Hi,
I am using the CVS-Version of Blender – the upcoming 2.42 release.
The NLA Editor looks like the Action Editor…I read, that it is possible
to switch the NLA Editor into “NLA mode” – but how ?
I parsed the menu and look for a hidden icon or entry and found nothing
appropiate.
How can I switch the NLA Editor into NLA mode ???
Thanks a lot for any help in advance !
Keep blendering!
mcc
If it’s the same as 2.41 then you just click the little “action” (man) icon on the left of the NLA window and it should change to an NLA (lines) icon.
If this doesn’t do it then I guess it’s different 
Hi AndyD !
Nice to read you again ! :o))
I remember that little icon – but I cannot find it…
It was just in top of the list of entries, wasn’t it ?
Seems that CVS broke something…
Anyone else using CVS-blender and can help to verify this ?
keep blendering!
mcc
To use the NLA, your object first needs an Action created.
Either an armature with loc/rot/size or a mesh with Shape keys will work.
After you create the action, you need to create add a “strip” in the NLA editor by ‘hovering’ the mouse over the object name, press SHIFT-a , ENTER/LMB.
You wont see the ‘icon’ until a strip has been added for your Object.
Mike
Hi mstram !
You saved my life !
Your sentence:
“You wont see the ‘icon’ until a strip has been added for your Object.”
was the “Tip of the day” !
I saw all this nice bobbles there in the NLA editor and didn’t even think
of anything I have to add.
By the way:
When switching to NLA I get a mix from stripes and bobbles/dots (or
whatever the name is…)
Is there a way to remove the action-like view (or do I miss another icon
to click or another additional step to go… 
?
Blender, camera…GO!
mcc
I have to correct that.
I haven’t actually used the NLA editor that much, and I just discovered that “THE ICON” only appears if :
1 - You have added an action strip to the NLA editor (as I said before)
and
2 - an action is selected/ displayed in the Action editor
The ‘ICON’ then allows you to choose whether the selected action or the strips are active.
(The icon is actualy displaying either the Action Window or NLA editor icon… I never noticed that before 
)
The “bobbles” are the keyframes for the current action. If you don’t want to see them in the NLA editor, click the X in the action editor … the one that has the rather scary Tooltip “Deletes link to this datablock”. It should probably say something like ‘Disconnect action from current object’, as the Action is still available, it’s just a matter of picking it from the dropdown again when you want it OR clicking on the action name in the NLA editor if you’ve added a strip.
WARNING, if you have keyframes “bobbles” showing, and you press ‘a’ (select all) then press DEL or X, not only do the strips get deleted, but SO DO ALL THE KEYFRAMES FROM THE CURRENTLY DISPLAYED ACTION ! I’d call this a bug, not a feature as I … and I suspect most other users, would think the NLA is supposed to be “non-destructive” in editing (i.e. your “library” of actions should not be affected by the NLA editor. I don’t think the keys that are displayed in the NLA editor should be editable at all. You should have to use the action or IPO editor to make permanent changes.
Mike
On the contrary, that’s one of the main purposes of the NLA. You can very easily reorganize your animation, slowing it down or speeding it up. Change order of the poses etc.
If you have a nice order in your animation, like for ex. keyframe on every 4th frame, NLA becomes a very powerful tool.
Hi,
thanks for all the help !
Currently for me it is somehow confusing, that the “area of impact”
of NLA and Action-Editor is overlapping.
Often I have some orphan data which I only can see with the Databrowser
(SHIFT-F4) but I a neither able to delete completly nor reactivate.
For me there is too much happening implicitely instead of explicitely. But
– may be – this is due to my beginner status…
Keep blendering!
mcc