everyone takes
  red	refused, or a setting is missing: hover it for the reason

• Left-click the chip for the TDXCollab window (the people in the session, the zone, what you see of your partners), right-click for its actions, middle-click to jump to the Collab Zone.
• To leave: right-click the chip → Active (off).

Same room, no internet?

On the same local network, or over a VPN, you can skip the relay:

• Host: Start a session → On this network → a port (7001 is fine). Set Up shows your address. You can also tick Ask me before letting anyone in.
• Partner: Join a session → An address and a port → the host's address and port.

Connecting from outside your network this way means forwarding the port on your router.

Your own relay

Rather not go through the TDXCollab relay? Run your own. Your partner still just pastes an invite: it carries your relay's address.

The relay's code comes with TDXCollab's source, which is not public yet. If you need a relay of your own before then, write to us at dan+tdxcollab@functionstore.xyz.

If something's off

• The chip stays amber, or says you're waiting for the host to let you in: the host has Ask me before letting anyone in on and has to accept you.
• "Copies differ": right-click the chip → Everyone takes just the operators that differ: … fixes only those, from whichever side you pick. Right after joining, taking the host's whole copy (or joining again with Make it a copy of the host's zone when I join ticked) is quicker.
• Something isn't mirrored: check that it's inside the Collab Zone, and see Known issues. Hotkey-driven tools, for example, don't replicate.