| How To: Create a Manual Timer Some users may wish to display their own timer that starts and stops at times of their choosing, rather than simply displaying the lap times from a data file. There are two ways to accomplish this: Option 1: Add a "Timer - Manual" Display to Your Project

- Click the Add button under the Display Objects section on the main screen, then select the Timer display type.
- Choose the Timer - Manual display style, and then the timer should appear on the screen.
- Optional: Use the Properties Box that appears on the right to customize it further and control when it starts and stops:

- Click on the Time: label at the top left to set when this timer display will first appear in your project.
- Click the Script Editor button, then click on the Background Script tab.
- Change the values for StartDelay, StartOffset, and StopTime to control when the timer first starts running (in seconds, relative to when its display is first shown), what initial value it starts with (in seconds; normally zero), and what displayed time it will stop at (in seconds).
- Adjust other options here, or on the properties box, to further customize the timer's appearance.

Option 2: Create a Timer Based on a Simple Data File
As a starting point, click here to download "Timer.csv"
The "Timer.csv" file is set to run the timer for 15 minutes (900 seconds). For optimal results, you should edit your saved copy of it and change the 900 number to be your completed lap/segment time (enter the number of seconds), but that is your option. The following row should be set to a value that is 10 or more seconds higher, as that allows the completed lap/segment time to be held on the screen for several seconds.
Add the file as an input in your RaceRender project, then cancel out of any data template menu that may appear. Now right-click on it in the Input Files list, select Create Display Object, and choose the Timer. You should now have a timer that starts running at the start of your project. To choose when it appears and starts running, use the Input File Synchronization Tool to set its Offset Within Project box to the desired time in your project.
If you do not edit the file to set the desired length, you can instead use the Trim Tool to shorten it, but that will not freeze the completed lap/segment time on the screen at the finish line like you would see if you had edited the data file instead.