5. Merge Bins

The Merge Bins tool is used to combine two or more Bins into one, in a very similar fashion to the Append Bins tool. The Merge Bins tool will merge information instead of adding it to the end of the first bin.

The tool is accessed from the sidebar icon:

When selected the following pane will open:

Similar to other tools in Altera, bins can be added by dragging and dropping, or by using the Add from File button. Any bins that are already open will already be loaded into the Merge Bins pane.

To remove a bin from this set, click the – button to the right of the bin.

If the bin you wish to work with is not loaded, it can be loaded by clicking the Add from File button.

A window will open where you can navigate to the required *.ALE file. Select the file, and it will be added to the Merge Bins pane, with a white icon (opened bins have a blue icon).

Select which column from the Bin you would like to use as an ID from the ID Field(s) drop down.

When you are ready to merge the Bin files, click the continue button to the bottom right of the Merge Bins pane. Altera will now combine the bins. A dialog may pop up advising of any errors, such as video format mismatch. You can either choose to ignore these or abort the process. If you wish to ignore all errors, click the apply to all checkbox.

You will now see a new dialog box pop up, telling you how many clips are to merge. You can either Append or ignore these. Again, check the checkbox to apply to all.

When Altera has merged the bins, you will be taken back to the main workspace, and the new Merged Bin will be active (with a yellow menu bar). You will notice the name of the new Bin is a combination of the two previous bins used.