Chapter 2: Rigging a stage

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1 Connecting to a LanBox

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         3 Control Your Lights
         4 Cues and Chases
         5 Live- and Automated Shows
         6 Create and Edit Fixture Definitions
         7 Keys, CLI, keystrokes and macros

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A stage example

You can place as many fixtures and/or groups on the stage(s) as you want with the menu commands "New Fixture" and "Make Group". When your fixture is not in the library, use the nearest model, place separate generic channel fixtures, or create your own fixture with the LibraryEditor.

The fixtures (or groups) can be created, deleted and duplicated using menu commands or shortcuts. Selecting an item instantly changes the content of the control panel reflecting the state of the fixture or group.

Once a fixture or group is selected (e.g. with the k1 command) you can navigate selections by using cmd-opt- arrow up/down (on PC ctrl-alt-arrow up/dwn), you can even extent the selection by simultaneously pressing the shift key.

When you hold the control key, you get a popup menu with commands to Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear the background picture. The background can be moved with option(alt) (Apple) or control(PC) drag of the background picture.

Stage picture: Jon Daggett, Midilite

Place fixtures

As we are still staring to a complete empty stage, it's time to do some rigging (place fixtures). To keep it simple we are going to place just eight single dimmers, so here we go.

• • Do the menu command "New fixture", you will get a dialog window like the picture left. Select "Generic single dimmer channel", name it L01, and close the dialog. The stage has now one large icon called {1} L01. Select this icon and use the "View" menu command to change the appearance to "small icon + full indicators". Now do the Edit menu command "Duplicate Item" 7 times, you have now eight fixtures on your stage labeled {1}L01 through {8}L08.

• • Move the icons (by click-drag) in such a way that you get about the same as the picture right.
    

View Options (representation of fixtures)

From LCedit+ v3.3 it's possible to see the actual color and/or intensity of an RGB fixture.
The view menu offers the following options:

• Set the icon size to small
• Hide icon (label is shown)
• Hide label (icon is shown)
• Show intensity, position, color (whatever is appropriate for the fixture)
• Show/hide fixture numbering in label.
• Lock/unlock fixture position

These view options are very useful especially when dealing with modern RGB LED matrix setups, but also for e.g. a line of pars (lower 8 fixtures represented by the grey squares).

Some important notes

Place single channel fixtures (use RGB fixtures for LED panels) even if you use multi channel dimmer packs, or multi RGB panels! The multi channel packs in the library are intended for unknown multi channel fixtures, not for dimmer packs. You do not to fill in the blank channel and DMX fields, as they will be assigned automatically. Only if you want have the fixture at a certain light channel or DMX address, you can overrule the auto placement. The idea is to organize your fixtures in a way you can find them quickly and represents the real stage. When fixtures are placed on the stage there are assigned to channel numbers, but that can be changed in the fixture setup. Do not change the channel numbers once you have created cues, but use the "Edit Item" command of a fixture to match the DMX addresses of the fixtures with channels.

Groups

It's nice to have your fixtures on the stage window, but you also want to organize your lights in groups related to function. In our example we make one group of all 8 fixtures.

First select fixture L01, then use shift click to add the other 7 fixtures to the selection (make sure that the order of shift clicking is the same order as your fixtures.) When all 8 fixtures are selected, do the "Edit" menu command "Make Group", you will get a dialog window like the picture right. Name this group "GL1", check that all 8 fixtures in order in the right list, and click OK.

LCedit+ allows you to create almost any combination of (sub-) grouping in any way you want. Just select one or more fixtures (but also previous defined groups are allowed) and do the command "Make Group". When groups are placed on the stage they are assigned to merge and show only "Identical" panels, but also show intensity channels separately for easy overview.

In order to prove that the group GL1 is correct, select the group icon. If all went OK, your screen will look like the screen picture left, meaning we are ready to control some lights.

As you can see, the control window does show now a big Intensity wheel for the whole group, and 8 smaller wheels named L01-L08 for each individual fixture. Also, the Cast window (the top middle) now has 8 rows with the fixture name, it's light channel number, it's DMX address, and the used interface.

Selecting fixtures can be done on the stage, but also in the cast list. The cast list has the advantage that you can have it sorted on e.g. light channel numbers.

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-- FokkoVanDuin - 11 May 2007