Sorting: from chaos to order

A creative graph never grows on a ruler. Add a take, move a character, insert another scene — the logic still works, but the canvas becomes hard to read. Sorting restores an editing-room order without making you drag every node by hand.

Before: the connections work, the story disappears

In a chaotic graph, wires cross, the continuation of scene two can sit above scene one, and shared Elements mix with frame generation. A computer can follow it. A person has to reconstruct the intent every time.

Layout reads the graph as a sequence of scenes

The Scriptwriter ports already say which output is scene 1, scene 2, and so on. “Rebuild layout” follows the connections from those ports, collects each scene chain, and puts it on a separate horizontal row: script → frame → video. Shared resources and loose nodes get their own lane below, so they do not interrupt the story.

Sorting does not guess from coordinates. It reads the meaning already stored in the connections.— the Vini Studio layout principle

Tidy up or rebuild the layout?

“Tidy up” aligns columns, gaps, and centres while preserving your current top-to-bottom order. Use it for geometric cleanup without losing a composition you arranged by hand.

“Rebuild layout” ignores current coordinates and reconstructs the structure from ports and connections. Use it after active building has mixed the scenes together.

After: one row, one scene

After sorting, your eye moves left to right through a scene and top to bottom through the story. The canvas fits the result into view automatically. If you preferred the old hand-made layout, the Undo action restores it immediately.

Canvas chaos can be useful while an idea is forming. But when it is time to review, continue, or hand the project back to tomorrow’s you, the graph should read like a story again.