# Section Assembly

### What It Does

Section Assembly is a hierarchical composition tool that lets you build complex, multi-section designs from the sections you've marked with Section Markers. Instead of manually threading and treadling hundreds or thousands of threads, you organize your sections into a tree structure with repeat counts, and TempoWeave generates the complete expanded draft for you.

Think of it as a recipe builder for your design: "Start with the border (repeat 1), then the pattern (repeat 6), then the center (repeat 1), then the pattern again (repeat 6), then the border (repeat 1)." Section Assembly turns that recipe into a full draft with all the threading, treadling, and colors expanded.

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### Location

* **Ribbon**: Design tab > Section Assembly group > Section Assembly button (toggle)

The Section Assembly panel opens as a dockable tool window on the side of your workspace.

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### The Panel

#### Tabs

The panel has tabs for **Warp Assembly**, **Weft Assembly**, and optionally **Color Assembly**.

Each assembly tab has two panes:

#### Available Sections (Top Pane)

A read-only list of all sections you've marked using Section Markers. Each entry shows:

* **Name** — The section name you assigned
* **Range** — The thread/pick range (e.g., "1–24")
* **Threads** — The number of threads in the section

Right-click options:

* **Add to Assembly** — Adds the section to the assembly tree below
* **Rename** — Change the section name
* **Delete** — Remove the section

#### Assembly Tree (Bottom Pane)

The hierarchical tree where you build your design structure. This is where the composition happens. The tree can contain two types of nodes:

**Groups** — Folder-like containers that can hold sections or other groups. Each group has a repeat count — the entire group (all its children) repeats that many times.

**Sections** — References to your available sections, each with its own repeat count and thread range.

Columns shown:

* **Name** — Section or group name
* **Type** — "Section" or "Group"
* **Location** — Thread range (for sections)
* **Repeat** — How many times this node repeats
* **Threads** — Total thread count including all repeats

#### Toolbar

* **Add Group** — Create a new group node (prompts for name and repeat count)
* **Add Section** — Add a section from the available list
* **Move Up / Move Down** — Reorder nodes within the tree
* **Delete** — Remove the selected node
* **Refresh** — Update the display
* **Generate** — Create the expanded draft from the assembly
* **Print** — Print the assembly structure as a report

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### Building an Assembly

#### Adding Groups

Click **Add Group** to create a container. Give it a name (like "Full Pattern" or "Border Set") and a repeat count. Groups can be nested inside other groups for multi-level organization.

#### Adding Sections

Select a section from Available Sections and click **Add to Assembly** (or use the Add Section toolbar button). Each section added to the tree includes:

* **Name** — From the available section
* **Location** — The thread range to copy from (editable — you can adjust the range)
* **Repeat** — How many times to repeat this section (default 1)

#### Editing Nodes

Right-click any node in the tree (or double-click) to edit:

* **Name** — Change the display name
* **Repeat** — Change the repeat count (1–1,000+)
* **Location** — For sections, change the source thread range

#### Organizing

Use **Move Up** and **Move Down** to reorder nodes. Drag sections into and out of groups to build your hierarchy.

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### Color Assembly (Optional)

The Color Assembly tab lets you define a separate color structure that overrides the colors from the source sections during generation. This is useful when you want the same structural sections but with different color arrangements.

* **Add Color** — Pick a color from the palette and set a repeat count
* **Add Color Group** — Create a group for organizing color sequences
* **Copy Structure** — Copies the warp or weft assembly tree structure into the color tree as a starting template

If the Color Assembly is populated, it overrides section colors during generation. If left empty, the source section colors are used as-is.

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### Generating the Draft

The **Generate** button is where everything comes together. It reads your assembly trees and creates a new expanded draft:

#### What Happens During Generation

1. **Flatten the tree** — Groups are expanded by repeating their children according to repeat counts. Nested groups multiply: a group repeated 3× containing a section repeated 2× produces 6 copies of that section.
2. **Build the threading** — For each warp section in the flattened list, the threading from the source range is copied to the output, tiled according to the repeat count.
3. **Build the treadling** — Same process for weft sections — each section's treadling is copied and repeated.
4. **Copy the tie-up** — The tie-up from your current draft is used unchanged.
5. **Apply colors** — Either from the Color Assembly (if populated) or from the source sections.
6. **Create the output** — A new temporary WIF file is created and opened as an unsaved preview. You can review, edit, and save it.

A notification shows the result: "Generated: XXX warp × YYY weft threads."

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### How to Use It

1. **Mark your sections** using Section Markers (press M)
2. Open **Section Assembly** from the Design tab
3. Switch to the **Warp Assembly** tab
4. Build your warp structure:
   * Add groups for organizational levels
   * Add sections from the Available list
   * Set repeat counts
5. Switch to the **Weft Assembly** tab and build the weft structure
6. (Optional) Set up Color Assembly for custom color overrides
7. Click **Generate**
8. Review the generated draft
9. Save if satisfied

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### Step-by-Step Example: Assembling a Table Runner

You have a draft with marked sections: "Selvedge" (threads 1–6), "Border" (threads 7–20), "Pattern" (threads 21–40):

**Warp Assembly:**

1. Add Section: "Selvedge" (repeat 1)
2. Add Group: "Body" (repeat 1)
   * Add Section: "Border" (repeat 1)
   * Add Section: "Pattern" (repeat 3)
   * Add Section: "Border" (repeat 1)
3. Add Section: "Selvedge" (repeat 1)

**Weft Assembly:**

1. Add Section: "Header" (repeat 1)
2. Add Group: "Pattern Repeat" (repeat 8)
   * Add Section: "Pattern Unit" (repeat 1)
3. Add Section: "Footer" (repeat 1)

Click **Generate** — the result is a complete table runner draft with the border repeated on both sides of 3 pattern repeats, 8 treadling repeats, and selvedge threads on each edge.

### Step-by-Step Example: Quick Pattern Variations

You want to try different numbers of pattern repeats without re-threading:

1. Set up your assembly with sections and groups
2. Generate with Pattern repeat set to 4 — review the result
3. Go back to the assembly, change Pattern repeat to 6 — generate again
4. Compare the two drafts to decide which proportion looks best
5. Save the version you prefer

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### Tips

* **Mark sections first** — You must have sections marked before you can assemble them. Plan your section boundaries carefully.
* **Groups multiply** — A group with repeat 3 containing a section with repeat 2 produces 6 total copies. Repeats at every level compound.
* **Edit locations** — You can change a section's thread range in the assembly without changing the original section marker. This lets you reference different portions of the same section.
* **Generate creates a preview** — The generated file opens as unsaved, so you can review before committing. If you don't like the result, just close it and adjust your assembly.
* **Print for documentation** — The Print button creates a readable report of your assembly structure with thread counts — useful for project records.
* **Color Assembly is optional** — Only set up Color Assembly if you need different colors than what's in your source sections. Most of the time, the section colors work fine.
* **Thread limits apply** — The generated draft is subject to the same limits as any draft (5,000 warp threads, 40,000 weft picks). The Threads column in the tree shows running totals so you can plan accordingly.

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### Quick Reference

| Action      | How                                    |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Open panel  | Design tab > Section Assembly (toggle) |
| Add Group   | Toolbar button or right-click          |
| Add Section | Select from Available, add to tree     |
| Edit node   | Right-click > Edit (or double-click)   |
| Reorder     | Move Up / Move Down buttons            |
| Generate    | Toolbar Generate button                |
| Print       | Toolbar Print button                   |

| Tree Node Type | Purpose                                                    |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| Group          | Container with repeat count — holds sections or sub-groups |
| Section        | Reference to a marked section with repeat count and range  |

| Assembly Tab   | Controls                                |
| -------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| Warp Assembly  | Warp section organization and repeats   |
| Weft Assembly  | Weft section organization and repeats   |
| Color Assembly | Optional color overrides for generation |

This video shows an example of using section assembly to resize a draft:

{% embed url="<https://vimeo.com/1182376472>" %}