M4L Presentation Mode and Device Layout

The #1 LLM failure mode for M4L is making a GUI that doesn't fit. The device strip is 169 pixels tall. There is no exception. Anything with y + h > 169 is clipped.

1. Device strip dimensions

Height: fixed at 169 px

Cycling '74's User Interfaces in Max for Live page states verbatim: "The height of all Live devices is fixed at 169 pixels." This has been stable from Max 5 through Max 9. There is no escape.

Practical cap: design content within y = 0..168. Recommend a 4–8 px top/bottom inset → usable inner box y = 8..160 (h ≈ 152 px).

Width: dynamic by default

Width is set via the patcher's devicewidth field (pixels). Two modes:

• Dynamic (default, devicewidth: 0.0): Live grows the strip just past the rightmost visible object.
• Fixed: set devicewidth to a positive integer pixel count. Or use Max's GUI: View → Set Device Width, after first setting zoom to 100% (zoom-affected sizing is a known footgun).

No documented hard max/min. The Ableton/Cycling '74 Production Guidelines recommend keeping width as small as possible — wide devices push neighbors off-screen in Live's Device View.