Compiled @ September 06 2010 15:31:35 in 8 seconds

Topic: Welcome to grandMA2 series control system V2.

Topic: grandMA2 Series

grandMA2 Series - more than a console

With the grandMA, MA Lighting started a new era of highly developed lighting and visual control console platforms. On the one hand, these consoles can be used for stand-alone lighting control, on the other, they can work via Ethernet (MA-Net) as an integrated MA system network.

With the introduction of the grandMA2, MA Lighting took the next logical step. Offering vastly more powerful software and hardware, this series is again setting standards for the years to come.

The grandMA2 hardware may also be used with full compability and functionality of the series1 software.

For using the grandMA2 in compatibility mode, please refer to the latest grandMA series1 manual.

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Topic: Copyright & Disclaimer

Declaration of Conformity according to directives 2004 / 108 / EG

Manufacturer's name MA Lighting Technology GmbH
Manufacturer's address Dachdeckerstr. 16 D-97297 Waldbuttelbrunn Germany

declares that the product.

Product category Control unit
Name of product grandMA2 fullsize , grandMA2 light, grandMA2 ultra-light, grandMA2 wing
. .

complies with the following product specifications:

Safety EN60065, EN60950
EMV (EMC) EN55103-1 (E1), EN55103-2 (E2)
Additional information: DMX512, Ethernet, USB, MAlink, DVI, LTC, Audio IN, MIDI and analogue inputs must be shielded and the shielding must be connected to the earthing resp. to the housing of the corresponding plug.

Dipl. Ing. Michael Adenau

Copyright 2002-2010 MA Lighting Technology GmbH

The reproduction and distribution of the documentation and software and the use of its contents is subject to written authorization from MA Lighting Technology GmbH.

Trademarks

Windows XP ®, Windows Vista ®, and Microsoft ® are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Corp. All other names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Concept: About the Manual

grandMA2 Help System introduction

The grandMA2 Help system will eventually be available on the console by pressing Help Please.

These pages are also available online at www.grandma2.de/help

With each software-release, the latest version of the online pages is included in the console, however as the online version is constantly updated, expanded and refined, based on userfeedback from the grandMA2-forum and experiences from the software-team, the online-version may be slightly different from what you find inside your console.

Concepts

"What is .... ?". Concepts contains background information you should know to successfully work with the grandMA2 series consoles.

This section aims to give you a conceptual understanding of the philosophy behind the console, without digging deep into every little detail. With a conceptual understanding, you will have the knowledge needed to understand the technical information and facts found in the reference section.

Reference

The Reference section contains technical information - facts, descriptions and properties of each elements of the console.

This section is intended for look-up and reference, to expand the basic knowledge gained by the concept section

Tasks

"How do I .... ?" Allthough the concept and reference section should provide you with enough information to operate the console, the exact steps of some Tasks may not be obvious for all users.

This section contains step-by-step instruction for common tasks and procedures.

Tutorials

This section provides tutorials intended for training. While Tasks contains step-by-step instruction for single operations, the tutorials will guide you thru different scenarios from A-Z.

Reference: Basic terminology

Please refer to the Reference section for further descriptions of terms

Fixtures
Instruments, Luminaires, - devices controlled by the console
Channels
Fixtures that has been given a Channel-ID - usually a fixture with dimmer only
Attribute
Controllable functions of a fixture, e.g. pan or gobowheel3
Parameter
A specific attribute of a specific fixture, e.g tilt of fixture 5
Selection
A collection of fixtures, selected and ready for manual control
Activation
A collection of parameters, active and ready for storing
Programmer
The container for Selection, Activation and temporary parameter-values,
Parameter-values
Parameter-content in the form of Level/Value, Fade, Delay and/or Effect
Cue
A look on stage, stored within a Sequence
Sequence
A series of cues that run in a specific order. Other consoles may call this a Cue-list
Executor
A handle used to control and execute stored content, e.g a sequenceOther consoles may call this a Playback or Master
Store
Create data (i.e. a cue) in the showfile. Other consoles may call this function Record
Preset
A stored parameter setting, for easy access and reuse. Other consoles may call this a Palette
Effect
An overlayed table (e.g Sinus) that modulates the value of a parameter. Basic controls would be Table, Size, Speed and relative offset.

Concept: System Overview

Members of the grandMA2 family

grandMA2 full-size

grandMA2 light

grandMA2 ultra-light

grandMA2 faderwing

grandMA2 replay unit

MA NPU

grandMA2 onPC

Reference: Console Geography

  1. Screen 1 (Commandscreen)
  2. Screen 2
  3. Screen 3 (light & full-size)
  4. Screen 4 (full-size)
  5. Window Encoders
  6. Attribute Encoders
  7. Level Wheel - Dimmer - (light & full-size)
  8. Trackball - Pan/Tilt & Mouse
  9. Grand Master
  10. Fader Executors
  11. Button Executors
  12. Multipurpose User-keys ("X-keys")
  13. Main Executor
  14. Command Area
  15. Keyboard (light & fullsize)
  16. View/Viewpage Buttons
  17. Menu Keys
  18. Power Key

Reference: Console Backpanel

  1. Mains Switch
  2. Mains Input, PowerCon NAC3MPA, 120-230V 50/60Hz 350VA
  3. DMX Out A-F, 6 x XLR 5pin male
  4. DMX In, XLR 5pin female
  5. Ethernet 1+2, 2 x EtherCon RJ-45 10/100/1000 Base T-X
  6. External Monitor Left+Right, 2 x DVI-I Dual-Link
  7. DC Remote Input / pin configuration: pin 1-16 = input, pin 21 and 22 = +5V, pin 24 and 25 ground (gnd)
  8. MA-Link, DA-15 female
  9. USB, 2 x TypeA USB 2.0
  10. MIDI In+Out, 2 x DIN 5/180 female
  11. Audio In, XLR 3pin female, min 20mV
  12. LTC/SMPTE In, XLR 3pn female, min 200mV
  13. Reset Button
  14. Desklamp Outputs, 2 x XLR 4pin female, MA LED desklamp 4pin

Concept: grandMA2 philosophy

Concepts & philosophy of the grandMA2 series consoles

This section provide background information you should know to successfully work with the grandMA2 series consoles.

For step-by-step instructions for common tasks, and reference documentation of each element of the system, please look at the Tasks and Reference sections.

Concept: Basic Operation

Concept: Commandline

The command line is the fundamental way of communication between the console and the operator.

By the use of reserved words, keywords, and numerical identifiers, the operator may command the desk to perform any task, e.g Delete Effect 3 or Goto Cue 5. Every commandline has to be completed with the magic word Please, so the exact buttons to push for these examples would be Del Effect 3Please and Goto Cue 5 Please .

Please is not a keyword or part of the commandline, it is the button that sends the commandline to the console, so remember to be polite and add Please to any commandline examples you find in these pages.

Most commonly used keywords have a dedicated labeled key, while others may be accessed by a second (or third) press of the key. Some keywords may only be available from onscreen buttons, while all keywords may be typed manually with the keyboard.

You may always see what is currently being typed into the commandline, by looking at the teal-colored Commandline Input field displayed on both the command screen and the right monitor-wing screen:

[Channel]>Delete Group 4

Like in any language, words may be classified into different groups (i.e. verbs and nouns), and there are rules on how words may be combined, to form understandable expressions.

Object Keywords

Object Keywords are used in the commandline to reference objects in your showfile. Examples of object keywords could be Channel, Fixture, Effect, Preset. These keywords represent object-types, and are typically used together with a number/ID or a name/label, to point to specific objects: Channel 3, Fixture 10, Effect 4, Preset "Red".

Object keywords may be compared to nouns in human languages.

Functional Keywords

Functional Keywords are used in the commandline to perform a task or function. Examples of functional keywords could be Goto, Delete, LeaveSession. Functional keywords are often followed by an object, that the function/task should be applied to: Goto Cue 3, Delete Preset "Blue". Some functions are global and does not need an object as argument, e.g. Blackout.

Functional keywords may be compared to verbs in human languages.

Helping Keywords

Helping Keywords are used in the commandline to give relations to functions and objects. Examples of helping keywords could be At, Thru : Copy Cue 3 At Cue 5, Delete Effect 4 Thru 6.

Helping keywords may be compared to prepositions and conjunctions in human languages

General Syntax

The general syntax is [Function] [Object], or more specific [Function] [Object-type] [Object-IDs], however to speed up programming, parts of this syntax may be omitted, and will be replaced with default values by the console:

Store Cue 3 may be typed as Store 3 , as Cue is the default object-type for the function Store

Go+Macro 10 may be typed as Macro 10 , as Go+ is the default function for the object-type Macro

Capitalization & Abbrevations

The console does not distinguish between upper/lower case in keywords, this form is used merely to improve readability. Additionally, when entering commandline with a keyboard, it is inconvenient to have to type the whole keyword, so every keyword may be shortened to it's unique letter-combination

Store 3 may via the keyboard be typed as st 3

Macro 10 may via the keyboard be typed as ma 10

Default keyword

To speed up programming even more, the commandline has a default object keyword, which is used if you start your commandline directly with numbers. The default keyword is displayed in square brackets the start of the commandline:

[Channel]> 9

typing just 9 will refer to Channel 9, as Channel is currently the default keyword/object of the commandline. You may change this at any time, by entering the keyword and then press please.

Fixture Please

[Fixture]>

Concept: Touchscreens / GUI

The 9" and 15.4" touchscreens of grandMA2 forms a powerful userdefined GUI (Graphical User Interface)

The multiple screens on the grandMA are used both to display informational data to the user and also via their touch functionally, to produce input to the console.

The grey areas with light grey dots are the areas where user-definded windows may be arranged

Commandscreen

The bottom section of this screen contains label and softbuttons for the X-keys. The X-keys can control Button Executors, (List) or Views/Macros (User1 + 2). Additionally these act as hardkeys for options in pop-ups, menus and dialogs.

Right Screen

The bottom section of this screen contains the Encoder Toolbar which gives access to fixture attributes and object properties. In the bottom left corner is the Executor-label for the currently selected (Main) executor. Along the right hand side is 10 View-buttons for easy recall of different userdefined Window-arrangements

Left/Middle Screen (fullsize and light)

The bottom section of this screen contains the labels for the Fader and Button Executors. Along the right hand side is 10 View-buttons for easy recall of different userdefined Window-combinations

Concept: Views and Windows

What you see is what you want....

To get started, you may load a Demoshow with a simple set of Views with window arrangements , however to work efficiently with the console you should create your own views, optimized for your type of show, amount of fixtures, and your personal preferences regarding data-presentation

Window arrangements

Windows are created by pressing an empty space on your screen, and choosing type of window, from the Create Window dialog.

Windows may be moved by dragging the headline, and resized by dragging the lower right corner. After filling your screen with multiple windows, it could look something like this:

Window options

Every window has a yellow ball in the upper left corner, which may be used to access the Window Option dialog. Within the options dialog, you may select how the data is presented, fontsize, readout, special filters, toolbars etc.

Here is two examples of the same Window, Fixture Sheet , but with different options:

Views

Window arrangements and options, are stored in as Views. By pressing Store, and an empty Viewbutton on the right part of the screen, the console will create a new View, and assign the View to the button, for easy recall of the current arrangement.

Concept: Channels & Fixtures

Devices to control; Channels & Fixtures

The grandMA2 is a versatile control system, there are no predefined limitation of what type of fixtures it does control, e.g. "this desk controls 200 dimmers and 48 moving lights". With grandMA2 all fixtures to be controlled are defined in Setup Show , by the user.

Every fixture needs an identifier (ID) . grandMA2 has two different types/ranges of such, Channel ID & Fixture ID.

Channel

A fixture with a Channel ID will display its dimmer-attribute in the Channel Sheet window. Channel IDs are typically used with devices that only have one controllable parameter - Dimmer.

Fixture

A fixture with a Fixture ID will display all its attributes in the Fixture Sheet window. Fixture IDs are typically used with fixtures that have multiple controllable parameters - pan/tilt, color, gobo etc.

ID

A fixture must have either a Channel ID or a Fixture ID, - or both. Some operators prefer to give every fixture both the same Channel and Fixture ID, to be able to select number 5, not caring about if it is a Channel or a Fixture, while others prefer to separate and distinguish between the two types of fixtures. e.g Channel 5 (dimmer 5) is another fixture than Fixture 5 (Mac600 #5). A fixture can also have different Channel and Fixture IDs. This may be useful in situations where the designer would like to call fixtures by its location: Channel 35 (5th position on third truss), while the operator prefer to think of the fixture as first mac600, Fixture 601.

Subfixtures

In the later years, there has been an increase in products which actually are multiple fixtures in one housing, e.g. LED-battens, where you have multiple cells, and each cell has individual control of RGB. Such fixtures may be patched as one fixture, but nevertheless be accessed individually as Subfixtures. If a Thomas Pixel-line is patched and given the ID Fixture 5, merely selecting fixture 5 would adjust all 18 cells of this fixture. To adjust only cell #13, you select Fixture 5.13

Concept: Selection

To be able to adjust and manipulate fixtures, they need to be selected

Selecting via commandline

Selecting may be done with the commandline by i.e. pressing Fixture 5 Please . Multiple fixtures may be selected in one go by using the helping keywords +, - and Thru, e.g. Channel 2 Thru 10 - 4

To see your current selection onscreen, you need a Channel Sheet and/or Fixture Sheet window. Selected fixtures will have their name and number (ID) displayed with yellow text.

If your sheets are not large enough to display all fixtures, enable Fixture Sort in the top right corner, to move the selected fixtures to the top of the list

Selecting via GUI

With a Channel Sheet or Fixture Sheet window visible, you may select fixtures merely by touching their name or ID-number. Selecting a range is done with a "lasso": press on first fixture, move finger/mouse to last fixture, then release. To deselect via the GUI, press the - (minus) key first, then the name/ID in the sheet.

Cancel current selection

To de-select all selected fixtures press the Clear key once.

Concept: Attributes

Every fixture/channel has a minimum of one, but possibly multiple parameters to be controlled. These parameters are classified as Attributes, and may be adjusted and manipulated via the Encoder Toolbar , once the fixtures are selected.

A generic dimmer typically has only one attribute - "Dimmer" while an advanced Moving Light may have 30+ different attributes. To effectivly work with a high number of attributes, Attributes are grouped in Features, which again are grouped in Preset-types.

Example:

A fixtures's parameter for rotating the gobos on the second gobowheel, would be the Attribute "Gobo2 Rot", of the Feature "Gobo2" of the Preset-type "Gobo"

A fixtures's parameter for adjusting its intensity, would be the Attribute "Dimmer", of the Feature "Dimmer" of the Preset-type "Dimmer"

Accessing attributes

The top row of the Encoder Toolbar will display one button for each Preset-type existing in your Showfile. Pressing this button puts the attributes of the first feature, on your encoders. If the Preset-type contains multiple features, or more than 4 attributes per feature, these amy be accessed via the rightmost button in the second row.

Adjusting attributes

The encoders have three basic functions:

Encoder Turn
Value adjustment up/down
Encoder Push&Turn
Fast value adjustment up/down
Encoder Click
Open dialog for numeric entry, predefined slot-values or attribute options

Special attributes

Some attributes and features have dedicated controls to enable faster and/or easier access to adjustments

The most obvious is the level wheel next to the numeric keypad, which is allways linked to the dimmer attribute, and the Trackball which is linked to Pan&Tilt, unless it is in Mouse-mode.

Additionally some features like Colormix and Shapers have grahical tools on the multitouch commandscreen.

Concept: Programmer

Your current Selection of fixtures, and the values of any manually adjusted attributes resides in the Programmer

Active parameters

Active parameters are displayed in the fixture and channel Sheet with a dark red background. By default when creating/storing Cues and Presets, the console will take the Active parameters.

Parameters gets automatically activated when you adjust them in the programmer. For convenience the console will also activate related parameters, so if you adjust the attribute Pan, then Tilt will also be included.

Concept: Groups

Groups are collections of fixtures, used for selection.

Commonly used combinations of fixtures may be stored as Groups.

To create a group, select the desired fixtures, e.g Channel 1 Thru 5 - 4 then enter Store Group 3 .

Channel 1, 2 3 and 5, may now be selected by just entering Group 3 .

Multiple Groups may be combined in one commandline, also with the Channel and Fixture keyword. i.e. Group 1 Thru 4 - Channel 3 + Fixture 7

Groups are merely shortcuts for selecting fixtures:

Group 5 At 50 , Store Cue 3 will set the fixtures in Group 5 to 50%, not Group 5 to 50, so any later changes to Group 5 will not be reflected in Cue 3.

Your groups are displayed in the Group Pool Window.

With the Group Pool window, you can select groups merely by pressing the tile in the pool, - and create groups, by pressing Store in advance.

Groups also remember the order of the selection. Fixture 1 + 2 is not exactly the same as Fixture 2 + 1. The order of a selection is important when applying effects and value-ranges, which will be distributed along the selection

Concept: Labeling

Every object in your showfile may be given descriptive names/labels to eliminate the need to remember numbers. .

Giving Names

The command for labeling is Label [Object] , - the Label keyword is access by pressing two times on the Assign key, so the exact keystrokes for giving group 3 a name, would be Assign Assign Group 3 Please, and then enter the name in the popup dialog.

If you are labeling a pool-object (i.e a group), and the pool and the object has focus (white square around the object), you can enter a new label just by start typing with the keyboard.

This Direct labeling of object with focus, enables you to enter the name directly after selecting or storing via pool-windows.

Direct labeling also work in the Cue-lists when focus is on the cue-name.

Using Names

In addition to being informative when displaying data in pools and sheets, names may also be used in the commandline to access the objects.

[Channel]>Group Pars At 50

Selects group 2 and set it to 50%. If the name includes white-space or reserved words (keywords), the name must be enclosed in quotes Group "All Macs" At 50 .

Concept: Presets

A preset holds information about attribute-values for a selection of fixtures, and may be referenced and re-used in cues.

The idea of Presets is to store a labeled reference in a cue, rather than the actual value itself.

Example:

After positioning Fixture 1 thru 3 at the Piano, rather than storing the actual pan&tilt attributevalues into the cue, these values are stored as Preset "Piano" and the Cue only contains that fixture 1 thru 3 should point at "Piano".

The advantage of this concept is that if the piano (or fixtures) is moved, you only have to update the Preset "Piano" even if you have used the fixtures at this position in multiple cues. Another surplus is that in your fixturesheet you may see that pan and tilt is at Piano, and not just a numeric value or deflection in degrees.

Preset types

Presets are divided into different types, each by default collecting related attributes. e.g. Pan, Tilt belong to the Preset-type Position, while ColorWheel and CMY belong to the Preset-type Color etc.

Concept: Cues & Sequences

A look on stage may be stored as a Cue.

Fixture parameters adjusted to different values, together form "looks" on stage, which may be memorized by the console as Cues.

Cues are organized in Sequences, and are played back by Executors. - A simple analogy would be that your Cue is a song/track, the Sequence is an Album/CD, and your Executor is your CD/DVD player.

This means that you cannot have a Cue without a Sequence, and you cannot use your Cue/Sequence without assigning it to an Executor. Sounds complicated, but this process is automated. If you press Store then any button of an empty Executor, the console will automatically create a new sequence, assign the sequence to your executor, and add first cue, Cue 1.

In addition to contain values for each included parameter, a Cue also includes properties for when and how to recall the cue, like Trigger source/time, Fade and Delay times etc.

A cue may further be divided into Parts , to apply different timing to groups of fixtures or parameters.

Concept: Tracking

Tracking is the principle to just memorize the changes from one cue to the next..

Rather than taking a complete snapshot from stage for each cue, a tracking console will put just the values into a cue which differ from the previous look. This follows the way a designer would think about his cues as well as it saves console's processing power and memory.

Quite simply, tracking is the idea that once a parameter is set to a level, it stays there until it is told to go somewhere else.

e.g.

The actual content of Cue 2 is just to turn on the frontlight, - Cue 2 does not contain any data for the backdrop. However, when playing back Cue 2, the blue backdrop will stay on, and the result, the state of Cue 2, becomes guitarplayer with a blue background. The blue background is tracking to the next cue.

Concept: Effects (1.4)

Effects are dynamic values generated by repeatably alternating between two different values according to a given waveform.

The output-value of any attributes may be dynamically generated by applying two values and a waveform, where the bottom of the curve represents the first value, and the top of the curve represents the second value:

With the means of these three parameters, the output-value will start oscillating at the given rate:

Furthermore by aligning the phase , where to start on the curve, you may achieve a continuous organic flow:

Effect-values may be stored directly into your cues as discrete values, or to the Effect-pool for referenced reuse, similar to Presets.

Concept: Executor

Executors are handles used to control and execute stored content.

The most obvious use for an executor is to assign a sequence of cues for playback, however executors may also be used as handles for other objects, e.g. a physical button of a specific macro, a speedfader for a group of chasers or to control the intensity of the gooseneck worklights on the console.

Executors are arranged in Pages. This enables you to easy get a new set of executors merely by changing page.

Changing page will not load new content into your physical Executors, like on some other consoles. Changing page just instructs the console to display another set of Executors on your physical hardware. This enables you to have executors from multiple pages active and running at once.

There are two types of executors, Fader Executors and Button Executors.

Fader Executors

Fader Executors have 4 controls: one fader and 3 buttons (2 above fader, one below). Depending on console type and wings attached, you may have direct physical access to up to 90 Fader Executors at once. These Executors are labeled from 1 and up.

Button Executors

Button Executors have only one control: a button. Depending on console type and wings attached, you may have direct physical access to up to 110 Button Executors at once. These Executors are labeled from 101 and up

Soft Executors

Even if your hardware-setup do not support 90 + 110 physical Executors, you may still access and use all 200, via onscreen faders and buttons.

Button and Fader functions

The function of each button and fader of an Executor may be freely assigned, to suit the needs for your style of operating, type of show, and functionallity of assigned object.

Typical button functions could be Go, Pause or Flash, while fader function could be Master (intensity), Speed or Crossfade.

Concept: Backup

With backup you can save and load your show. You can also change settings for a file server, an automatic saving interval and save the show to external drives.

Concept: System Setup

Concept: Fixture Schedule

In Fixture Schedule you define the types and number of fixtures used in your show.

The process of building your fixture schedule consist of importing FixtureTypes from the Library, and adding quantities of these types into your showfile.

The Fixture Schedule may be segmented into multiple Layers, to simplify navigation within setups with large amount of fixtures and or different fixture-types.

Fixture-types Library

The grandMA2 comes with an extensive library of fixture-types from known (and unknown) manufacturers.

Generic fixture-types like ordinary dimmer channels, simple RGB LEDs, scrollers etc may be found via the manufacturer "Generic"

Altering fixture types must be done in the Fixture Schedule, and any changes first takes place when you exit. If in a session, the new schedule will be uploaded to all other stations

Fixture & Channel ID

To be able to program the fixtures defined in the Fixture Schedule they need to given either a Channel ID a Fixture ID - or both. Without any ID's you will not be able to program the fixtures, but as opposed to deleting the fixtures, removing ID's we keep existing data in your showfile.

Altering ID's must be done in the Fixture Schedule, and any changes first takes place when you exit. If in a session, the new schedule will be uploaded to all other stations

DMX Patch

To be able to control (and visualize) the fixtures they need to be patched to a given DMX address and Universe.

The grandMA2 supports patching to 256 different universes, and address & universe are given in the format universe.start_address e.g. 1.1 = first address of first universe, 256.512 = last address of last universe

The DMX-patch does not have to be edited within the Fixture Schedule. The patch may be altered at any-time via the Fixture Sheet or Commandline.

Fixture Positions

By placing each fixture with XYZ in a three-dimensional environment, the fixtures may be visualized in the Stage Window (wire-frame) and via a connected PC running grandMA3D (realistic).

Fixture Positions does not have to be edited within the Fixture Schedule. the positions may be altered at any-time via the Stage Window

Concept: Extended Operation

Concept: Networking

A network can be a simple thing as a computer with onPC and a 2Port Node, your console and some Artnet devices, or a massive network with hundreds of stations, Video servers, dimmers, 3D visualizers and nodes.

The grandMA2 series is designed for networking. Beeing in a network is the normal situation. Even if the console is all alone on the network, it will run happily with all the network functionallity.

Every console has two Ethernet ports at the back:

Ethernet 1
Used for MA-Net and other Multicast protocols - e.g. sACN
Ethernet 2
Used for Broadcast protocols (currently used for ArtNet only)

Networking is enabled by Starting (or joining) a Session via MA Network Control, under the Setup>Netwok tab.

A session is a group of stations, communicating and sharing data within a network. There may coexist 32 different Sessions within the same Network.

Additional members/stations in the session may be added and removed via the MA Network Configuration, under the same tab.

DMX Streaming over Ethernet is configured under the DMX-protocols menu

Concept: Multi User

Multi users allows you to be several programmers (or users) working together on the same show.

By the use of user-login with userprofile, each operator may tailor the console to his/her nees, with individual Views, default settings and programmer. In a session with multiple stations/console, the operator may log into any console and be "home".

Concept: Timecode

synchronisation with external sources

There are different types of timecodes. The grandMA2 accepts LTC (Linear TimeCode) also known as SMPTE and MTC (MIDI TimeCode). The purpose of timecode is to synchronize the light with other type of medias (e.g. sound and/or video).

Concept: Stage Window and grandMA 3D

inbuilt and external visualizers

By entering 3-dimensional data of your fixtures location, their operation may visualized internally via the stage-window (wire-frame), and externally via a networked computer running grandMA 3D (realistic)

Learn more about the inbuilt Stage-View by following the related links at the bottom, and check out the manual of grandMA 3D here

Concept: Layouts

Topographical layouts - magic sheet

Layouts are interactive 2 dimensional drawings where you may freely arrange channels fixtures, draw shapes and write text, add macros presets or other objects.

Via the Layout Pool, you may create multiple layouts for each part of your stage

Concept: Bitmaps

Bitmaps, or Bitmap effects, are threedimensional pixelmapping used to generate dynamic effects from animating image-files.

Oridinary pixelmapping has been limited to overlay a twodimentional image, with a twodimentional representation of your fixures, and map corresponding pixels to fixtures. However, in real life your fixtures are not neccessarily located in one flat plane, and your audience does not neccessarily have a direct 90 degrees viewing angle of your "plane" with fixtures.

grandMA series2 has taken pixelmapping to the next level:

Every fixture's position in 3D space may be considerd a pixel of a virtual 3-dimensional canvas/screen.

Onto this screen (or a selection of it) you can from any angle/position virtually "project" an image, and animate its position rotation and size.

Concept: Worlds

Worlds are used to limit the number of parameters you have access to. This is essential in a multi-user session but may also be useful for a single operator.

Worlds are created in the programmer, and stored in the World Pool. Worlds may be thought of as matrix with rows (fixtures) and columns (attributes), and you may eliminate rows and/or columns

The created world will contain the rows of the current selection, and the columns of any active attribute. If no attributes were active, all columns will be included in the created World.

Example:

Select Fixture 1 Thru 5 , Store World 3, call World 3 .

You will now only have programming access to fixture 1 thru 5, (which is reflected by the Fixture Sheet Window)

If you now with World 3 active, i.e Delete Cue 3 , you would only delete fixture 1 thru 5 from Cue 3. - if Cue 3 contains more fixtures than 1-5, the cue will not be deleted as a whole.

World 1 contains all parameters of the show, and cannot be altered or deleted

Concept: Macros

A Macro is a userdefined list of commandline entries, used for automation of complex and/or repetitive tasks.

In addition to the traditional macros of series1, grandMA2 macros may be used as a scripting language, with possebilities to create dialogs for user-input, conditional execution of macrolines, - interacting with the users current commandline, or as parallell execution, not interfering with the commandline.

Macros may be executed directly from the Macro-pool, or be assigned to any Executor, View or X-key User button, for direct hardkey access.

When CLI is disabled for a macro, the actual press of the Macro will no longer interact with your commandline, but directly execute its content. This means that i.e to edit or delete this object you cannot just press the command and then the button, you will need to type the actual keyword and ID. e.g. Edit Macro 5 to edit macro 5 or Delete ViewButton 11.5 to remove the macro from the User1 X5-button). By disabling the CommandLineInteraction of the actual buttonpress, you can make the content of the macrolines interact, by the use of the @-sign.

Example:

SetVar $answer= ("your flash buttons to be 1 -above- or 2 -below- the faders?")

SetVar $button = [$answer==1] ExecButton2 [answer==2] ExecButton1

Assign Flash at $button 1 Thru 30

Concept: Agenda

The agenda is a calendar system, that allows you to run a user-defined command at a certain time. This can be a specific time (e.g. at 5 o'clock) or a more variable time (e.g. at sunset).

The Agenda is primary intended for architectual installation, however you can also use it to remind you to take coffee breaks or other reminders.

Concept: Telnet & Commandline browsing

Editing show-data solely via commandline entries

Whatever you do with the command line, you are accessing a database that represents your current show file. The structure of that database is a tree. By default when using the commandline, you are at the root of the tree, and you commands will be directed to the correct branch, by the content of your command. In some situations at may be convenient to direct your commands to a specific part of the tree.

This may be achieved with the command CD (Change Destination).

If your destination is not the root, the Commandline Response window will automatically be opened, and the Commandline input field will display the destination as a prefix of the commandline

Edit Setup/FixtureTypes>

In the situation above, Store 1 will create FixtureType 1, rather than the usual Cue 1.

When your commandline is directed to a specific destination, you can still do normal operations, however shorthand entry no longer work, you need to enter the full syntax Store Cue 1 to create Cue 1

Keywords

Store
Create new data/object at the current destination
Delete
Destroy/remove data/object at the current destination
List
Display data at the current destination
CD
Change Destination
Assign
Set values to object properties and create cross-references between objects

Concept: Remote Trigger

DMX, MIDI and contact closures may be used as external triggers

Trigger sources

Concept: Tutorials

This is the tutorial section.

The tutorials here are designed to help you understand how the console works.

They start with the Basic tutorials and then moves into more specific areas (still work in progress).

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1

A short tutorial about creating a new show, patching dimmers, changing their values, making groups and creating simple cues in a sequence.

Welcome to this first Tutorial

This will give you a short tour through all the most basic things you need to know for creating a show, turn on channels, make groups, store cues and make your screens display the relevant data.

On a grandMA there are many different ways to get from A to B. But to get the best result with this tutorial, it’s important that you follow the steps fairly precise. You can always experiment on your own afterwards.

Mark-up in the tutorial.

I have chosen to use different markings when I want you to do different things.

If I need you to press a hard key (a key that is physically on the desk) it looks like this: Setup. If I’m just referring to the button I will put it in single quotation marks e.g.: 'Setup'.

If you are supposed to press a button on the screen or a area on the screens I will write it like this >>Macro 1<<.

If you are supposed to write text on the keyboard I will write it like this: Moving light. I will often tell you to end a command with 'Please'. This referrers to any of the two Please keys on the console (only one on the UltraLight).

When referring to a window on a screen you have created, I will mark it like this: CommandLine Feedback.

onPC vs. Console.

If you are doing this on an onPC , you need to imagine all the physical buttons, and use the relevant buttons in the program. I will write this as if you where at a real console (a FullSize).

A real FullSize console can have up to 6 screens (incl. 2 external). I will refer to them as "Screen 1", "Screen 2", etc.

Screen 1 is the 9" Multi Touch Screen. Screen 2 to 4 is the 15.4" touch screens on a FullSize (from right to left). 5 and 6 are the external screens.

If you are at a desk that only got one 15.4" touch screen, just ignore everything with screen 3 and 4. You will learn to store and recall screen views on the one screen you have. The same thing applies for the external screens. If you don’t have any, just use the one screen you do have.

Version

This tutorial is made on version 1.3. So it should be working on every version from and above this.

Happy Programming.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Create a New Show

Now we are going to create a new empty show.

The first this you need to do is the press the Backup key. Then make sure the >>Internal<< tab is selected.

Now press the >>New Show<< button.

This gives you the "New Show" pop-up. Here you can write the name of the show and change some options.

In the name box, write your name followed by this: _Tutorial_Basic1

Make sure you check all the boxes in the pop-up. This ensures that we create a new empty show with all default options.

Your pop-up should look something like this (I used the name "John Doe"):

Then you can press the >>Please<< button and close the "Backup" menu by pressing the yellow X in the upper right corner (this is how you always closes temporary windows.

You have how created a new empty show.

Go to the next page to learn to patch dimmers.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Patching Dimmers

Now we are going to add and patch 40 dimmer channels.

Do you want a show without lights? No, not really! I’ve made a simple design with some general stage wash.

This gives us a total of 40 dimmer channels. Press the Setup key and make sure the >>Show<< tab is selected. The press the >>Patch & Fixture Schedule<< button.

This gives you a pop-up is called "Layer Name". Here you write: Dimmers followed by a 'Please'.

Then a part of your screen should look like this:

Now you should press the button called >>Please select fixturetype<<.

Now we are going to import a fixture type from the library on the desk to the show.

Press the >>Add Fixturetypes from Library<<.

This is a list of all the fixture types in the library. We are going to use the manufacture filter to limit the list.

At the bottom of the page you'll find a box named "Manufacturer Filter". Here you write: generic.

Now you can only see the generic fixture types. At the bottom you'll also see a box called "Fixture filter", here you write dim.

The list is now limited to only display generic fixtures that has "dim" in its name.

Select the one called "generic@dimmer@00.xmlp".

The bottom of your screen should now look like this:

Press the >>Ok<< button and then the >> 'Dimmer'1 << button.

Now you'll get a series of pop-ups that help you adding new fixtures.

The first one asks for the quantity of fixtures. Write: 40 followed by a 'Please'.

Now it asks for the Channel ID. Write: 1 followed by a 'Please'. This gives the first dimmer an ID number of 1, the second one an ID of 2, etc.

Then you need to give your first dimmer a Fixture ID. We don't want a fixture ID so write 0 followed by a 'Please'.

Now we need to give the first dimmer a patch. Write: 1.1 followed by a 'Please'. This places the first fixture in universe 1 and DMX channel 1.

Now you are almost ready to add the fixtures. We just need to edit the name. Just press where it says >>Dimmer<< in the box called "Name".

Then you write: Dim 1 followed by a 'Please'. This names your dimmers "Dim 1", "Dim 2", etc.

Now it should look like this:

Press the >>Apply<< button. You have now added 40 dimmer channels.

Close the two setup screens using the yellow X.

On the next page we are going to look at controlling those channels.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Using Windows and Screens

Now we are going to have a look at windows.

Commandline Feedback Window

Often it can be a advantage to see how the console reacts to your commands. This is done on the Commandline Feedback window.

We are going to create this window at the bottom of screen 2 (the 15,4" touchscreen on the right side).

Press anywhere in the upper left corner on the empty screen. This gives you the "Create Basic Window" pop-up. Here you need to press the >>Other<< tab. Here you'll find a >>Command line<< button. Press it.

Now you have created a Commandline Feedback window.

It continually gives you a lot of information. Don't be confused about all the information, I'll tell you about it when you need it.

You can resize the window by pressing the area in the lower right side of the window (where there are a lot of yellow dots).

The window can be moved by pressing and holding the headline of the window (where it has a yellow ball and the "Commandline Feedback" text).

Now you should size and move your window so it takes up three whole lines at the bottom of the screen.

Channel Sheet

To view your 40 channels you need a Channel Sheet window.

Press the upper left corner on screen 2. Then select the >>Sheets<< tab in the "Create Basic Window" and then the >>Channel<< button.

You have now created a Channel Sheet. Here you can see your channels and the values they have.

Your screen should now look something like this:

Storing View

You can store your view on any of the view buttons in the side of your screen.

Now we are going to store our view on the top button just right to screen 2.

Press Store key followed by the V1 key.

This gives you a pop-up. It asks which screens you want to store. Without changing anything press the >>Please<< button.

You have now created a view. Let's give it a name.

Press Assign key twice followed by the V1. This gives you a pop-up. Here you write: Channel followed by a 'Please'.

You can see in your Commandline Feedback window writes this:

:Processed:Label ViewButton 1.1

This tells you that you have given your view a new label.

On the next page we are going to learn about controlling the values of the channels.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Controlling Channels

We are now going to take a look at controlling dimmer channels.

Turning on the channels.

There are many ways to turn on your channels on a grandMA. Let's begin with one of the simple ones. Press thise hardkeys: 1 At 1 0 0 Please. You have now turned on channel 1 at 100%. Let's look at what else happened. The channel ID "1" has changed to a yellow color and the background behind the value has changed to a red color. Also the value (in this case the intensity) is now in a red color. The yellow color means that the channel is selected and you can change the value. Press At 5 0 Please. Since the channel is already selected you can just give it a new value and it is now at 50%. Now press Clear once. Channel 1 is no longer selected and you can't just change the intensity again. The red background color indicates that the value will be saved if you press 'Store' (don't do it now). Instead press once more on Clear. The only thing left is the value in the red color. This means that it's still in the temporary memory (called the programmer), but it will not be saved if you store. Press Clear once more. Now channel 1 is turned off and it's not in the programmer anymore. Instead of pressing the 'Clear' button 3 times you can keep it pressed for about 1 second and you have cleared the programmer.

There are other ways to turn a channel at 100%. Here's another example: 1 At At. This is a shortcut to give the channel a value of 100%. Press . twice. This gives channel 1 a value of 0%. You can of course also use "At 0 Please". The value is in the programmer and will be stored (if you save a cue). Press Clear until the programmer is cleared. If you have several channels in the programmer and just what to "release" one, you can use the 'Off' button in combination with the 'Channel' button. Turn on channel 1 at 100%. Now press Off Channel 1 Please. The final way (I will introduce to you) is the "Level" wheel. With this you can change the value fast and simple. Turn it away from you and the value of the selected channels goes up. Turn it towards yourself and it goes down.

If you want to turn on several channels at the same time you need the buttons '+' and/or 'Thru'. They are pretty self-explanatory. Guess what you need to press to turn on channel 1 to 10 plus 20 at 20%. This is the fast way: 1 Thru 1 0 + 2 0 At 2 0 Please. If you want to exclude channels you can use '-' (minus). So if you want to give channel 1 to 10 plus 20 but minus 5 a value of 0%, this is the fastest way: 1 Thru 1 0 + 2 0 - 5 . . .

You can also use '+' and '-' to change the value. 5 At + 3 0 Please. This brings channel five up to 50%. 5 At - 5 0 Please. Brings the channel down to 0%.

Now you know how to assign values to channels. End this section by clearing your programmer.

On the next page we are going to look at Groups.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Group

Now it's time to have a look at groups.

Groups Pool

Since we are going to make some groups it would be practical to be able to see them.

I find it nice to have it at the same screen (since there's room). So I suggest making the Channel Sheet one line smaller and then press the empty space on the left side.

Again we are presented with the "Create Basic Window" pop-up. This time you need to access the >>Pools<< tab. Here we find the >>Groups<< button. Now you got some empty group buttons right at your fingertips. You could store this as a new view (or store your existing view again).

The first group

All the odd numbers in our light plot have a warm color and all the even ones have a cold color. We are going to make some groups with those colors. The first one is all the warm colors from front of house. Press: 5 + 7 + 9 + 1 1 Please . Now you have selected channel 5, 7, 9 and 11. Then press Store followed by the first available group button. Groups cannot contain any value so we don't need to assign any.

Before you do anything else, use your keyboard to write: FOH Warm. Should you have touched anything else (buttons, screens, anything) before typing, you can use a different method to name things (e.g. groups). The function is called "Label" and you access it by pressing the 'Assign' key twice. Do that and then press the first group button again. Now you have the option to change the name, delete it, or type it for the first time. When you are happy press Please”.

Look at your Channel Sheet. Here you can see that the numbers 5, 7, 9 and 11 have the yellow color, meaning that they are still selected. We are done with those four channels, so press the 'Clear' key once.

11 more groups

All right, now I have told you everything you need to know about making groups. In all we need 12 groups. I have gathered all the information you need for making the groups in a table. You have already made group 1, but the rest is a nice little exercise.

Group number: Channels: Name:
1 5 + 7 + 9 + 11 FOH Warm
2 17 + 19 + 21 + 23 LX1 Warm
3 25 + 27 + 29 + 31 LX2 Warm
4 33 + 35 + 37 + 39 LX4 Warm
5 1 + 3 + 13 + 15 Box Warm
6 All uneven numbers All Warm
7 6 + 8 + 10 + 12 FOH Cold
8 18 + 20 + 22 + 24 LX1 Cold
9 26 + 28 + 30 + 32 LX2 Cold
10 34 + 36 + 38 + 40 LX4 Cold
11 2 + 4 + 14 + 16 Box Cold
12 All even numbers All Cold

When you are done, your group pool should look something like this:

On the next page we will make the first cue.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Storing the First Cue

It's time to make the first cue.

A light cue is saved in a sequence. The grandMA can handle an almost unlimited number of sequence.

We only need one for this tutorial. All cue numbers are in numeric order i.e. cue number 4 cannot be before cue number 3. But the cue can have any name.

First of all we need a window where we can see our sequence. Click on the top left cell on one of your empty screens. If you only have one screen you need to clear it first (by deleting the windows already there) and then press the cell.

The window we need is called Sequence Executor, so in the "Create Basic Window" pop-up, select the >>Sheets<< tab and press the button called >>Sequence Executor<<. You could save this as a (new) view.

The first thing you should do is to select the first executor. Press:Select Exec 1 . You can always locate your selected fader by its green background color where it says "Seq". And to indicate that there is a sequence assigned to that fader the number underneath the fader is brighter. The green LED is on when the executor is on.

Let’s make our first cue. Press: 2 0 At 4 0 Please. Then Store Please. That was it! You have now saved channel 20 at 40% in cue 1 in sequence 1 at executor fader 1.

If you don’t specify anything else the console assumes you are referring to your selected executor and the sequence assigned to that executor. You can always locate your selected excutor by its green background color where it displays the sequence name (now it says "Seq 1").

You also got a line in your Sequence Executor window. Most of the columns are self-explanatory - but I will mention some of them. "Number" is of course the cue numbers. "Name" is the name. "Trig" describes what triggers the cue. If we look at our first cue, the trigger is "Go". This means that to execute the cue you need to press a Go key. "Delay", "Fade", "Out Delay" and "Out Fade" shows you the respective times.

Before we make any more cues, let’s change the cue name. If you don’t specify anything the desk names it "Cue". Press Assign Assign Cue 1 Please. Use the keyboard to write Behind Curtain followed by a 'Please'. A different way to change the cue name is to right click on the name with the mouse. No matter what way you choose - your first cue should now have the name "Behind Curtain".

If you can't see the entire name you can expand the column width by placing the mouse curser on the line that divides "Name" and "Trig". When you are at the right place, your curser changes so it now also has a little horizontal double ended arrow. Click and hold the left mouse button while you drag the mouse to your right. Then release the mouse button again. Now your Sequence Executor window should look something like this:

On the next page we are going to create more cues.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Creating More Cues

Now we are gonna make more cues.

Making more cues.

Let’s make some more cues. Press: 2 0 + 2 8 At 8 0 Store Cue 2 Time 1 5 Please . That created cue 2 with a fade time on 15 seconds. Let’'s continue with cue 3. Now we’re going to use the groups and the command line.

You need to locate the Command Line. It looks like this:

[Channel]>

This is the CommandLine. It can be a fast way to get around the console and the commands. But sometime the keys are fastest. In the CommandLine type this:

[Channel]> g 1 + 2 at 75

followed by Please . Then type:

[Channel]> g 3 t 5 at 60

followed by Please . Now let's have a look at the commandline feedback and how the console has responded (please don't press any buttons).

What does all this mean? "g" is a short cut to "Group". That means the respond to the first line is:

:Processed:Group 1+2 at 75

The "t" in the second line as a short for "thru". The console respond to the second line is:

:Processed:Group 3 thru 5 at 60

We are gonna store the cue using the hardkeys: Store Time 2 0 Time 2 5 Please. This is the response from the console:

:Processed:Store BasicFade 20 BasicOutFade 25

Now why is this? We typed "Time 20 Time 25". The desk interprets this as 20 seconds (Basic)Fade and 25 seconds (Basic)OutFade. Pretty clever, huh?

Notice that after the second cue we don't need to specify the cue number. The desk automatically uses the next available number.

In cue 4 we need to take 30% of everything that is on. We do this in a fast and easy way: If Please At - 3 0 Store Time 1 0 Please .

That was fast! By using "If Please" you get the command "IfOutput", this selects everything that has output. Then using "At - 30" you subtract 30% from whatever value the channels had before (of course nothing less than 0%).

Now we're going to make a lot of changes: Group 6 . . Group 9 Thru 1 1 At 6 0 Please Group 7 + 8 At 7 5 Store Time 1 5 Time Time 5 Please .

What is "Time 15 Time Time 5"? If you have a look at your Command Line Feedback” it reads: "BasicFade 15 BasicDelay 5". This means that you told the desk to delay the execution of the cue with 5 seconds after you've pressed the "Go" button (and then fade at 15 seconds - but you probably guessed that).

With the "Time" command we can assign many different times. A command like: "Time 20 Time 15 Time 10 Time 5" the desk translates to: "BasicFade 20 BasicDownFade 15 BasicDelay 10 BasicDownDelay 5"!

The last cue we are going to make is a blackout. And we do that with only five button presses: If . . Store Please . That was our 6 cues. It was hopefully fast and painless.

The next page we are going to make some changes to the sequence.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 1 - Editing the Sequence

Now we are going to make some changes to the sequence.

Making a "Follow"

We would like to change cue 3 to automatically activate when cue 2 is done. You do this by right-clicking with the mouse (or pressing Edit and then) on the screen where it says "Go" in "Trig" column in the Sequence Executor sheet in cue 3.

This gives you a drop down box with the following choices: Go, Time, Follow, Sound & BPM. Select >>Follow<< by clicking or pressing it.

Then when cue 2 is done the desk automatically activates the fade to cue 3.

Changing the cue names.

Let's change the cue names. You know how to do this, so I just made a table:

Cue Number: Name:
1 Behind Curtain
2 With Curtain Up
3 Build
4 Darker
5 Cold
6 B.O.

If you need to, then expand the "name" column in your Sequence ExecutorSheet, so you can see the entire names.

Updating a cue.

Let's imagine that we’'ve got a lighting designer who has changed his mind. He wants 5% more on the group called "LX 1 Warm" in cue 3. Let’'s load cue 3: Goto 3 Time 0 Please .

What happened? We loaded a cue and activated the executor. And we now have a yellow frame on cue 3 in the Sequence Executor Sheet. To load cue 3 you only need to write "Goto 3 Please". We added "Time 0". This overwrites the fade times stored in the cue and we didn't have to wait for the cue to fade in.

Let’s move on: Group 2 At + 5 Please . Now the 'Update' button lights up. This means you can update the activated cue. Press Update and without worrying about anything press the U3 key (or where it says: "Tracking Update") so the button changes to "Update Cue Only". Now press the X6 key (or where it says "Update Cue") to update the cue. To exit the cue and deactivate the sequence you need to press the top button above executor fader 1.

Editing the times.

Let's change some of the times in the cue list. This is how your times should end up:

Delay Fade Out Delay Out Fade
. 0 . .
3 15 . .
. 20 . 25
. 10 . .
. 15 5 10
. 0 . .

Look at the Sequence Executor Sheet. Right click on the cells and type in the new value ether on "the calculator" on the screen, the buttons on your desk or using the keyboard. The final result should look like this:

Try pressing the big 'Go+' ”button to see how your channels react to the different times.

Press: Backup Backup (as double-clicking a mouse button). This is a fast way to store your show.

That was it! Now you know the most elementary things. You have leaned to create a show, make a simple patch, create views, turn on channels, save and use groups and finally creating a sequence with cues with different times.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2

This tutorial will introduce you to the skills you need for editing the patch, using fixtures, presets and worlds.

Welcome to the second basic Tutorial

This will give you a short tour through all the most basic things you need to know for adding fixtures to the patch, controlling fixtures, creating presets, adding a sequence and using worlds.

This tutorial builds on the first tutorial. I strongly recommend making that one first: Tutorial Basic 1.

On a grandMA there are many different ways to get from A to B. But to get the best result with this tutorial, it’s important that you follow the steps fairly precise. You can always experiment on your own afterwards.

Mark-up in the tutorial.

I have chosen to use different markings when I want you to do different things.

If I need you to press a hard key (a key that is physically on the desk) it looks like this: Setup. If I’m just referring to the button I will put it in single quotation marks e.g.: 'Setup'.

If you are supposed to press a button on the screen or a area on the screens I will write it like this >>Macro 1<<.

If you are supposed to write text on the keyboard I will write it like this: Moving light. I will often tell you to end a command with 'Please'. This referrers to any of the two Please keys on the console (only one on the UltraLight).

When referring to a window on a screen you have created, I will mark it like this: CommandLine Feedback.

onPC vs. Console.

If you are doing this on an onPC , you need to imagine all the physical buttons, and use the relevant buttons in the program. I will write this as if you where at a real console (a FullSize).

A real FullSize console can have up to 6 screens (incl. 2 external). I will refer to them as "Screen 1", "Screen 2", etc.

Screen 1 is the 9" Multi Touch Screen. Screen 2 to 4 is the 15.4" touch screens on a FullSize (from right to left). 5 and 6 are the external screens.

If you are at a desk that only got one 15.4" touch screen, just ignore everything with screen 3 and 4. You will learn to store and recall screen views on the one screen you have. The same thing applies for the external screens. If you don’t have any, just use the one screen you do have.

Version

This tutorial is made on version 1.3. So it should be working on every version from and above this.

Happy Programming.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - Adding Moving Lights

We are gonna store the show with a new name and add some moving lights to the patch.

Storing the show

Before we are doing anything else, we need to store the show with a new name.

But maybe you need to load the show from "Tutorial Basic 1" first.

Press the Backup key and then make sure you have chosen the "Internal" tab. Now press the >>Load Show<< button.

Locate your saved show from tutorial basic 1 in the list of shows. Make sure all the boxes on the right side is checked and then press the >>Ok<< button.

Now we have loaded the show (again).

Still in the Backup Menu, press the >>Save Show As<< button and in the pop-up write your name followed by this: _Tutorial_Basic2.

I use the name "John Doe" so I would write: JohnDoe_Tutorial_Basic2.

Now we have saved our show with a new name and we can close the Backup Menu using the yellow cross in the upper right corner.

Add new fixtures

We just got 9 Mac 700 Profiles from Martin Professional. And we want to add them to the patch. This is what the new light plot looks like:

All right, let's go. Press the Setup key then the >>Show<< tab and the >>Patch & Fixture Schedule<< button.

We want to add the fixtures in a new layer. So that's the first thing we are gonna add.

Make sure the "Layer" part (the left half) of the screen is selected (the headline has a bright blue background), and then press the 'Add' key (it's the X1 key)

In the pop-up write: Mac700.

Now press the 'Add' key again. And the press >>Please select fixturetype<<. Now press >>Add Fixturetypes from Library<< to import a new fixture type into the show.

The manufacturer is "Martin" and we need the "Mac 700 Profile" in extended mode:

When you have selected the correct fixture type press the >>Ok<< button. Back in the Select Fixture Type pop-up press the >>'Mac 700 Profile' 2<<.

The quantaty is "9".

For the Channel and Fixture ID we need them to start at "111". And the patch to begin at the second universe with DMX channel 1 (that makes the first fixtures patch number "2.1"). Change the name to "Mac700 1". And now press the >>Apply<< button.

But we are not quite done. We need to change some of the Channel and Fixture ID's to match the light plot. When you are done your fixture list should look like this:

And now we can exit both the Edit Setup pop-up and the Setup menu. This also saves your new fixtures.

Go to the next page to learn about the Fixture Sheet.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - Fixture Sheet

The Fixture Sheet is used for displaying all the attributes of the fixtures.

Now that we have fixtures it would be nice to see what they are doing. For this we are going to need the Fixture Sheet window.

I like the fixture sheet on screen 2. That way it's directy above the four encoders. But it's all up to you where you put it on the screens.

When you have room for it, press the empty space where you want your Fixture Sheet. In the Create Basic Windows pop-up you need to select the "Sheets" tab and then press the >>Fixtures<< button.

Now you have a Fixture Sheet. Here your fixtures are (as a default) represented as a list. Your fixture are in rows and the different attributes (like Dimmers, Pan/Tilt, Gobos, etc.) are sorted in columns.

When you press the yellow ball in the upper left corner of the sheet you get the sheet options (it's also here you can delete a window - if you haven't noticed).

You can follow the link below to read details about the Fixture Sheet. This is how my fixture sheet looks:

This is my sheet options:

Tools:

  • Preset Control - Off
  • Layer Control - On
  • Filter Control - Off
  • Multi Control - Off
  • ScrollBar Horizontal - Off
  • Scrollbar Vertical - Off

Layer Filter:

  • Layer - Preset Values
  • Filter - None
  • Feature Mask - Off

Display:

  • Sheet Style - Horizontal
  • Font - DejaVu 10
  • Readout - Percent
  • Symbol Output - On
  • Symbol Features - On
  • Cue Colors - On
  • Channel ID - On
  • Columns - 10
  • Feature Sort - On
  • Fixture Sort - Off

Feature Mask:

  • We are not gonna use Feature Mask, so they can just keep there default options.

On the next page we are going to have a look at how to control fixtures.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - Controlling Fixtures

Being able to control your fixtures is one of the most important things using a grandMA.

The Preset (type) Control Bar.

The key to control fixtures is this bar:

It's the "Preset Control" bar. With this you can control what preset type you have assigned to your encoders.

The bar will only display the preset types you have access to. you might have noticed that before we added the Mac 700's there was only the "Dimmer" button in the bar.

The bar might disappear when you move focus to something else. Like working in the Sequence Executor Sheet. But you can always bring it back by pressing somewhere in your Fixture Sheet or Channel Sheet.

Playing with the movers.

To control fixtures you need to select them. Let's try with fixture 111. Press: 1 1 1 Please.

This selects the fixture, and you can assign a dimmer value using the methods you learned in Tutorial basic 1. Or you can select the "Dimmer" preset type using the bar and turn the first encoder to turn up the lights.

Select "Position" by pressing it. Notice how your encoder changes function according to what preset type you have selected. With the "Position" your encoders look like this:

Turning the encoders changes the values. Turning them with the encoder pressed changes the value faster. if you want to make smaller movement with a turn (incresing the resolution) you can press the "Normal / Fine / Ultra" button next to the value.

Notice how some of the buttons in the Preset Control Bar have a red square and some a grey one. The red one indicates that you have changed values in that preset type. This will be saved if you press the 'Store' key (don’t do it).

Press the >>Gobo<< button. Now instead of turning the first encoder, just press it shortly. This is where the "calculator" proves its power. The "calculator" is the pop-up that allows you to input values to attributes using a graphic interface. This is what it looks like with "Gobo 1" selected:

Next to the usual buttons with numbers etc. there is a lot of buttons that changes according to your selections. When gobo is selected you have easy access to all the different gobos. Select the one called "Water" and confirm you choice by pressing 'Please'.

When our fixture has more than one gobo wheel you can choose the others by using the "Feature Select" button:

You can press the text (Gobo1) to scroll thru the possible features or the "up arrow" to se a small list of the possible choices:

The last thing I will introduce you to is how to control colors.

Press the Preset Type button "Color". The first thing you see is the attribute "Color Wheel 1". This works as all the other attributes.

Now try to select "ColorMix" using the "Feature Select" button. This assigns Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to the first three encoders (in that order). Then you can control these three attributes manually.

What it also does is gives you the possibility to press the "Show Specialized Dialog" button - press it now. It should brig you this window on screen 1 (the 9" multi touch screen):

It's three different ways to assign a color to your fixture. What you are currently looking at is the "Fader" window. Here you can control the gradiant color wheels using HSB (Hue, Saturation & Brightness), CMY (Cyan, Magenta & yellow) and/or RGB (Red, Green & Blue). They are all connected, so other faders will move when you are moving one.

Try to press the U2 key (or where it says "HSB"). This gives you this window:

This is much like the "ColorPicker" from grandMA series 1. You can choose a color by pressing anywhere in the colored area. You can also see how this affects your HSB, CMY and RGB values.

Try to press the U3 key (Swatch Book). The window changes to this:

This can be used to choose a color much like the ones in the books of the leading gel manufacturers.

Notice how your Fixture Sheet changes and always shows you what your fixture is outputting.

Take some time experiment with the fixture controls. When you’re done clear your programmer and move on to the next page.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - Preset Pool

A preset is a way to store a set of values. There a 10 different groups of presets. They are named "All", "Dimmer", "Position", "Gobo", "Color", "Beam", "Focus", "Control", "Shapers" & "Video". Basically the preset groups can only store their own kind of info i.e. the "Position" preset group can only store info about Position values.

The exception to this is the "All" presets. They can store info about all the types of values. The Preset Pool windows are a lot like the Group Pool window except if you have nothing selected the first time you press a preset button, the desk selects the fixtures/channels that can use that preset. If you press a second time the desk assigns the values (stored in the preset) to the fixtures/channels.

In this tutorial we are gonna use "All", "Position", "Gobo" and "Color" presets. How you arrange them is all up to you. You know how to create and store views.

But one thing that is good to know is that you can dicide what color the frame around the different preset pools should have.

You enter the Pool Options by pressing the yellow ball above the pool headline:

Here you'll find a something called "Frame Color". Pressing here followed by a press on any color in the options, changes the color on you pool frames.

When you are done, your view could look something like this:

On the next page we are gonna look at creating presets.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - Making Presets

Next we are going to make some presets.

Some preparations

In just a few seconds we are going to store a preset. But to make sure we save them correctly we need to examine the "Store options". Press and hold the Store key. After approx. 1 second the Store Options pop-up appears. The only thing we are interested in is the "Preset Options" they look like this:

Press the buttons until it looks like the buttons above. When you are happy press >>Save as Default<< next to the yellow X.

Finish by pressing the Esc key twice (we are not storing anything right now).

Creating presets (finally)

All right, try placing all your moving lights in different positions.

When you are happy, make sure you can se the preset group called "Position". Press Store and the first (Position) preset button.

Now instead of values our fixture sheet shows "P 2.1". This refers to Preset Pool 2, Pool Button 1. If you have given the preset a name, then this name will appear instead.

Move your lights to different position. Now press StorePreset 2 . 2 Please. This creates a second position preset. The "2 ." is a reference to the position presets (you may recall the window you created was called "2:Position").

Move your light and make one more position preset. Clear your programmer.

Select the first Mac 700 (Fixture 111). Change the color to a blue one using the Specialized Color Dialog. Press and hold the Store key. In the "Store Options" press the button "Selective" until it is changed to "Global". Now store it to the first color preset.

So what's the difference to the 2 different store options? All the Position presets we made with the "Selective" option. This means that the presets only applies to the fixtures that actually had values when you stored the preset. The "Global" means that this preset applies to all fixtures of the same fixture types even though you have only created it with some of them.

The last option "Universal" may be used to make presets that applies also to other fixturetypes than the one(s) used for creation. this functionallity applies only to the generic attributes dimmer, pan, tilt and colormix.

Make 2 more color presets. Make 3 different gobo presets. Clear your programmer.

Press: 1 1 1 Thru 1 3 3 PleasePleasePleaseStorePreset 0 . 1 Please. Now you have made an "All" preset that contains all the default values of the fixtures (The "Please Please Please" activates all parameters of the fixtures).

Pressing Please multiple times without entering any commands, will activate/deactivate all parameters of the current selection.

You should have presets that look something like this (I have rearranged the view so all the created presets are visible):

This is what we need for making our new second sequence. Go to the next page to do that.

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - A Second Sequence

We are gonna create a second sequence and link the two sequences.

Making the second sequence.

Clear your programmer. Press the first Position preset twice. Now press Store and one of the buttons labelled "3" around executor fader 3.

Now we got our second sequence. Let’s build some more into it. Select executor fader 3 by pressing Select followed by one of the executor buttons around the executor fader. Press the first Gobo and Color presets followed by Store Please. Then we got the Save pop-up:

Here you choose how you want to store things. Press >>Merge<<.

That was our first cue. Clear the programmer. Press the second Position twice followed by the second Gobo and Color presets and then Store Please. This time choose >>Create second Cue<< in the Save pop-up.

Make a third cue with the third Position, Gobo and Color presets.

The last cue I need you to make is a cue containing the "All" preset and all the cue times need to be 0 seconds! Clear your programmer.

Setting up the sequences (Assign Menu).

Select your first sequence. Now press the green name field above the executor fader (where it says "Sequ."):

On screen 1 you see some of the options for that executor fader. This window can be a bit confusing the first you see it, but right now we are only interested in is the size of the executor. Change that to 2 by pressing the X2 key (or where it says "Width 2").

Now we need to change the button assignment. The buttons and fader can have a lot of different functions (explaining those goes beyond the scope of this tutorial). Press where it says "XF" and in the small pop-up select >>Speed<<.

Press where it says >>GoBack<< and choose the option called >>Rate 1<<. Change the rest of the buttons so they end up looking like this:

Close the Assign Menu by using the yellow X. What is a Speed rate fader? Well, the speed fader is used for changing the overall speed of the fade. You can speed it up or slow it down to a complete stop. The times are not changes in the sequence permanently, just adapted to the faders position.

The button called "Rate1" resets the fader to the mid position, where all the times are back at their saved times.

The '<<<' and '>>>' steps one cue back and forward accordingly without time.

Linking and editing the 2 sequences.

Have you noticed that we didn’t save any dimmer values to the fixtures in the second sequence? We are going to put those in our first sequence. And we are going to do some sequence linking.

In your Sequence Executor window make sure you can see the "Cmd" (command) column.

Right-click in the "Cmd" cell for cue 1 and in the pop-up write: Goto cue 1 exec 1.3 followed by a 'Please'. In the "Cmd" cell for cue 3 right-click and write: Goto cue 2 exec 1.3also followed by a 'Please'. In cue 4 the command is for cue 3 on executor 1.3. And in cue 6 we need a command to cue 4. When you’re done it should look like this:

Now press the big Go+ key. Notice that booth sequences go to cue number 1. That’s the command doing its trick.

Press the >>> executor button. Turn on your moving light at full. Press Update. Press the U1 key (or where it says "Original Content Only") followed by the X10 key (or where it says: "Save as Default").

Now there are two possible sequences to update. Make sure you update the one called "1.1 sequ.". You can do this by pressing the correct line.

Go to cue 6. Notice that the moving light gets the dimmer value "p 0.1". This is actually the value 0%. But to make sure that no matter what, they go to 0, let’s store this value in the first sequence also. Press: 1 1 1 Thru 1 3 3 . . Update. Now you can see that you also have the option to update the preset. Don’t do that; just update the cue in sequence 1.

Clear your programmer and try moving back and forward in your sequence to see how the link works.

On the next page we are going to have a look at "Worlds".

Topic: Tutorial Basic 2 - Using Worlds

Working With Worlds and last thoughts.

One last little treat for you is the worlds. You can use the worlds to limit your own (and others) access to channels or fixtures. Find a empty space on your screens and create a new window called Worlds(it's in the "pools" section).

Press: 1 Thru 4 0 Please Store followed by the second world button. Name it "Dimmers".

Clear your programmer. Now press: 1 1 1 Thru 1 3 3 Please Store followed by world button number three. Name this "Moving Lights".When you are done it should look something like this (remember you can change the frame color):

Now you actually got three worlds! The two you created and then there is a default world called "Full". This one can't be changed. It will always give you the full world.

Select >>Dimmers<<. Now try to press: 1 1 1 Please. It doesn’t work and they have disappeared from the fixture sheet.

If you select >>Moving Lights<< you can’t control the dimmers.

You can still run sequences and the cues will load all their content (Dimmers and Moving Light) as if you were in the "Full" world. The only effect the worlds have is what you can select, manipulate and store.

Last Thoughts

You should save your show. you can do this in the command line:

[Channel]>saveshow

That was it! You have leaned to make changes to the patch, controlling fixtures, creating and use presets, linking sequence and creating and use worlds.

Topic: Macros Introduction

This tutorial indends to give some insight to the possibilities of grandMA2 Macros

Macros are basically lines of text, which are executed as command-line for processing. The power of macros is based on the power of the command-line.

To learn macros, you need to learn the grandMA2's commandline-syntax.

The first step to learn grandMA2 commandline-syntax is to always have a Commandline Response Window visible on one of your screens:

Most of your action on the console will result in an entry in this window, and will be listed as Processed, Realtime or Macro:

:Processed:Channel 1 At 50
:Realtime: Go Executor 1.1.201
:Macro:Off Executor 1 Thru 10

You do not have to worry about these 3 different classifications for now. This indicates the source of the processed command, Realtime means that the command originated from your pushing executorbuttons and has been processed with a high priority, while Macro means that the command is originating from a direct hardkey, macro or cue-link etc and not via the normal user-input commandline, - which is indicated with Processed.

Example:

Let's press the onscreen button above the encoders labeled "Position", to change the encoder to Pan/Tilt.

The encoders change to pan & tilt, and we see that the console has processed the following command:

:Processed:PresetType "Position"

So lets create a macro that does exactly this.

  • type Edit Macro 1 followed by Please to open the Macro Editor and create a new macro, Macro 1
  • press Add (X1) to add a new line for our macro
  • click on the empty field in the text-column, and with your keyboard type the command we saw the desk had processed:
  • PresetType "Position" and press Please

  • Close the Editor with the "X" in the upper right corner
  • Open a Macro Pool Window, and you should see our Macro 1 as the first item
  • Label the macro by pressing 2 times on the Assign key, to get the Label keyword, the press on the Macro 1 button in the pool.
  • Enter "Position" in the popup, and press Please

We now have a Macro called "Position", that will call the Pan&Tilt Encoders, and we may assign it to an Executor, view or User-keys for easy hardkey access:

  • Switch to userkeys by pressing User 1, then type Assign Macro 1X1

You have now created your first basic macro. The following pages will learn you more about how to create complex macros.

Topic: Macro CommandLineInteraction

How your macro interact with your command-line

CommandLine Interaction (CLI)

A macro-button has several ways to interact with your command-line.

Lets say we have a Macro 5, with the command-line text "Highlight". Pressing this Macro, the following are processed by the console:

:Processed:Macro 5
:Macro:Highlight

- the result is that Highlight is enabled/disabled, as expected.

But opposed to the normal Highlight Hardkey, you cannot operate this button without destroying what you currently are entering in the command-line. This is because the press of the Macro-button is interacting with your command-line - the macro is called via your normal command-line-input.

Open the Macro Editor, and disable the CLI option (X6) for Macro 5, close editor. Then try to press the macro-button again:

:Macro:Macro 5
:Macro:Highlight

The push of your macro-button is now processed directly. You can operate it and turn Highlight on and off at any time, even if you are in the middle of entering some other commands.

So let us try to Edit the macro again by pressing Edit and the macro-button.

It is not possible anymore! Even if we have Edit in the commandline, pressing the macro just turns Highlight On and Off.

When we disabled CLI, we told the console that this macro-button should not interact with our commandline, so it does not react to our Edit Command either.

Don't' worry, the disabled CLI only applies to buttons in the pool, and when the Macro is assigned to an Executor or View-button. By using the commanline we can still tell the console that we want to edit this macro, via the Macro keyword, and the ID of the Macro.

Enter Edit Macro 5 in the command-line, followed by Please, to open the Editor when CLI is disabled.

Appending text (@-sign)

Lets say we have a Macro 3, with the commandline text "Fixture 15". Pressing this Macro, the following are processed by the console:

:Processed:Macro 3
:Macro:Fixture 15

- the result is that Fixture 15 gets selected, as expected.

What if we want to do something else with Fixture 15, than selecting it? can the Macro we made be used for this as well?

e.g. The syntax Edit Fixture 15 usually gives the dialog for changing patch and default-values for Fixture 15, so as our macro basically does "Fixture 15", how can we use the macro to get the dialog to patch Fixture 15?

Pressing Edit, then the Macro button, we are editing Macro 5, not editing Fixture 15.

To be able to interact with the content of the macro, we need first to disable the macro-button's own CommmandLine Interaction (CLI), as in previous example, then we need to make sure that the macro-text "Fixture 15" is appended to whatever is in the Command-line. Appending a macro-line to the users existing commandline is done by starting the macroline with the @-sign:

You may also use the @-sign at the end of the macro-line, to indicates that the macro shall wait for the user to append some more text, before the line is processed.

By adding the @-sign both in the beginning and at the end, a singleline macro is effectively just putting text into the commandline.

Topic: Using Variables

Variables are containers of text that may be reused

Variables may be used to store phrases of text, for later reuse by commandline and macros, similar to what Presets are for Attributes.

Variables are defined via the SetVar keyword and the dollar-sign:

SetVar $nameofvariable="content of variable"

Whenever the variable is later referenced in the commandline, the variable is replaced by its content.

Example:

A common way to program lighting for a song, is to create a sequence of cues holding the base-looks and major changes for each verse and chorus, and additionally trigger diffferent chasers on and off via command-links in the main sequence:
  • ...
  • Cue 5:"Chorus":Cmd:Go Executor 201
  • Cue 6:"Verse 2":Cmd: Off Executor 202
  • etc.

If only one chaser needs to be triggered, this simple syntax usually does the job.

By using variables, triggering of multiple chaser may be easily managed:

  • Cue 1:"Intro":Cmd:SetVar $chorusChasers="Executor 201 + 204 + 205"
  • ...
  • Cue 5:"Chorus":Cmd:Go $chorusChasers
  • Cue 6:"Verse2":Cmd:Off $chorusChasers
  • etc
[Channel]>SetVar $chorusChasers="Executor 201 + 204 + 205"
:Processed:SetVar $chorusChasers="Executor 201 + 204 + 205"
[Channel]>Go $chorusChasers
:Processed:Go Executor 201 + 204 + 205
Your console will only process valid commands. If none of the Executors exist, the console will not bother to process the command, and you will not see this last line

Similar to the SetVar keyword is the SetUserVar keyword. The only difference is that a variable defined with the SetVar is global for all users, while variables defined with SetUserVar applies to the current user only.

With the keyword ListVar and ListUserVar, the Commandline Response Window will list current variables and their content.

[Channel]> ListVar
:Global: $CHORUSCHASERS = Executor 201 + 204 + 205

Topic: Creating popup dialogs in macros

How to use dialogs to prompt for user-input to a macro

Sometimes you may want to create a macro that collects data from the user while running.

As we learned in the CLI part of this tutorial, you may use the @-sign to combine macro-lines with user-interaction. The @ approach is convenient when the user knows how the macro works and don't want to be bothered by popups, but if one were to create a more wizzard-like macro, using popup-dialogs enables guided interaction.

Popups are created by the use of parantheses - round brackets :

The text inside the parantheses are used as text prompted to the user, while the response entered by the user will replace the parantheses and the prompting text.

Example:

SetVar $universe=("Which Universe?")

SetVar $address=("Which Address?")

Assign Dmx $universe .$address At Selection

In the third line, please notice the space after $universe, and no space between dot and $address

Running this macro the console first promts for universe:

then for Address:

Processed, our macro looks like this:

:Macro:SetVar $universe="1"
:Macro:SetVar $address="401"
:Macro:Assign Dmx1 .401 At Selection

DMX channel 401 of Universe 1 is added to the patch of the currently selected fixture.

When you are using popups to assign text to variables, you should use qoutes inside the parantheses: ("What is your name?") but when using popups for commands and numbers, do not use quotes inside the parantheses: Goto Cue (where should i go)

Topic: Conditional Expressions

Conditional execution of macro-lines

In some situation you may want to only process a command, if the user has answered something specific in a popup, or if a variable is set to a specific value.

The grandMA2 supports simple conditional expressions, which must resolve to "True" for the following commandline to be executed.

SetVar $answer=("really delete all groups? yes/no")

[$answer=="yes"] Delete Group Thru

Conditional expressions are recognized by Square Brackets, and accept the following logical operators:

a == b
a equals b
a > b
a greater than b
a < b
a less than b
a <= b
a less than or equal b
a >= b
a greater than or equal b

The two arguments a and b are not compared as numbers, but as text-strings, character by character, e.g. "61" is considered to be greater than "599", as 6 is larger than 5.

Topic: Timing of Macros

As you may have noticed within the Macro-editor, in addition to the command-text field, there is also a time-field for each macro line.

By default the macro will proceed immediately and start processing the next line, however this "Follow" may be changed to either a Wait-time in seconds, or a trigger to pause and wait for next Go, before the macro proceeds with next line.

Wrong timing is the major pitfall when creating complex macros. The console is multi-tasking so when a command immediately follows another, the second command will start processing, even if the previous has not yet finished processing.

If a macro-line depends on an earlier line, to be processed correctly, you may need to add a wait-time, to prevent the next command to follow immediately and be processed too early.

Example:

Let's create a Macro that Parks Channel 10 at 50%:

Channel 10 At 50

Park Channel 10

With the default "Follow" trigger, this macro does not work. Setting channel 10 to 50% takes some time, and our macro Parks the channel before the first line has been fully processed.

Giving the first line 50 millisecond to be processed, before proceeding to the next line, solves the problem in this case:

When creating complex macros it is wise to start with a timing of i.e. 100 milliseconds per line, unless you are sure that the lines that do not rely on previous lines to be fully processed.

Necessary processing-time is not fixed. You may experience that a timing that worked when in Standalone is not enough in a session with multiple stations and NPU's

Topic: Macro Import and Export

If you have created a nice macro you would probably want to use it in other showfiles.

The current solution for this is to Export the Macro, then Import the Macro after loading the other showfile.

[Channel]>Export Macro 3 "Nice_macro.xml"

will create an xml-file labeled "Nice_macro" containing your macro, in the Macro-directory of your console.

to Import macros you need to change your commandline destination to macros:

[Channel]>CD Macro

then import the file with the following syntax

Macros/Global >Import "Nice_macro"

Macro(s) in the file "Nice_macro" will be imported and added after the last of your exising macros.

To list the files in your Macro-library, the current keyword is ListMacroLibrary

Macros/Global >ListMacroLibrary
: nice_macro 1234 Bytes
: predefined 5678 Bytes

Export and Import applies to the currently Selected Drive. To i.e. Export to USB-stick, enter SelectDrive to find the drive-ID of your Stick, then select the drive with the syntax SelectDrive [ID].

Remember to change destination to root with CD / when you are finished

You can also Export multiple macros in one xml-file, by exporting a range of macros to one file.
Import/Export currently do not support preservation of Macro ID. macros are imported after your last used Macro ID, in other words if you last current macro is Macro 245, the imported macros will become Macro 246 and upwards

Topic: Tutorial FixtureTypes

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

FixtureTypes are definitions used by the console to generate Fixtures in Patch & Fixture Schedule. Even though the grandMA2 comes with an extensive FixtureType Library, you might want to create your own or edit an existing type.

Topic: Create a new FixtureType

In this tutorial we are going to make a FixtureType for the Clay Paky Golden Scan 4.

The first thing to do, is to get hold of the manual with DMX-specifications of this fixture from the manufacturer

golden_scan4_manual_Rv1.pdf

Then we enter Setup Show Patch & FixtureSchedule

If your showfile is empty, you will be prompted with two popups, - cancel these by pressing the "X" in the upper right corner.

Continue by pressing the softkeys FixtureTypes , then Add , to create a new one.

The next to do is to populate the empty fields, and describe our fixture (longName, ShortName etc)

We leave ModelScale at 1, and ModelKey empty, and press the softkey Edit, to open the FixtureType Editor.

Our next task is to examine the spec of the GoldenScans functions:

Press Add , and in the popup-dialog select Beam Iris Iris . Your editor should now look like this:

Repeat Add & Select with the following attributes:

Do not add the two last Functions listed by Clay Paky, Pan Fine and Tilt fine. At this stage we shall only enter primary function (coarse channels).

Our next task is to Edit the Coarse and Fine column, and enter the DMX-channel for each function according to the first column in the Clay Paky List. When finished, your editor should look like this:

The next step is to add default-values for each function. By default, the range of each function is 0 - 100%, so we enter the defaults as a percentage value.

Examining the manual, I find that I should change the default from zero for the following functions

At the same go, we also adjust the Highlight-values. Highlight values is personal preferences, basically I want the fixture to be Open White, but don't affect i.e gobo so I choose my Highlight values to be:

We have now created a very basic GoldenScan4, with the minimum data needed, to control this fixture, so we should now close the editor, connect the fixture to the console, patch and test that the each function work.

If you do not have the fixture available, you may patch and look at the DMX Sheet window to check that your encoders controls the correct DMX-channels.

The next sections will show you how to add data that enables vizulisation in StageView/grandMA 3d, real-value-readout in fixturesheet, and shortcut-buttons in the SmartWindow and Attribute-calculator.

Topic: Effects Tutorials.

On the following pages we are going to explore what can be done with effects.

We will go through steps that introduce you to the most common effect functions.

Effect Theory

But before doing a lot of programming, we need to have a look at the theory behind the effects.

Effects run in an cycle. The 'Form' dictates how an attribute moves from 'value 1' to 'value 2'.

A form could be a sine curve:

The bottom part of the form is 'value 1'. The top part is 'Value 2'. That clearly displays the transition between the two values.

The speed of the effect is controlled by the 'Rate'. Rate is defined in Hertz. A cycle running in 1 Hertz uses 1 second to complete the cycle. If you change it to 2 Hertz then the cycle only takes half a second.

If you need to spread out a group of fixtures to begin different places in the cycle you need to use 'Phase'. Phase is described as a number between 0 and 360. Think of it as a circle, and the numbers as a number of degrees on that circle.

What you normally do is create a line in the effect. This line refers to a single attribute (could be 'Dimmer', 'Pan', 'CM1', etc.). Then you define the form that should be used. Define the rate and the 'Value 1' and 'Value 2'.

And this is basically what you need for an effect.

Then you can make your effects more interesting by adding different values in the phase.

Some forms can also use parameters like 'Width', 'Attack' and 'Decay'.

'Width' controls how much the form should occupy the cycle. A 'Width' of 100% makes the form take up all the cycle. If the 'Width' is only 50% then the form only occupies the first half of the cycle.

'Attack' And 'Decay' is used to "fade" values in forms that doesn't normally fade (Random, PWM (Pulse Width Modulator) and Chase).

The effect tutorials.

In the following tutorials we will look at:

  • Creating an effect in the programmer.
  • Creating an effect using the GUI.
  • Making effects using presets.
  • Making generic effects.
  • Editing effects using the command line.
  • Changing an effect with a macro.
  • Different ways to use effects.

You will get the best result if you follow the steps precisely. You can always save your show, play around, and then return to your saved show.

Go to the next page for setting up a new show with some fixtures.

Topic: Setting up the show.

We are going to setup a new show with usable fixtures.

For the different effect tutorials we need a new empty show, that doesn't have any leftovers (default setting and user settings) from previous shows.

Setting up the show.

I will not go into details of how to do this (it's outside the scope if this tutorial).

Create a completely new show.

Name it "Tutorial Effects" followed by your name.

Create 10 "Mac 700 Profile Extended"from Martin Lighting.

Place then in one line, 5 meters above the floor facing down. They need to have approx. 1 meter between them. Ca. in the middle of the room. They need to be hanged so fixture 1 is at the stage right and they all follow in number, ending with fixture 10 at the stage left.

Create views that gives you a fixture sheet, color presets and an Effect pool.

And also a view with the "Stage" window.

What's next

That's it. Now you are ready to go to the next tutorial page.

Topic: Make an effect using the programmer.

In this tutorial we are going to create an effect in the programmer and store it.

You should have a new show for this tutorial. On the previous page we went through what we need for these tutorials.

When working with effects in the programmer there are some elements that are vital for controlling what is going on.

In the fixture sheet you need to turn on the "Layer Control bar". In this bar you'll find some buttons that look like this:

These six buttons allows you to control what part of the effect you are controlling.

We are also going to use the "Encoder Toolbar". It's the one above the encoders (on screen two):

This is used to control what parameters we are working with and assign values to the parameters.

Building the effect

We are going to build an effect that moves the fixtures in a figure of 8 (head pointing down). It's going to be a slow nice movement.

Select all your fixtures by any means you like. I prefer using the keys (Fixture Thru Please). It's important for this tutorial that you select them in the correct order, starting with 1 and finishing with 10.

Using the "Layer Control Bar" select the button called 'Effect Form'. Then select 'Position' in the "Encoder Toolbar".

Now press the 'Pan' encoder and select 'Cos' in the calculator pop-up. For the 'Tilt' attribute you need to select the 'Sin' curve.

Now we have selected how the pan and tilt attributes should move.

Now select 'Effect Rate' in the "Layer Control Bar".

We need the effect cycle to be quite slow. Press the 'Pan' encoder again an type a value of "0.25" followed by an 'Please'. Again do the same for 'Tilt'.

This gives us a effect cycle of 4 seconds.

Now we need to create a beginnig value and a end value. First select 'Effect Value1'. An give the 'Pan' attributes a value of "-30".

The 'Tilt' needs to have a value 1 of "-20".

Select 'Effect Value2' and give 'Pan' a value of "30". And 'Tilt' need to be "20".

Now the fixtures are moving. But for us to see that in the "Stage" window, you need to turn them on. Do this by pressing the At key twice.

This dimmer value won't be stored when we store the effect.

Now you can see all the light move in the same cycle.

Let's make the fixtures begin at different places in the effect cycle.

Select 'Effect Phase' and give both 'Pan' and 'Tilt' a value of "0 thru 360".

This spreads out the fixture in the entire cycle.

This is basically all we need for our effect.

Let's store what we got. Write this in the command line:

[Channel]>Store Effect 1 "Move Effect"

Followed by a Please.

Now let's check that it worked.

Clear you programmer. Press the effect pool button twice and the turn the fixture on.

Now everything should be moving as before.

What's next?

On the next page we are going to create an effect using the effect editor pop-up.

Topic: Make an effect using the GUI.

This tutorial makes an effect using the effect editor pop-up.

The effect we are going to make is an random dimmer chase that snaps to 100% and then fades back to 0%.

If you haven't done the previous effects tutorial I'll strongly urge you to do so.

The Effect Editor pop-up.

First you need to select all your fixtures in a random order. This will make the chase look random.

Now press the Edit key followed by the second effect pool button.

This gives you the Effect Editor pop-up. This is currently empty:

To make an effect you need to add an effect line with the 'Dim' attribute.

Press the "Add" button and then press the "+" next to 'Dimmer' and 'Dimmer' and then select 'Dim'.

This gives us the effect line we need. The easy way to edit this is by pressing the 'Edit Effect Line'. This is what it looks like:

Now we need to make some changes to the effect.

You need to select the 'PWM' Form.

The rate is a bit fast. Lets change that to "0.5".

Since we want the effect to go from 0% to 100%, that needs to be our two values.

We want the fixtures to be spread out on the entire cycle the phase need to have a 'from' value of "0" and 'to' value of "360".

The standard 'width' is 50% but if we look at the symbol representation of the form in the lower right corner and remember what I told you about value 1 and value 2 being the bottom and top part of the form, we can see that both value 1 and value 2 have equal representation in the form.

We would like it to be more dark than bright. So moving the 'Width' fader down to "15%" gives us about 2 fixtures on at the same time.

Now all we need is to make it fade out. This is done by turning the 'Decay' up to "100%"

That's it! we have now created an effect using the windows.

And since we started by editing an (empty) effect all our changes are automatically stored (or actually updated) in the effect.

But we should label it. Press Assign twice followed by effect pool button number 2. Label it "Dim Effect".

What's next?

Next we are going to take a look at using presets in effects.

Topic: Make an effect using presets.

In this tutorial we are going to create a new color effect with presets.

If you haven't done the previous effects tutorials I'll strongly urge you to do so.

Setting up for this tutorial.

Before we begin making this tutorial, you need to make two different color presets using the CMY attributes. It's very important that you make Color presets and not All presets.

I made an Orange presets and named it "Orange", I know - it's the logic choice:-). And a blue preset - guess what I called that one (yes - "Blue" is the correct answer).

Making the effect.

We have gone through many of the elements we need for making this effect. The new thing is that instead of using a definite 'Value 1' and 'Value 2' we are going to reference to presets..

This means that to change colors, you don't need to change the effect - you can simply change the presets. Ergo: business as usual with presets.

Select all your fixture and then press the Edit key followed by the third effect pool button. We are going to use the windows to build this effect.

You need to add three lines that contain 'CM1', 'CM2' and 'CM3' (one each).

Select the first line and press the 'Edit Effect Line' button (or the U1 key).

Now notice that there are some buttons in the bottom part of the window.

'Take Selection' and 'Show Selection' deals with taking a new selection for the effect line or selecting the fixtures that the line refer to.

'Reverse' changes the running direction of the effect. 'Bounce' runs the effect forward the first time it cycles, then it changes to the reverse direction. When completing the cycle backwards, it returns to forward running mode, and so on...

'Absolute' refers to how the values are applied. This key toggles between 3 modes, 'Absolte', 'Relative' and 'Transparent'. When it's 'Absolute', the values you have in 'Value 1' and 'Value 2' are absolute values. The effect will use those values only. If you change to 'Relative', it will use those values as a reference according to its current location. E.g. if a 'Dim' attribute has a 'Value 1' of "10" and a 'Value 2' of "50" and mode is 'Absolute'. Then the effect will cycle between 10% and 50% no matter what dimmer value the fixtures was assigned. If mode is 'Relative', then the cycle between 10% and 50% will use the actual value in the Value layer as a base, and Value1 and Value2 will be put on top.. E.g. setting the value of the dimmer to 25%, the cycle of 10% to 50% will result in an output of 35% to 75%. The last mode 'Transparent' is similar to 'Relative', it uses a base and are applied relativly, however when you store a Transparent Effect to a cue, the basevalue (value-layer) is made transparent, enabling you to have an effect relative to a basevalue coming from other executors.

The last three buttons deals with 'Value 1', 'Value 2' and 'Width'. These buttons toggle between 'Single', 'Fan' and 'Preset' (not for width).

So far we have been using 'Single'. 'Fan' is used if you want to spread, or fan, the beginning value between the group of fixtures.

'Presets' is the one we are going to use now. Press 'Value 1' and 'Value 2' until they have the preset option. Now press where the value 1 fader use to be. This should bring up the calculator with an extra option of the two color presets. Select the first color preset (mine was the "Orange" one). Press where value 2 had a fader, and select the second preset.

Now we could do that for the next two lines, but there's a faster way to assign values to several lines at the same time.

Press 'Edit Effect' in the upper right corner (or the U1 key). This brings us back to the effect editor. Here we can edit all the 'Value 1' in all the lines at one time. Press Edit and then press, drag and release over all the 'Value 1'. This brings up the Calculator with our two choices. Now you can select the first preset. Do the same for 'Value 2' (but use the second preset).

Ok - now we just need to make sure the rest is what it should be.

This is for all the lines. The 'Form' should be "Sin", 'Rate' should be "1", 'Phase From' should be "0", 'Phase To' needs to be "360" and 'Width' should be "100". Now you can close all the editors and name your effect "Color Effect".

And that's it! Test it by clearing your programmer. Then press the effect twice and turn on the lights:

The image above displays my result. There is a magenta color in the transition between the orange and blue. But that's what happens when you fade between the two colors. Choosing other forms allows you to "snap" between the two colors.

If you now change the color in the presets, the effect will use the new color.

What's next?

In the next effect tutorial, we are going to edit this effect using the command line.

Topic: Creating universal effects.

Universal effects are effects that doesn't relate to any specific fixtures. They can be useful for on-the-fly shows and one-offs.

I would strongly suggest that you make the previous effect tutorials before this one. I'm going to relate to things that we previously did.

The universal effects.

You might have noticed that the effect we have made so far, has a little red "S" in the effect pool button. This is because the effect is "selective". Just like selective presets, this means that only a specific group of fixtures can use this effect.

Again just like preset, you can create "universal" (or generic) effects.

Let's try this. Let's take one that we already made an make it universal. Copy the first effect (the move effect) to effect pool button number 4 (Copy Effect 1 At Effect 4).

Clear your programmer, and edit the new effect.

Select the two lines and press the 'Take Selection' button (the X11 key). Now notice that the 'QTY' column (quantity in the right side) in each line now reads "0". Now it's a universal effect that can be assign to any fixture that has 'Pan' and 'Tilt' attributes.

Let's make one more improvement to the effect. Press 'Edit Effect line' and turn on 'Relative' for both effect lines. Now the movement will be around the current position of the moving light.

This is a good universal effect that can be assigned to all moving lights.

Generic/Basic values and individual overwrites.

Now is a good time to tell you about generic values and individual overwrites. When you store effects with fixtures, in cues or in effect "presets". You have the option to change values for some fixtures only.

When ever there's a values stored that doesn't follow the generic rules, this value will be highlighted or marked in some way.

In a tracking sheet this might be marked with a brighter color:

In the Effect Editor it might be a red background color:

This is alot like individual times in cues.

What's next?

On the next page we are going to make some changes to our effects using the command line.

Topic: Edit an effect using the command line.

The effects can be edited using the command line.

Now we are going to change the rate of the color effect using the command line.

If you haven't done the previous effects tutorials, I'll strongly urge you to do so.

Setting up for this tutorial.

You need to have a Command Line window so you can see what you are going.

The two keyword for this tutorial is 'List' and 'CD'.

'List' is used to display show data. 'CD' is "Change Directory" - it's used to navigate the layers of the console.

Please follow the links at the bottom for more details about these commands.

Every input line displayed in the following tutorial is followed by an Please to execute the command.

Let's make some changes.

We need to navigate to the effects. We do that using the 'List' keyword

[Channel]>List

This will give a list of all the elements in the console. Find the one called "Effect". It's has the number 17. With this knowledge we can navigate to the effects:

[Channel]>cd 17

Now we should use the 'List' again to see what options we now have:

Effects>list

This only displays one option. All effect are organised in the global effect pool. It's the only effects pool, so it has number 1. Let's go into that one:

Effects>cd 1

Let's check what new option we have here:

Effects/'Global' 1>list

Now we get a list of your three effects. The number in the parentheses are the number of lines each effect uses:

Effect 1 : Move Effect (2)
Effect 2 : Dim Effect (1)
Effect 3 : Color Effect (3)

Our goal is to change the rate of the color effect. So we need to go into the third effect:

Effects/'Global' 1>cd 3

A new 'list' revials a lot more:

Effects/'Global' 1/'Color Effect' 3>list

What you now see is all the lines in the effect (in each row) and all the elements in the lines (the columns). Those with a green headline (like 'Rate') can be changed. Those with a red color can't be changed. Then you need to delete them and store them again.

Now let's change the 'Rate' in the first line:

Effects/'Global' 1/'Color Effect' 3>assign 1 /rate=1.5

You can do another 'list' to check that it changed the rate. Now do the two other lines:

Effects/'Global' 1/'Color Effect' 3>assign 2+3 /rate=1.5

That's it. Now all three line have a rate at 1.5 Hz.

Return to the "root" of the console by typing "cd /" in the command line.

What's next?

In the next tutorial we are going to have a look at using macros to edit our effects.

Topic: Change an effect using a Macro.

We are going to make a macro that asks what rate we want, and then applies it to our color effect.

It's important that you have followed all the previous steps in the previous effect tutorials. If you haven't done that, then I strongly urge you to do so.

We are going to use some command elements that's outside the scope of this tutorial. If you want to learn more about making macros, please complete the Macro tutorial.

Making the Rate macro.

We almost have all the windows we need. The one thing you should add is the macro pool.

Press Edit and then the first Macro pool button.

Press Add (the X1 key). We are going to create a variable called "newRate". This variable will hold the new rate time. The first thing our macro should do is to ask us what rate we want, and store it in the variable.

In the 'Text' cell of the macro write this:

SetVar $newRate = ("What rate do you want?")

Add a new line to you macro. We are now going to navigate to the effect. We leant how to do this in the previous tutorial page. In the macro line type this:

cd 17.1.3

That takes us directly to the color effect. Now we can use the variable to assign the new rate to the lines.

Add a new line in the macro and write this:

assign 1 t 3 /rate=$newRate

Now all we need is to return to the root. Add line to the macro, and type this:

cd /

The macro is done. It should look like this:

Close the editor. And give your macro the name: "New Rate for Colors".

And we are done. Make your color effect run and then test your new macro.

What's next?

There's only one page left. Here we are going to take a look at different ways the effects can be run and controlled.

Topic: Different ways to use effects.

Effect can be used and controlled in many ways. This will explorer some of the most common.

In this last effect tutorial we will look at some of the ways to use effects. Not really a tutorial, but more a short explanation.

In the programmer.

You can run effects directly in your programmer. This can be useful in one-offs or any situation where you can improvise and there's room to play.

Directly build in cue.

In grandMA series 1 you could use modulators to create effects directly in a cue.

When we made an effect in the programmer we stored it in an effect pool button - but we could have stored it directly in a cue (or updated an active cue).

Values will then fade using the fade times in the cue. You can also change any values from cue to cue.

Effect presets in cues.

Effects you have stored in the effect pool, work as effect "presets". You can call these effects and store them in cues. If you then change the effect your changes will be used in the cue.

On executors.

You can assign an effect to an executor. Simply by pressing AssignEffect1 and then an executor button.

There are three special options for effect executors: 'Off On Overwritten', 'Speed (scale)' and 'Speed (group)'.

You may change these options by opening the Assign-menu for the Executor, press Assign, then the Exec-button, and select Options on the right hand side.

'Off On Overwritten' turns the effect off if it's completely overwritten by new values.

'Speed (scale)' is used to multiply or divide the overall speed of the entire effect. Specially used with speed groups.

'Speed (group)' is 'individual' as a standard. This means that the rate stored in the effect is the ones used. You can use this button to assign the effect executor to an speed group (there are 8 possible speed groups). Try pressing here and select 'Speed Group 1'. Then assign an speed group master to an executor. Then run your effect and turn the speed master up and down.

Finishing words

The effect engine in the grandMA2 has introduced some big changes. The possibility to use presets directly in the effect is a major advantage. Coming from the grandMA series 1, you will notice that the modulators has disappeared. But the new changes to the effect generator allows you to make the same effects in a more streamlined method.

Topic: Tutorial Sequences

In this section you will learn how to work with sequences

Topic: Working with MIB

how to use MIB to mark/preposition attributes.

Introduction

MoveInBlack is a function which in a tracking sequence will look ahead and preposition attributes of fixtures that are fading in from zero, to automatically prevent "ugly" transitions where you would normally see the fixture move the attributes into position, while the fixture is fading in.

MIB is enabled on a cue-per-cue basis (actually per cue-part), by giving the MIB-property of the cue-part a value which tells the console when it should do the prepositioning.

  • a zero or positive MIB-value indicates an specific cue number from where MIB is allowed
  • a negative MIB-value indicates a relative cue number from where MIB is allowed

Example:

If Cue 91 is given a MIB-value of "80", the console will as soon as possible from Cue 80 and forward try to preposition fixtures for Cue 91.

If Cue 91 is given a MIB-value of "-5", the console will as soon as possible from Cue 86 and forward try to preposition fixtures for Cue 91. (91 minus 5 equals 86 -> Cue 86)

The actual prepositioning of each attribute will not necessarily take place in the cue indicated by the MIB-value. "as soon as possible" means that for each attribute, the prepositioning will be put "on hold" if any of the scenarios below is present.

  • dimmer-output is above zero
  • dimmer has a value above zero in any of the cues between the current cue and the cue to prepare for
  • the attribute is included in any of the cues between the current cue and the cue to prepare for

Valid MIB-values

Early / E
same as numeric value "0", preposition as early as possible
[x.xxx]
preposition from Cue number x.xxx
-[x.xxx]
preposition x.xxx Cue-numbers before
Late / L
same as numeric value "-1", preposition 1.000 Cue-numbers before
Off / O
same as no value, do not preposition

Sequence Executor Sheet

In the Sequence Executor Sheet you will find the MIB-column, where you may edit the MIB-value via normal right-click/encoder-click and enter the value.

An asterisk "*" indicates that a Cue is capable of MIB, but no MIB-value is given, while a MIB-value in red indicates that a MIB-value is given, but the cue is not capable to MIB.

- "MIB-capability" here defined as a cue with one or more fixtures with dimmer-value above zero, and previous state of dimmer-value not above zero (=fixture is fading up) - and one or more other additional attributes (= something to preposition)

Setting MIB via Commandline

MIB is a property of Cue Parts, and its value may be assigned with standard syntax:

[Channel]>Assign Cue / MIB=late
Assign MIB-value "Late" to current Cue and all its parts
[Channel]>Assign Cue 101 Part 3 / MIB=99
Assign Cue 99 as MIB-value for part 3 of Cue 101
[Channel]>Assign Cue 1 Thru 10 / MIB=Off
Removes MIB from Cue 1 thru 10

A useful MIB-macro could go something like this:

Assign Cue /mib=off

SetVar $mibvalue=("Please enter MIB")

AssignCue /mib=$mibvalue

Pressing the Macro and Please, will disable MIB for the current cue, while presing the Macro, then a number followed by Please, will set the MIB-value for current cue.

MIB timing

MIB uses two general time settings MIB-Delay and MIB-Fade

MIB Delay is the time to wait from a fixture have faded out until it starts to MIB, while MIB fade is the actual time used to prepositioning.

Increasing MIB Delay may be useful for fixtures with slow dimmer or afterglow. Increasing MIB Fade may be useful for noisy fixtures, or if the movement of the fixturebody is visually disturbing for the audience

In addition to the general MIB-timing found under Setup>Show>Playbacktiming, it is also possible via the fixturetype Editor to set individual MIB delay per Fixturetype, and individual MIB fade per attribute per Fixturetype.

MIB feedback

When MIB Delay is active, or MIB is "put on hold" the Executor Key backlight will blink fast.

When MIB Fade is active (fixtures are moving to preposition), the Executor key backlighting will blink slowly

Attributes which have MIB'ed will be displayed in the ExecutorID and SequenceID layer of the Fixture Sheet with a slightly paler shade of the usual backgroundcolor (green for selected Executor, yellow for others), to indicate that the source of the value is from a future cue.

Pitfalls

When using MIB, the desk is not only tracking values from earlier cues, it is also tracking forward and outputting values from future, non-executed cues. This is sort-of "Back to the Future", with dilemmas you find in time-travel-theory.

e.g

  • fixture one is on, and red in cue 1
  • turns off in cue 2
  • and comes on in blue in cue 10

As we don't want to see the scroll to blue in cue 10, we mark this cue as MIB early.

  • everything is fine, fixture one preposition after faded out in cue 2

now let's say we're in cue 5 and want to make some changes...

  • On with fixture one, - it's blue - looks good
  • update cue only

Next time we play back the sequence, cue 5 does not look the same ?

- last time we played back the sequence, fixture one was blue because it had prepositioned to cue 10, however as it is now used in cue 5 it cannot preposition until after cue 6, - and will stay red.

These issues may be minimized by not prepositioning too early, and by activating MIB Never in the Executor Assign-menu if you are to make major changes to your cues.

Topic: Working with tracking sequences and Cue-modes

How to assert values and prevent tracking in tracking sequence

Introduction

In a tracking sequence, the content of a cue represent the changes happening in that cue. Any unchanged values will track from earlier cues, and the state - the actual look - of the cue is a combination of what has happened earlier and what is happening in the cue. This tracking philosophy works similar to how the staging, set-design and any props may be handled.

Cue 1: Place sofa on stage left.

Cue 2: Actor1 enters from rear.

Cue 3: Actor2 enters from left and gets seated

Cue 4: Actor1 exits stage right

Even though Cue 3 only tells us that Actor2 will be in the sofa, when we are in Cue 3, we also have the sofa and Actor1 on stage. Unless we take out the sofa, it will stay on stage....

In some scenarios, you may want this tracking behaviour to stop. When starting the second act, you don't want any additional props added to first act to stay on the stage, just because you didn't tell the stage-crew to carry these out when you originally created the look of the first cue of second act. - You want this tracking behaviour to Break.

The Break mode of a cue will make sure that any later addition or changes in earlier cues is reverted back to its original state in the break-cue, similar to how a Cue-Only store would work for the next cue.

A Break is indicated in both Sequence Executor and Sequence Tracking sheet with a white line above the cue

By default when calling a cue with a normal "Go", only the content of the cue is called, not the tracking state. If you are only using one executor/playback this behaviour is irrelevant, however if you have other executors that have overwritten your state, you might in some scenarios want that calling the cue also calls the tracking state. this may be achieved with then cue-mode Assert. Assert will call the state of your sequence, by using the original timing, and not affect any ongoing fades, (e.g. a 30 minutes sunset still on it's way out).

In other scenarios you might want to re-establish state, and assert the sequence, but terminate any ongoing fades. The cue-mode X-Assert will crossfade to the current state - with the timing of the current cue. This may be used i.e. if you want to make sure that your zero second Blackout Cue is cutting to black, even if you have to run the cue earlier than usual and the sunset has not yet finished.

Possible cue-mode combinations

Normal
normal tracking mode
Assert
State is asserted with original timing
X-Assert
State is asserted with cuetiming of current cue
Break
Prevents tracking and performs an Assert
X-Break
Prevents tracking and performs an X-Assert

Commandline

The mode property of a cue may be accessed with normal syntax for changing object-properties:

Assign [cue] /mode=[mode]

Example:

Assign Cue 3/mode=x-break

Limitations

Update "original content" currently do not support and obey Breaks if original content is tracking from an earlier break.
Tracking Sheet edits currently do not support and obey Breaks

Topic: Bitmap Effect Tutorial

This is a collection of Bitmap Effects tutorials.

The first (Setup Show) is a generic tutorial, setting up the basics show for all the other Bitmap Tutorials.

Topic: Bitmap Effect Tutorial - Setup Show

In this part we are going to set up the show with a big LED wall.

The first thing you need to do is to create a new show.

I made one called "BitmapEffectTutorial" and made sure all the boxes are checked.

Then you need to go to Setup Show Patch & Fixture Schedule .

Here you need to patch 300 "generic@led+virtual_dimmer@.xml". Give them channel and fixture ID "1". Patch them where you like.

Create a 'Stage Window'. Select all the LED fixtures and press the "Setup" button in the 'Stage Window'.

We need to rotate the LED's so they face the audience.

Press the 'Location 1 of 2' button until it changes to 'Rotation 2 of 2'. Now we can rotate the LED's.

Set the 'X' value to "-90". That rotates the LED's. Now would be a good time to turn the LED's dimmer value at full. Then there should be a white square facing the camera.

Next we are going to set them up in a matrix.

Begin by moving all the fixtures. Press the 'Rotation 2 of 2' button so it changes to 'Location 1 of 2'.

Then set your 'X' value to "-7", 'Y' value to "3" and the 'Z' value to "4.5".

Press the 'Wizard' button and in the Wizard pop-up select the 'Matrix2D' tab.

Make sure you set the options like this:

Every setting here is important. Make sure you have the exact setting as above.

Then press the 'Apply & Close' button.

This is actually all we need to setup the show.

Your stage view should look like this:

Turn of the 'Setup' button in the stage view, clear your programmer and move on to the next page.

Topic: Bitmap Effect Tutorial - Create a rainbow scrolling Bitmap Effect

Creating a scrolling bitmap effect.

We are going to create a color bitmap effect. This means that the effect is affecting the color attributes of the fixtures.

This also means that it doesn't affect the dimmer attribute. So we need to make some preparations.

Creating a sequence with dimmer value.

First we need to turn on the dimmer so we can see the color values change (when the bitmap effect is running).

Select all your LED's and turn them at full. 1 thru At At.

Store this in a new sequence on executor fader 1. Store Exec 1 Please.

Now make sure the fader is at 100 and the sequence is on.

Creating the Bitmap Effect.

Without clearing the programmer we need to create the basis of the bitmap effect. Press Store Effect Effect 1 Please. Pressing the 'Effect' key twice gives you the 'Bitmap' keyword.

When you create(store) a Bitmap Effect it's important to have a selection with the fixtures you want affected by the bitmap effect. This stores the fixtures in the Bitmap Effect.

To run the Bitmap Effect you need to assign it to an Executor: Assign Effect Effect 1 Exec 2 Please.

This also gives you access to the best Bitmap Effect Editor.

The Bitmap Effect Editor.

Now we are going to edit the Bitmap Effect so it looks like we want it. But first it might be a good idea to activate the Bitmap Effect so we immediately can see the changes we do. Make sure the fader is at full an press the "Go" executor button.

Nothing happens because the Bitmap Effect is almost empty.

We need the Bitmap Effect Editor. Press Edit Exec 2 Please. This gives us the editor on screen 1.

The Basics options.

The first thing we can edit here is the name of the Bitmap Effect. Press the green area next to 'Name'. Now enter: Rainbow Scroll.

Then we need a picture source. Press the empty green area next to 'File'. This opens the Browser pop-up. Press the 'Folder Up' icon and navigate through gobos carallon gobos apollo and select the file called "059900CS-0168".

The 'Mode' should be "Color". 'ScaleMode' doesn't matter in this tutorial since we are going to set the Size to the original picture.

The 'Size X' and 'Size Y' should both be "128". It doesn't matter for this tutorial if the 'Tile' is on or off.

In the small stage window on the right side you should zoom out and move the view so you just can see all the LED's. It should look like this:

Making it move.

Right now the bitmap effect is boring. It just displays a picture. Our goal here is to make something that works like an animation wheel in an normal fixture. Let's begin by making it rotate.

Press the 'Tools' tab followed by the 'Toggle Function' button and then the 'Rotate Right' button. Now we have a rotating effect. But we would like it to scroll, so we need to tweak the scale and offset the image.

Press the 'Modulator Fader' tab.

Here we can change a lot of values. Let's begin with the 'Scale'. This is the second set of faders in the top row. We want the scale to be smaller on both X and Y. This is easily achieved by pressing the second 'Single' button on the bottom until it says 'Both'. This will make both the X and Y value change together.

Move the 'Scale X' fader until it has a value close to "5". You might need to release the fader and move it again to reach "5".

Now we need to decide what direction we want it to move. It's all done by offsetting the rotating picture.

If you want it to scroll from left to right your need to set the 'Offset Y' to something like "1.75".

If you want it to scroll from right to left your need to set the 'Offset Y' to something like "-1.75".

If you want it to scroll from top to bottom your need to set the 'Offset X' to something like "-1.4".

If you want it to scroll from bottom to top your need to set the 'Offset X' to something like "1.4".

You can also combine any of the two making it in an angle.

It's all up to you. The result should look something like this:

This was the Rainbow Scroll Bitmap Effect tutorial.

Topic: Bitmap Effect Tutorial - Create a Rotating Bitmap Effect

Creating a rotating spiral bitmap effect.

We are going to create another color bitmap effect. If you haven't made the Rainbow Scrolling Bitmap Effect, I suggest you go back one page and make it.

Creating a sequence with dimmer value.

If you have done this already, just skip this step.

If this is the first Bitmap Effect tutorial you make, you need to turn on the dimmer so you can see the color values change (when the Bitmap Effect is running).

Select all your LED's and turn them at full. 1 thru At At.

Store this in a new sequence on executor fader 1. Store Exec 1 Please.

Now make sure the fader is at 100 and the sequence is on.

Creating the Bitmap Effect.

Make sure you have all the LED's selected. Press Store Effect Effect 2 Please. Pressing the 'Effect' key twice gives you the 'Bitmap' keyword.

When you create(store) a Bitmap Effect it's important to have a selection with the fixtures you want affected by the bitmap effect. This stores the fixtures in the Bitmap Effect.

To run the Bitmap Effect you need to assign it to an Executor: Assign Effect Effect 2 Exec 3 Please.

This also gives you access to the best Bitmap Effect Editor.

The Bitmap Effect Editor.

Now we are going to edit the Bitmap Effect so it looks like we want it. But first it might be a good idea to activate the Bitmap Effect so we immediately can see the changes we do. Make sure the fader is at full an press the "Go" executor button.

Nothing happens because the Bitmap Effect is almost empty.

We need the Bitmap Effect Editor. Press Edit Exec 2 Please. This gives us the editor on screen 1.

The Basics options.

The first thing we can edit here is the name of the Bitmap Effect. Press the green area next to 'Name'. Now enter: Rotating Spiral.

Then we need a picture source. Press the empty green area next to 'File'. This opens the Browser pop-up. Press the 'Folder Up' icon and navigate through gobos carallon gobos apollo and select the file called "059900CS-0163".

The 'Mode' should be "Color". 'ScaleMode' doesn't matter in this tutorial since we are going to set the Size to the original picture.

The 'Size X' and 'Size Y' should both be "128". It doesn't matter for this tutorial if the 'Tile' is on or off.

In the small stage window on the right side you should zoom out and move the view so you just can see all the LED's. It should look like this:

Making it move.

Right now the bitmap effect is boring. It just displays a picture. Our goal here is to make a rotating picture that full the entire LED "screen". Let's begin by making it rotate.

Press the 'Tools' tab followed by the 'Toggle Function' button and then the 'Rotate Left' button. Now we have a rotating effect. And all we need is to scale it.

Press the 'Modulator Fader' tab.

Here we can change a lot of values. We are just going to use the 'Scale'. This is the second set of faders in the top row.

We want the picture to fill all the LED's, so the picture needs to be bigger.

This is easily achieved by pressing the second 'Single' button on the bottom until it says 'Both'. This will make both the X and Y value change together.

Move the 'Scale X' fader until it has a value of "1.5". You might need to release the fader and move it again to reach "1.5".

The result should look something like this:

This was the Rotating Spiral Bitmap Effect tutorial.

Topic: MAtricks Tutorial - Intro

MAtricks is a collection of tools working on your current Selection. The most basic tricks are Next and Previous, which will step through your current selection one by one, in the order they were selected.

Channel1Thru12Please

Highlight

Next

Next

Next

Prev

You may temporary enable/disable the matrick with the Set key:

Set

Set

or reselect your original selection with the All keyword, accessible via hardkeys by pressing simultaneously Prev and Next

Prev&Next

Next

Topic: MAtricks Tutorial - Interleave

With a basic selection, all fixtures are in one row, based on the selection-order

With the function MatricksInterleave, the selection is wrapped onto a new row for every n'th fixture, creating a virtual array

[Channel]> MatricksInterleave 4

Next

Next

Prev&Next (reselect All columns)

With the use of the MA modifier key you may step through the array row by row rather than column by column

MA&Next

MA&Next

And reselect all rows with:

MA&Prev&Next (reselect All rows)

These tricks may also be combined:

NextNextNext (third column) MA&NextMA&Next (second row)

The Interleave value (array-width) may be modified with the Set key in conjunction with Next and Prev to increase, decrease or reset interleave:

Set&Next (MatricksInterleave +, increase array-width)

Set&Prev&Next (MatricksInterleave Off)

Topic: MAtricks Tutorial - Blocks

Stepping through a Selection with Next will normally give you single fixtures ( or columns of fixtures, if interleave is active):

Next

With the function MatricksBlocks, x adjecent fixtures/columns are treated as one block:

[Channel]>MatricksBlocks 3

Next

Next

You may adjust the block-width with MA&Set in conjunction with Prev and Next

MA&Set&Prev (MatricksBlocks -, decrease blockwidth)

Topic: MAtricks Tutorial - Wings

Stepping through a Selection with Next will normally give you single fixtures:

Next

With the function MatricksWings, the selection is splitted in x parts, and each part is mirroring the previous part:

[Channel]>MatricksWings 2

|

Next

|

[Channel]>MatricksWings 3

| |

Topic: MAtricks Tutorial - Groups

With MatricksGroups the distribution of aligned values may be limited to x fixtures, for then to be repeated:

[Channel]>At 0 Thru 100

[Channel]>MatricksGroups 4
[Channel]>At 0 Thru 100

If you are aligning without grouping on an an array created with MatricksInterleave

[Channel]> At 0 Thru 100

the values are distributed from upper-left to bottom right.

With an interleave array active, the grouping may be given with dot-separated digits to give different values for the x and y axis

[Channel]>MatricksGroups 4.1
[Channel]>At 0 Thru 100

[Channel]>MatricksGroups 1.3
[Channel]>At 0 Thru 100

Topic: DMX merge tutorial.

This tutorial shows you how to merge incoming DMX into your show.

Topic:

Why is this an interesting tutorial?

Well, there are two scenarios that are relevant for DMX input.

At the moment you can't load a grandMA 1 show (or a show from any other manufacturer) into a grandMA 2 console, but if you have two identical patches you can run cues at the "source" console and record them on your grandMA2. You can transfer several DMX universes at the same time.

The other scenario is when you need an input to merge with an existing signal from your grandMA2. This can for several reasons be a more or less permanent situation.

You should know how to do basic setup and programming. If you don't, you should complete the Basic Tutorials before this one (follow the link below).

To complete this tutorial you need a console or an onPC with some grandMA hardware. You'll also need a DMX source.

This page takes you through the steps for setting up a useful show.

The next pages look at DMX recording and merging DMX into a console and a grandMA 2Port Node.

Task: Create a new show.

We need a new empty show with a useful patch.
Steps
  1. Go to the command line and write:
    [Channel]>Loadshow dmx_merge_tutorial /full
    This loads a new completely empty show.
  2. Goto the Setup Show Patch & Fixture Schedule and create 512 single generic dimmer channels patch in the first universe.
  3. Create the views you need. I suggest a Channel Sheet and a Command Line Feedback window.
  4. Save your show.
Result
This is what we need for the patch.

Topic:

Now you can go on to the next pages.

Topic: DMX In Recording on a grandMA2.

This is useful when you need to transfere a show from a different console to your grandMA2.

Please go through the "DMX Input tutorial" for setting up for this tutorial.

Task: Setting up Remote DMX.

We need to set up the Remote DMX. This will take the incoming DMX directly to your programmer, allowing you to store it where you want.
Steps
  1. Go to the command line and write:
    [Channel]>cd 30.3
    This takes you directly to the DMX remote type.
  2. Write:
    RemoteTypes/DMXRemotes 3>Store 1 t 512
    This creates 512 remote input "containers".
  3. Write:
    RemoteTypes/DMXRemotes 3>Ass 1 t 512 /type=Programmer
    This changes the remote type to "Programmer" sending all the incoming data directly to your programmer.
  4. Write:
    RemoteTypes/DMXRemotes 3>cd/
    This takes you back out of the Remote Input setup.
  5. Go to Setup Show Remote Input Setup DMXRemotes and select all the rows in the DMX column.
  6. Press the Edit hardkey and then inside the blue frame (you can also right-click if you have a mouse).
    This opens the calculator pop-up.
  7. In the pop-up you write "1.1" and press Please.
    This gives you a one-to-one patch of the 512 DMX inputs.
  8. Make sure the DMX Remote is enabled. The background and text of the "Enabled" button is yellow.
  9. Exit the setup.
Result
This is what we need to get the incoming DMX universe to the programmer.

Task: Turn off DMX Merge.

These steps take you through the task of turning off the DMX In Merge.
Context
When you want to record the incoming DMX to a cue, preset, etc., it might be a good idea to turn off DMX merge as it could interfere with your output.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Show Patch Only (Live) DMX List .
  2. Press the Edit hardkey followed by the "On" in the 'DMX In Merge' column and the row for the universe you want to turn off.
  3. Exit the Setup.
Result
You have now turned of the DMX In merge.

Topic:

OK, now it's time to plug in the DMX source, and make sure the grandMA2 is correctly set up for the signal.

Task: Setting up the DMX In port on a Console.

Now we need to configure the port for the DMX signal.
Context
If you use a node please skip this task, and go to the next one.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Network MA Network Configuration Consoles .
  2. You can set up any of the seven port as an Input. But for this tutorial we are going to use the female DMX In connector. Press Edit followed by the cell in the "XLR In" column in the row representing your console.
    This gives you the Cofigure DMX Port pop-up.
  3. In the pop-up you select the Port Mode to "In" using the drop down box.
  4. Set the universe to "1" using the "-" and "+" buttons, and press the Please button.
  5. Exit the Setup.
Result
Now we can move on to the actual business.

Task: Setting up the DMX In port on a grandMA 2Port Node.

Now we need to configure the grandMA 2Port node for the incoming DMX signal.
Context
If you use a grandMA2 Console or grandMA2 NPU please look at the previous task, and ignore this one.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Network MA Network Configuration 2Port .
  2. You can set up any of the ports as an Input. Press Editfollowed by one of the XLR cells in the row representing your 2Port Node.
    This gives you the Cofigure DMX Port pop-up.
  3. In the pop-up you select the Port Mode to "In" using the drop down box.
  4. Set the universe to "1" using the "-" and "+" buttons. You can completely ignore the "Merge Mode", finish by pressing the Please button.
  5. Exit the Setup.
Result
Now we can move on to the actual business.

Topic:

When you send any DMX values to the console, you can see the values go to your programmer, and you can store as you would normally do.

Be aware that when a value has been changed by an external DMX source and this source disappears the value in the programmer goes to the default value!

When you have stored what you need you should turn of the remote DMX to avoid any unwanted output or values in your programmer. There are predefined macros that turn "On" or "Off" the remote DMX, or you can go to the Setup and turn it of.

Topic: DMX Merge

In this tutorial we are going to take a look at merging incoming DMX with the grandMA2.

Topic:

You might have a system where you want to merge an incoming DMX signal into your grandMA. This can be a more permanent or a temporary situation.

Please make the DMX Input tutorial to prepare for this one.

Task: Turning off DMX Remote

If you have DMX Remote that is set up to go to your programmer you might want to turn that off.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Show Remote Input Setup DMX Remotes
  2. Delete the rows with DMX going to the programmer (this allows you to keep other DMX Remote) or just disable the remote function.
  3. Exit the setup.
Result
All right you are now ready to move on.

Task: Turn on merging for universe 1.

Context
As a default Merging is turned on for all universes, but we are going to use the setup menu to make sure it's turned on.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Show Patch only (live) DMX List
  2. There is a column called "DMX In Merge". If there's a "on" in the row for (universe) no. 1, the grandMA2 will merge incoming DMX. If it's empty, you need to press Edit followed by the empty cell.
    The incoming DMX will now merge.
  3. Exit the Setup.

Topic:

OK, now it's time to plug in the DMX source, and make sure the grandMA2 is correctly set up for the signal.

Task: Setting up the DMX In port on a Console.

Now we need to configure the port for the DMX signal.
Context
If you use a node please skip this task, and go to the next one.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Network MA Network Configuration Consoles .
  2. You can set up any of the seven port as an Input. But for this tutorial we are going to use the female DMX In connector. Press Edit followed by the cell in the "XLR In" column in the row representing your console.
    This gives you the Cofigure DMX Port pop-up.
  3. In the pop-up you select the Port Mode to "In" using the drop down box.
  4. Set the universe to "1" using the "-" and "+" buttons, and press the Please button.
  5. Exit the Setup.
Result
Now we can move on to the actual business. If you are not using a node please skip the next task.

Task: Setting up the DMX In port on a grandMA 2Port Node.

Now we need to configure the grandMA 2Port node for the incoming DMX signal.
Context
If you use a grandMA2 Console or grandMA2 NPU please look at the previous task, and ignore this one.
Steps
  1. Go to Setup Network MA Network Configuration 2Port .
  2. You can set up any of the ports as an Input. Press Editfollowed by one of the XLR cells in the row representing your 2Port Node.
    This gives you the Cofigure DMX Port pop-up.
  3. In the pop-up you select the Port Mode to "In" using the drop down box.
  4. Set the universe to "1" using the "-" and "+" buttons. You can completely ignore the "Merge Mode", finish by pressing the Please button.
  5. Exit the Setup.
Result
Now we can move on to the actual merging business.

Topic:

When you send any DMX values to the console, it will merge with the DMX generated by the console. The merge will always be a HTP merge - there's currently no way to change this.

You can only see the incoming signal in a DMX Sheet window.

Concept: Tasks

This section contains step-by-step instruction for common task.

For conceptual understanding of the console and property-description of each element of the console, please read the Concept and Reference sections.

Task: Hardware

This section contains all the hardware tasks.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals

This section is about the hardware connections on your console.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / Power

Before turning the console on, you need to connect the power cable.
Context
When you get a new console there's a PowerCon connector supplied with it. You need to have qualified personnel attached this connector to a suitable cable and plug that correspond with the laws in your country.

If you get a rental desk this should be supplied with it.

Steps
  1. Insert the blue PowerCon connector in the PowerCon plug and twist it 90 degrees clockwise to lock.
  2. Connect the other end of the cable to a suitable power source.
  3. You'll also need to turn on the Power switch on the back panel
Result
The power is connected.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / External Screens

You can expand the console with two external screens.
Context
On the back panel of the console you'll find two DVI-I connectors for external screens. If you only have screens with VGA connectors, you'll need a DVI to VGA adapter.
Steps
  1. Connect the first screen to the top DVI-I connector marked 'Right'. Place the screen on the right side or above the internal screen 2. This will be screen number 5.
  2. Connect the second screen to the bottom DVI-I connector marked 'Left'. Place the screen on the left side of the first external screen. This will be screen number 6.
  3. Connect power to the external screens.
  4. Turn on the external screens.
Result
The external screens are connected.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / Goose-neck Lamps

To get a better view of the console you can connect up to two goose-neck LED lights.
Context

The goose-neck lights can help illuminate the console in a dark environment.

Steps
  1. Connect the 4 pin XLR connector to the plug on the back panel of the console.
  2. Move and twist the lights so they feel comfortable to you and illuminate the areas you want.
Result
The lights are connected. See the link below for information on how to adjust the light output.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / USB Mouse and Keyboard

You might need to connect an external keyboard and mouse.
Context

It's recommended only to use wired keyboards and mouses. The console supports a keyboard with a US key layout.

Steps
  1. Connect the USB connector to any of the USB plugs on the console. There are up to 5 USB plugs on a console.
Result
The console should recognize the hardware you connected and after a few seconds you can use it.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / Ethernet (MA-Net)

You can connect the console to a network.
Context
The console has two Ethernet connectors. One of them is used to connect to a MA-Net network. This allows you to ad consoles (for backup or extra users), grandMA VPU, grandMA2 NPU, grandMA NDP, grandMA NSP, grandMA 2port Node and grandMA 3D.
Steps
  1. Connect one end of a Ethernet cable to the connector called 'Ethernet 1'.
  2. Connect the other end to a suitable switch.
  3. Connect other grandMA equiptment to the switch and turn on the power to the switch.
Result
The console is now connected to a network. You might need to set a IP address.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / ArtNet (Ethernet)

You can connect the console to ArtNet.
Context
The console has two Ethernet connectors. One of them is used to connect to a MA-Net network. The other is for ArtNet. The ArtNet plug have the same IP address as the console except the first number is a '2'.
Steps
  1. Connect one end of a Ethernet cable to the connector called 'Ethernet 2'.
  2. Connect the other end to a suitable switch.
  3. Connect other ArtNet equipment to the switch and turn on the power to the switch.
Result
The console is now connected to a network.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / DMX

Connecting DMX to input or output DMX from the console.
Context
The console has six DMX Output plugs (marked A to F) and one Input (marked IN). These are used when you want the console to output DMX and you need to use DMX in. All connectors can be configured to meet your needs.
Steps
  1. Connect one end of a 5 pin XLR DMX cable to one of the XLR connectors.
  2. Connect the other end to a suitable DMX device.
Result
The console is now connected to a DMX device. Follow the link below to read more about setting up the DMX connectors.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / MIDI

Connecting MIDI to your console.
Context
The console have two MIDI connectors. One in and one out. They are used to send and receive MIDI signals.
Steps
  1. Connect one end of a MIDI cable to the Input or Output. Depending on you are sending or receiving.
  2. Connect the other end to a suitable MIDI device.
Result
The console is now connected to a MIDI device.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / SMPTE (LTC)

Connecting a SMPTE source to the console.
Context
The console have LTC In connector. This allow you to sync the console to a SMPTE timecode source.
Steps
  1. Connect the SMPTE source to the LTC IN connector in the console using a 3 pin XLR audio cable. The signal strength should be minimum 200 mili Volts.
Result
The console is now connected to a SMPTE source.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / Sound

Connecting a sound source to the console.
Context
The console have Audio In connector. This allow you to use the incoming audio to trigger lights.
Steps
  1. Connect the audio source to the Audio IN connector in the console using a 3 pin XLR audio cable. The signal strength should be minimum 20 mili Volts.
Result
The console is now connected to a audio source.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / grandMA2 faderwing

Connecting a grandMA2 faderwing to the console.
Context
You can expand the number of executor faders and buttons with grandMA2
Steps
  1. Connect one end of a 15 pin D-Sub cable to the connector marked MA-LINK on the console.
  2. Connect the other end to the grandMA2 faderwing.
    You can connect up to four grandMA2 faderwings to one console. You can connect one grandMA2 faderwing to another and so forth.
  3. Connect power to the grandMA2 faderwing.
Result
You've added 15 motorized faders and 15 executor buttons.

Task: Hardware / Connecting peripherals / Contact Closure Switch (Analog Remote)

Connecting contact closure switches to the console.
Context
The console have a 25 pin D-sub connector. This allow you to connect 16 contact closure switches. You can map these 16 switches to anything in your console.

You need to make a switch that sends between +5 and +15 volts to pin 1 for the console to react to analog input number 1.

Pin 21 ans 22 supplies +5 volts. Pin 25 is a common ground.

Steps
  1. Connect a 25 D-sub plug to the DC Remote Control connector.
Result
The console now have a analog remote input. Follow the link below to read more about setting up the Remote Input.

Task: Hardware / Miscellaneous hardware tasks

This section contains hardware tasks

Task: Hardware / Misc. / Turn the Console On

You need to turn on the console before doing anything fun with it.
Context
You'll probably need to turn on the console before using it.
Steps
  1. Make sure the console is connected to a prober power source and the power switch on the back panel is turned on.
  2. Press the power key on the front panel. It looks like this:
Result
The console will boot up.

Task: Hardware / Misc. / Resetting the console using the reset button (hard reset)

ON the back panel of the console you'll find a reset button. This is used when there's no other option.
Context
Should you ever come in the situation that the console is totally non responsive and there's noting that reacts. You have the option to reboot the console.

Anything that has changes since the last save will be lost!

Steps
  1. Press the reset button on the back panel.
Result
This resets the console and it reboots. It will try to load the last saved version of your show.

Task: Hardware / Misc. / Turn the Console Off

Sometimes you need to turn off the console.
Context
At some point you'll probably need to turn off the console.
Steps
  1. Press the power key on the front panel. It looks like this:
    A warning pop-up appears.
  2. To turn off the console you need to confirm the pop-up by pressing 'Yes'.
Result
The console will save the show and boot down.

Task: Adjusting the angle of the Display Wing

Context
To improve the readability of the screens and the ergonomics of the touch-interface, you should raise the Display Wing to an appropriate angle
When lowering the wing, make sure nothing gets caught between the wing and the console, as this area has a potentional risk of hand or finger injurey.
Steps
  1. Press and hold the MA key
  2. Decide which direction to move:
    • To raise, press and hold the Up key
    • To lower, press and hold the Down key
    The motor slowly changes the angle
  3. Release both keys
    The motor will stop, and lock the wing in position
    Instead of using the motors, you may press and hold MA & Set to release the torque and then adjust the angle by hand
Result

Task: Adjusting the brightness of the Console

Adjusting brightness of console via hardkeys.
Context
LCD screens, Executor LEDs, Key Backlight and Gooseneck worklights all may have their brightness adjusted, to try to compensate for (or to blend into) the surronding environment.

You will normally do this adjustment via the Setup Console Desk Light menu, however some of these elements may be adjusted directly via special hardkey combinations, even while the console is Booting:

The following elements has its own shortcut via the numeric keypad:

  1. Gooseneck Worklights
  2. Wing Screen(s) (screen 2-5)
  3. Command Screen (screen 1)
  4. Key Backlighting

Steps
  1. Press and hold MA and the key for the desired element
    press and hold both MA & 4 to adjust the key backlighting
  2. Decide which direction to move:
    • To increase the brightness, press and hold the + key
    • To decrease the brightness, press and hold the - key
    The brightness of the element is changed.
  3. Release all keys
    The brightness-level is set, and stored in your UserProfile.

Task: Software

This section contains all the software tasks.

Task: Install and update the software

This section contains all tasks about installing and updating the software.

Task: Updating console software via USB

New software are released regularly with new features and bug-fixes
Pre-Requisite

To perform this task you need to have a MAC or Windows PC (XP or Vista) with StickMAker installed, an empty USB-stick larger than 2Gb, and a keyboard connected to your console.

StickMaker & Console image Download Page

Steps
  1. Download the most recent software-image (.imgz) from MA Lighting
  2. Insert USB stick into your computer
  3. Start the application StickMAker and select your USB stick from the pull-down curtain of the topmost green field.
  4. Select Write Image to disk and browse for the downloaded image by pressing [...]
  5. Press Start then confirm with Yes
    When progress-bar is full, you should get a pop-up with "Copy operation succeeded"
  6. Press OK, remove stick from computer.
  7. Switch on Console and await for the boot menu.
    The Boot Menu is only displayed for a few seconds, - be ready to perform next step within that time.
  8. By using the arrow and Enter/Please keys of the keyboard, select Utility Menu (item 3)
    Console continues to boot and prepare Utility Menu
  9. Insert USB-stick with image into USB-port and await a few second for the USB to initialize
  10. When GMA2 UTILITY menu is displayed, select Import new Version by pressing the Enter/Please key
    If you get a message "Nothing to Import", the USB is not yet initialized, try again in 5 seconds
    Console displays "Importing files from USB-Devices, please wait" then returns to Utility menu
  11. By using the arrow and Enter/Please keys of the keyboard, select Choose Version
    Console list imported versions after a few seconds
  12. By using the arrow and Enter/Please keys of the keyboard, select the version you just imported
    Console installs imported version, then returns to Utility menu
  13. By using the arrow and Enter/Please keys of the keyboard, select Quit
    Console reboots and you may remove the USB-stick
Result
You console should now be updated with the latest software-version.

Task: Reinstall console software and OS via USB

How to get a clean install of software and OS
Pre-Requisite
To perform this task you need to have a Mac or Windows PC (XP or Vista) with StickMAker installed, an empty USB-stick larger than 2Gb, and a keyboard connected to your console.

Additionally you need in advance to backup any data you wish to keep, as this procedure totally overwrites the hard-drive of the console

StickMaker & Console image Download Page

Steps
  1. Download the most recent software-image (.imgz) from MA Lighting
  2. Insert USB stick into your computer
  3. Start the application StickMAker and select your USB stick from the pull-down curtain of the topmost green field.
  4. Select Write Image to disk and browse for the downloaded image by pressing [...]
  5. Press Start then confirm with Yes
    When progress-bar is full, you should get a pop-up with "Copy operation succeeded"
  6. Press OK, remove stick from computer, and insert stick into console
  7. With stick inserted, switch on console.
    If console starts normally you need to first enable USB-boot, see Related Links at bottom of page
    Console boots from the USB and gives you a menu with several choices
  8. By using the arrow up/down keys, highlight MA Installer
    BootOptions at bottom of screen displays: ....other=install,nox,usbboot,usbdata|
  9. Use left arrow key to move cursor between equal-sign and "install", then type "full"
    BootOptions at bottom of screen displays: ....other=fullinstall,nox,usbboot,usbdata
  10. Press Enter/Please to select MA Installer with the fullinstall option
    Console continues to boot and prepare installation
  11. When prompted, press Enter/Please to confirm formatting of the hard-drive
    Console formats hard-drive and prepare for installation
  12. When prompted, press Enter/Please to confirm installation of OS and Software
    New OS and software is installing
  13. When prompted, remove USB-stick and confirm with Enter/Please-key to reboot
  14. Let the console boot in grandMA2 mode.
  15. Calibrate touchscreens
Result
You console should now have a clean install. Please remember that all data has been erased, and the IP-adress of you console is now the default 192.168.0.4

Task: Boot from unknown USB stick

Pre-Requisite
To perform this task you need an external keyboard (with F11) connected and a bootable USB stick made with the StickMAker.
Context
If you have not dedicated a specific USB stick to use for software-updates, and enabled this stick in BIOS, you need an external keyboard with F11 for selection of boot-device, to do software-updates.
Steps
  1. Insert bootable USB stick made with Stickmaker, and switch on Console,
  2. During startup press F11 multiple times to get the Select Boot Device menu
    If you are not able to trigger this menu with F11, and console boots normally, you need to enter BIOS to enable boot from this USB stick. Please see Related Links at bottom of page.
  3. Navigate with arrowkeys to your USB stick, and press Enter/Please
    Console boots from USB, and gives you a menu with several choises
Result
You may now proceed with installation of software via USB

Task: Enable console to boot from a dedicated USB stick

Pre-Requisite
To perform this task you need a keyboard connected and a bootable USB stick made with the StickMAker.
Context
If you have a dedicated USB-stick to use for software-updates, you may perform this task once, to enable the console to prioritize boot from this specific USB-stick, eliminating the need for an external keyboard with F11 for selection of boot-device, to do software-updates.
Steps
  1. Insert bootable USB-stick made with StickMAker, and switch on Console,
  2. On the keyboard press Del to enter Bios setup
  3. If prompted for password, enter helpg2 and perform the following steps
    1. Navigate with arrow-keys to Bios Security Features
    2. Press Enter/Please 3 times to remove password
    3. Press Esc to return to main menu
  4. Navigate with arrow-keys to Boot Configuration Features, and press Enter/Please
  5. Navigate with arrow-keys to Hard Disk Drives, and press Enter/Please
  6. Press Enter/Please to change what is "1st drive", and select your USB-stick with arrow-keys and Enter/Please.
  7. Press Esc two times to exit to main menu
  8. Navigate with arrow-keys to Save changes and Exit, and press Enter/Please two times
Result
Your console should now boot from USB if it is switched on with this USB-stick inserted.

Task: Restart grandMA2 application after a crash

Pre-Requisite
To perform this task you need a keyboard connected to your console
Context
If you experience a software crash, the console will return to the Linux OS command-shell, recognized by a text-mode display on screen 1 with black background and system messages in white and yellow text, - and at the bottom in green "root@gma2 #". To restart the application without rebooting the console follow the steps below.
Steps
  1. Press arrow-up on your keyboard.
    Bottom line displays "root@gma2 # Autostart"
  2. Press Enter/Please to execute the Autostart command
    The grandMA2 application starts and you should be up and running in seconds.
  3. If the application immediately crash again, your showfile may be corrupt and you need to proceed with the following
  4. Press arrow-up on your keyboard.
    Bottom line displays "root@gma2 # Autostart"
  5. Type noload on your keyboard.
    Bottom line displays "root@gma2 # Autostart noload"
  6. Press Enter/Please to execute the Autostart /noload command
    The grandMA2 application starts with an empty showfile
  7. Load a backupcopy of the file or a previous version of your show via the backup-menu

Task: Software / Setup

This contains all the Software Setup Tasks

Task: Software / Setup / Create New Show

This task will create a new show.
Context
This task will create a new show on the internal hard drive of the console.
Steps
  1. Press Backup.
    This will give you the Backup Menu. It looks something like this:

  2. Make sure the 'Internal' tap is selected.
  3. Press New Show.
    This gives you the New Show pop-up. It looks something like this:

  4. In the New Show pop-up, write a new name for the show.
  5. Select the options you want to clear.
    • Clear Show Data - This will erase all patch, sequences, presets, groups, macros, etc.
    • Clear Time Config - This will set all the fade, delay, OutFade, etc. back to the default timing options.
    • Clear Console Settings -This will set all the console options back to the default options.
    • Clear Network Protocols -This will erase all the settings for DMX out via Ethernet.
    • Clear Network Config -This will erase all the informations regarding grandMA2 NPU's, grandMA VPU's, other grandMA2 consoles, grandMA2 3D, etc.
    • Clear User Profiles -This will erase the users and the user profiles.
  6. Press the Please key.
    Alternative you can use the command line:
    [Channel]>Newshow "playground" /full
    This will create a new, completely empty show with the name "playground".
Result
You have created a new show.

Task: Software / Setup / Save a Show

This will save the current show with a new name.
Context
There are three ways to do this. The first is the fastest. The second is the slowest, but with more control. The third uses the command line.

It's almost never a bad idea to save your show. And with grandMA2, it's so fast that you are not spending time waiting for the console to save.

Steps
  1. Press the Backup key fast twice.
    You trigger a build in macro that saves your current show.
Steps
  1. Press the Backup key (once).
    This opens the Backup Menu.
  2. Select the drive (or tap) where you want the show saved.
    This is also the way to store the show on a USB memory stick.
  3. Press the Save Show button.
    You have saved your current show in the drive you selected.
Steps
  1. [Channel]>Saveshow
    You have stored the current show on the current selected drive.
Result
No matter what way you use, you save your show data.

Task: Software / Setup / Save a Show with a New Name

This will save the current show with a new name.
Context
There are two ways to do this. The first uses the GUI. The second uses the command line.
Steps
  1. Press the Backup key (once).
    This opens the Backup Menu.
  2. Select the drive (or tap) where you want the show saved.
    This is also the way to store the show with a new name on a USB memory stick.
  3. Press the Save Show As button.
    A pop-up appears prompting you to write a new name.
  4. Write the new name and finish with the Please key.
    Your show is saved with a new name.
Steps
  1. [Channel]>Saveshow "playground2"
    You have saved the current show with a new name on the current selected drive.
Result
No matter what way you used, you saved your show data.

Task: Software / Setup / Auto Save a Show

This will set a time interval at with the desk will store the show automatically.
Context
The grandMA2 has an Auto save feature. This will automatically store the show after a specified interval.
Steps
  1. Press the Backup key.
    This opens the Backup Menu.
  2. At the bottom of the window there's a the Auto Save options. Press the button under the text 'Auto Save' until you have the desired time interval.
Result
This will start a count down. When it reaches 0 the desk will store the show and restart the count down.

Task: Software / Setup / Load a Show

This will load a show.
Context
There are two ways to do this. The first uses the GUI. The second uses the command line.
Steps
  1. Press the Backup key.
    This opens the Backup Menu.
  2. Select the drive (or tap) where the show you want to load is saved.
    This is also the way to load a show from a USB memory stick.
  3. Press the Load Show button.
    This opens the Load Show pop-up.
  4. Select the show you want to load. On the right side of the pop-up you can select, what parts of the show you want to load.
  5. When you are happy with your selection you press the Ok button.
    The desk loads the new show.
Steps
  1. [Channel]>Loadshow "playground2"
    If you don't know the name of the show you can see a list of show on the current selected drive using the command Listshow.
    The desk loads the show.
Result
No matter what way you used, the new show is loaded.

Task: Software / Setup / Delete a Show

This will delete a show.
Context
There are two ways to do this. The first uses the GUI. The second uses the command line.
Steps
  1. Press the Backup key.
    This opens the Backup Menu.
  2. Select the drive (or tap) where the show you want to delete is saved.
    This is also the way to delete a show from a USB memory stick.
  3. Press the Delete Show button.
    This opens the Delete Show pop-up.
  4. Select the show you want to delete.
  5. When you are happy with your selection, you press the Ok button.
    If you changes your mind you can press the Cancel button or close the pop-up. This doesn't delete anything.
    The show is deleted.
Steps
  1. [Channel]>Deleteshow "playground2"
    If you don't know the name of the show you can see a list of show on the current selected drive using the command Listshow.
    The desk deletes the show from the drive.
Result
No matter what way you used, the new show is loaded.

Task: Software / Setup / Create New User and login

This task will create a new user and login as that user.
Context
This task will create a new show on the internal hard drive of the console.
Steps
  1. Press Setup.
    This gives you the 'Console section in the Setup Menu.
  2. Make sure the 'Console' tap is selected.
  3. Press 'User+Profiles Setup'.
    This gives you the User and User Profiles section. It looks something like this:

    In a new show there are only the grayed out Administrator and Guest users. These are defaults and can't be deleted or altered.

  4. Press the headline saying 'Showing 'Users''.
  5. Press the X1 key to add a new user (you might need to highlight the 'New' word).
    This creates a new user with the user name "user".
  6. Edit the name using the encoder to highlight the user name and then press the screen encode. Write your own name.
  7. Add a password if you like.
  8. If you want the user to have it own views and user setting, you need to create a new user profile:
    1. Highlight the 'New' cell in the 'UserProfiles' section.
    2. Press the screen encoder
      This creates a new User Profile.
    3. Give the User Profile a name that makes sense to you. There are many ways to organize the users and user profiles. So choose one that makes sense to you.
    This creates a new User profile.
  9. Select the new User Profile for your User.
  10. You can also change the user rights. This option allows you the set different levels of editing rights. Follow the link below to read more about the different rights.
  11. This is what you need to create a User and a User Profile. Exit the setup menu.
  12. To login as your new user you need to press the Tools key
  13. Then press the 'Login' button.
    This gives you the Login screen.
  14. Type the User name and the password (if any) followed by a Please.
    You can also login using the commandline:
    [Channel]>login username password
Result
You have created a new user and logged in as this user..

Task: Software / Setup / Patch Conventionals

In this task we will patch some generic dimmers.
Pre-Requisite
Before doing this task you should create a new empty show. If you don't want to do that, you should go to the next task "Patch Moving Lights".
Context
In this task we will patch some generic dimmers.
Steps
  1. Press Setup.
    This gives you the Setup Menu.
  2. Make sure the 'Show' tap is selected.
  3. Press 'Patch & Fixture Schedule'.
    Since this is the first time you enter the patch, it will guide you through the proper steps. The first step asks for a layer name. It looks something like this:

    In a new show there aren't any layers or fixtures and the console guide us through the steps the first time.

  4. Type "Dimmers" followed by a Please.
    This gives you the Fixture Wizard pop-up. It looks like this:

  5. On the right side of this window there's a list of the imported fixturetypes. Currently there aren't any, so press where it says 'From Library'.
    This gives you the Select a FixtureType pop-up.
  6. In the 'Manufacturer Filter' type "generic".
  7. Select 'generic@dimmer@oo.xmlp' and press the 'Ok' button.
  8. In the name area type "Dim 1"
    When you add a number behind some text (or another number) with a space between the console will automatically increase the number.
  9. The Quantity should be "40".
    This gives us 40 dimmers.
  10. Fixture ID should be "0".
    This will make sure the dimmers doesn't have a fixture ID.
  11. Channel ID should be "1".
    This gives the first dimmer a channel ID of "1", the second will have channel ID "2", etc.
  12. We are going to patch the 40 dimmers in the first universe beginning at DMX address 1. So in the Patch area type "1.1".
  13. Now press the 'Apply' button.
    This finishes the Fixture Wizard and patches the 40 dimmers. It should look something like this:

  14. Close the Edit Setup by pressing the yellow 'X' in the upper right corner.
    This gives you a warning pop-up.
  15. Confirm that you would like the save by pressing the 'Yes' button.
    You are back in the Setup Menu you could close this as well.
Result
You have patched 40 dimmer channels in your show.

Task: Software / Setup / Patch Moving Lights

In this task we will patch some moving lights.
Context
In this task we will patch 12 VL500 from Vari Lite.
Steps
  1. Press Setup.
    This gives you the Setup Menu.
  2. Make sure the 'Show' tap is selected.
  3. Press 'Patch & Fixture Schedule'.
  4. To organize the fixtures, we need a new Layer. Right click the 'New' under "Showing 'Layers'".
    You can also highlight the 'New' and press the screen encoder to create a new layer.
    This gives you a pop-up asking for a name of the new layer.
  5. In the pop-up type "VL500" followed by a Please.
  6. On the right side of the screen you can see the content of the layer. Right now it's empty. Right click the 'New'.
    This opens the Fixture Wizard pop-up.
  7. On the right side of this window there's a list of the imported fixturetypes. Currently there are only the dimmers, so press where it says 'From Library'.
    This gives you the Select a FixtureType pop-up.
  8. In the 'Manufacturer Filter' type "vari".
  9. Scroll down and select 'varilite@vl500@16-bit.xmlp' and press the 'Ok' button.
  10. In the name area type "VL500 1"
  11. The Quantity should be "15".
  12. Fixture ID should be "101".
    This will make sure the fixtures are visible (and controllable) in the fixture sheet.
  13. Channel ID should be "101".
    This will make sure the fixtures are also visible in a channel sheet.
  14. We are going to manually patch the VL 500's. So in the Patch area type "0".
    This will create the fixtures, but will not patch them.
  15. Now press the 'Apply' button.
  16. Now we are going to patch the VL500's. Click hold and drag with the mouse in the 'Patch' column of all the VL500's. Then right click.
    This opens the DMX Patch pop-up.
  17. Without doing any thing else right click next where it says "VL500 1"
    This opens the calculator where you can enter a new patch number.
  18. Type "1.51" followed by Please.
    This patches the dimmer channel of the VL500's. This fixture type uses an external dimmer for the intensity. And therefore needs two patch numbers for each fixture.
  19. Repeat step 16.
    This opens the DMX Patch again.
  20. Now you can see the patch numbers of the fixtures and on the right side you can see the patch in the DMX universe. On the left side below the fixture list you can see two options called "DIM" and "PAN". Press the one called "PAN" or the X2 key.
    This changes the patch focus to the second part of the fixture.
  21. Make sure there's a blue frame around the gray cells on the left side, and then right click the top cell.
  22. Type "2.1" followed by a Please.
    This patches the second part of all the VL500's to the first DMX address on the second universe.
  23. You have patched all the VL500's and can close the Patch & Fixture Schedule by pressing the yellow "X" in the upper right corner.
    This gives you a warning pop-up.
  24. Confirm that you would like the save by pressing the 'Yes' button.
    You are back in the Setup Menu you could close this as well.
Result
You have patched 15 Vari Lite VL500's in your show.

Task: Software / Setup / Create a View

Creating a channel windows.
Context
When you create a new show or a new user, your screens will (almost) be empty. We are going to have a look at creating a view.
Steps
  1. Choose an empty space on your screens, and press it.
    This gives you the Create Basic Window pop-up.
  2. Select the 'Sheets' tap.
    This allows you to choose one of the sheet windows.
  3. Press where it says 'Channel'.
    Some windows have a minimum space requirement. A channel sheet have a minimum of 3 x 2 tiles.
Result
This creates a channel sheet.

Task: Software / Setup / Clear a Screen

Lets' look at clearing a screen
Context
A clean screen can be a nice beginning for a new view. You can delete one or more of your windows and eventually end up with a clear screen, but there's another option.
Steps
  1. Press and hold the O (encoder) key
    A small pop-up appears in the lower right corner of each screen. It looks like this:

  2. Press 'Clear Screen' to empty the screen you are pressing or press 'Clear All Screens' to clear all the screens.
Result
You have cleared the screen(s).

Task: Software / Setup / Store a View on a ViewButton.

In this task we will store a view on a ViewButton.
Pre-Requisite
In this task we assume that there aren't any views stored on any ViewButtons.
Context
There are many ways to store a view, this task will introduce you to storing a view on a ViewButton.
Steps
  1. Create a view to your likings.
  2. Press Store followed by the V1 key.
    You can also press on the preview area next to the keys.
    This gives you a Store View Options pop-up.
  3. In the pop-up you can give the view a name.
    I made a channel window - so I call my view "Channel"
  4. Now you select the screens you want included in your view.
    I only want to store screen 2, and it's allready marked.
    If you only store one screen, the view isn't "locked" to that screen. Meaning if you recall that view in a screen of similar or higher resolution, the view will also appear on that screen.
  5. Press Please.
    We stored a view. Notice a small preview of your view appear on the ViewButton next to the V1 key. It could look like this:

    on the onPC it just looks like this:

Result
The view is stored on ViewButton 1

Task: Software / Setup / Store a View on a UserButton.

In this task we will store a view on a UserButton.
Context
There are many ways to store a view, this task will introduce you to storing a view on a UserButton.
Steps
  1. Create a view to your likings.
  2. Press the User 1 key
    This changes the buttons at the bottom of screen 1 to user buttons.
  3. Press Store followed by the X1 key.
    You can also press the area above the keys.
    This gives you a Store View Options pop-up.
  4. In the pop-up you can give the view a name.
    I made a Commandline Feedback window - so I call my view "Command Line"
  5. Now you select the screens you want included in your view.
    I only want to store screen 1, so I select screen 1 in the pop-up.
    If you only store one screen, the view isn't "locked" to that screen. Meaning if you recall that view in a screen of similar or higher resolution, the view will also appear on that screen.
  6. Press Please.
    We stored a view. The UserButton now looks like this:

Result
The view is stored on UserButton 1

Task: Sostware / Setup / Recall a View

A look at recalling views.
Context
There are two basic ways to recall a view.
Steps
  1. Press any of the stored view buttons or user buttons containing a view (or their on screen version).
Steps
  1. Using the hardkeys to recall view.
    View 1 Please - This recalls view number 1.
Result
What ever way you choose, you should have recalled your view.

Task: Software / Setup / Delete a View

A small look at deleting views.
Context
To have the complete overview of all your views, you should open a View Pool.
Steps
  1. Pressing delete followed by a ViewButton or a UserButton don't delete the view, it just empties the button. To delete a view you need to delete the view in a view pool or use the hardkeys.
    Del View 1 Please - deletes view 1.
Result
Deleting a view also removes it from any ViewButtons or UserButtons where it was assigned.

Task: Software / Setup / Calibrate the Touchscreens

This task will take you through the process of calibrating a touchscreen.
Context
After a full install or when the touchscreen isn't precise you need to calibrate your screen(s).
Steps
  1. Press the Setup key.
  2. Select the 'Console' tap.
  3. Press the 'Screen Options' Button
  4. Press the button corresponding to the screen you want to calibrate.
    This opens a blue calibration screen that looks like this:

  5. Follow the instructions on screen (Please Touch the Blinking Symbol until Beep or Stop Blinking)
  6. Repeat for all four points in the screen.
    When done you'll return to the 'Screen Options'. If needed you can repeat the process for the other screens.
Result
Your touchscreen has been calibrated.

Task: Software / Setup / Setting the IP address

Setting the IP address on the console can be necessary when connecting the console to other equipment.
Context
This task will take you through the steps of setting the IP address using the setup menu.
Steps
  1. Press the Setup key.
  2. Select the 'Network' tab.
  3. Press the 'MA Network Control' button.
  4. If there's a session running you need to stop it. Do this by pressing the 'Leave Session' button or the X2 key. If you are in any doubt, just press it.
  5. Press the current IP address (the default address is 192.168.0.4)
    When using the onPC you need to set the IP address in your computer.
    This will give you the calculator pop-up (on the onPC you get a selection of the available IP addresses)
  6. Type the new IP address (with the onPC you can select the desired address - make sure it's a wired connection)
  7. Reboot the console
Result
When the console is back from the reboot, you have a new IP address.

Task: Programming

This section contains all the programming tasks.

Task: Setup

This section contains all the show setup tasks.

Task: Software / Programming / Controlling Conventionals

Controlling "dimmer only" lights is the basis of all programming.
Pre-Requisite
For this task you need to have some dimmers patched. It might also be a good idea to have a channel sheet.
Context
We are going to look at different ways to control the "Dim" attribute. Almost everything that lights come out of have a "Dim" attribute. This is usually for controlling the intensity.

Should you type something wrong you can delete the last pressed key (backspace) with the Oops key. Should you have typed something completely wrong, you can press the Esc key to clear the command line. One thing that could also help you in doing this task is the Commandline Feedback window.

Read the step results to get more info and tips on the steps.

Steps
  1. Select a channel by pressing the channel number of one of your fixtures followed by Please.
    I have a channel with ID 1, so I press 1 Please.
    The channel number should turn from gray to yellow.
  2. Turn the channel up to 100% by pressing the Full key.
    Below the channel number in the channel sheet might say "Open", "100.00" or something else that indicates that you have turn the channel at full.

    The background of the value ("Open") have changed from blue to dark red. The value text have also changed from gray to red. Theres also a little red marker between the ID number and the value. This means that the value is in the programmer.

  3. Set the value to 25% by pressing At 2 5 Please.
    The value changes but the colors stay.
  4. Press the Clear key once.
    This deselects the channel, but keeps the value. The basic philosophy is that to change a value of something, you need to select it. This also includes selecting what attribute you want to change the value of. In this task we are only looking at the dimmer attribute.
  5. Press the Clear key once more.
    The red background disappeared, the little red marker turned white and the value stayed. The red background and the little red marker indicates that the value will be stored should you choose to store. The marker changed to white to indicate that you still have the value in your programmer, but it will not store the value should you try to store. You can also see the value is still there in a red color.
  6. Press the Clear key again.
    The programmer is empty and we are now back to the beginning.
  7. You can use a combination of the number keys and the - + and Thru keys to create a selection. Make a selection where you use all three keys.
    I press 1 Thru 1 0 - 5 + 1 2 Please.
    This creates a new selection. You can also select channels by pressing on them in the channel sheet.
  8. Press the At key twice.
    This executes a command called "Normal" and it turns your channels at full.
  9. Press the . key twice.
    This executes a command called "Zero" and turns the channels off. Notice that they are still in the programmer and the "closed" value will be store should you choose to do so.
  10. Press Off Channel followed by the number of one of your active channels and Please.
    I got channel 1 active so I press: Off Channel 1 Please.
    This removes all the values assigned to the channel from the programmer.
  11. Your encoder toolbar displays the Preset Types available to you. When you have dimmers you should (at least) have the "Dimmer" button. Press this to make sure you have the Dimmer attribute assigned to the first Attribute Encoder.
    It could look like this:

  12. Turn the encoder to change the value.
    The value should change when the encoder is turned.
  13. Press the encoder shortly.
    This opens the "calculator". Here you have the option to type a new value or choose one of the fast options on the right side of the calculator pop-up.
  14. Press the fast option called "Off".
    This removes any value from the programmer but keeps the channels selected.
  15. You can assign a value range to your selection. Try to select 10 channels that are right next to each other.
    I got ten channels with ID 1 to 10 so I press: 1 Thru 1 0 Please.
    If you are going to assign a value to a selection right after making the selection, you can skip the "Please" in the last example.
  16. Now we can try to assign a range of values type: At 1 0 thru 1 0 0 Please.
    This distributes the value between 10 and 100 evenly between the 10 channels. The selection order is important when you assign a value range. Had you selected the channels in the reverse order (10 thru 1) you would had reversed the value distribution. And selecting your channels in a random order the values would distribute in that order.
  17. Last thing we are going to look at is using the level wheel. If you have a fullsize or a light, you have a level wheel that allows you to adjust the values. Try turning the wheel up and down to see the value change.
Result
We have looked at the most common ways to control an attribute. This is some of the basic operations on the grandMA. You should try all these combinations. The console do a lot of thinking for you in these operations. There are some fast ways and shortcuts in selecting channels/fixtures and assigning values.

Task: Software / Programming / Controlling Moving Lights

Controlling lights with multi attributes is a basic skill in programming.
Pre-Requisite

For this task you need to patch some fixtures. I suggest a fixture that have a gobo wheel, color wheel and CMY color mixing and some focus and zoom options. For this task I use the Mac 700 Profile from Martin.

It might also be a good idea to have a visible Fixture Sheet and a Commandline Feedback Window. You should also have a look at the previous page. It gives you a basic understanding of controlling dimmer attributes.

Context

We are going to look at different ways to control the moving light attributes.

There are several ways to control attributes, we are primarily going to use the encoder toolbar and the encoders.

The task is a look at the most common attributes (Pan/Tilt, Gobo, Color, Focus and Zoom). The next tasks takes a detailed look at some of the more special attributes.

Read the step results to get more info and tips on the steps.

Steps
  1. Select a fixture by pressing the fixture number of one of your fixtures followed by Please.
    I have a fixture with ID 1, so I press 1 Please.
    The fixture number and name should turn from gray to yellow.
  2. Let's have a look at Pan and Tilt first. Press where it says "Position" in the Encoder Toolbar.
    The first two encoders should now have control over the Pan and Tilt attributes.
  3. Turn the encoder to move the position of the fixture.
  4. If you have a console, you can use the yellow trackball to position the moving light. You might need to press the Mouse key to assign Pan/Tilt control to the trackball.
  5. Lets have a look at gobos. Select the Gobo button on the Encoder toolbar.
    Note: If you don't have a button called "Gobo" you need to patch a fixture that have gobos.
    This changes the content of the encoder. The First encoder will probably contain the selection of a gobo. If your fixture have gobo indexing or rotation, the second encoder will probably control the gobo rotation.
  6. Try to rotate the encoders to see the changes.
  7. To access the function sets stored in the fixture profile you need to press the encoder. Press the first encoder.
    This opens the calculator.
  8. Next to the onscreen numeric keyboard there are some buttons that allow you to select defined functions (defined by the fixture profile). There might be more than one version of the same symbol. This indicates different modes for the same gobo. Try to select one of them.
    This assigns one of the gobos to the fixture.
  9. Some Fixtures have more than one Gobo wheel. You can change between different Featues (as it's called) by using the Feature selector. Is't located above the first encoder.
    Press the down arrow.
    This present you with a drop down menu with your feature choices.
  10. Close the drop down menu, by pressing the down arrow again.
  11. Now we are goin to have a look at colors. Press the Color button in the encoder toolbar.
    This changes the content of the encoders.
  12. We have looked at the most common ways to control attributes. So have a look at what ColorWheel 1 can offer.
  13. Using the Feature Selector, select "ColorMix".
    Note: If you don't have this feature available, you need to patch a fixture that uses CMY color mixing.
    This gives you control of the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow on the first three encoders. And you can use them to select any blend of color.
  14. The ColorMix also gives us access to the special dialog for colors. Press the "Special Dialog" button on the encoder toolbar.
    This opens the special color dialog on the command screen.
  15. Press the U1 key.
    You have now selected the Fader view in the dialog. Here you can change the color in a more dynamic way. You can use HSB, CMY, RGB or any combination of it..
  16. Press the U2 key.
    Now you see as big color picker. Here you can press on any color to assign it to the fixture.
  17. Press the U3 key.
    This is a catalog of all the color gels from the mayor manufactorers (if you are missing some you can create them and import it - but that's outside the scope of this task.).

    Select a manufacturer and scroll through the colors or use the filter to narrow your selection.

    You can always switch between any of the ways to select colors.
  18. Close the Special Dialog by pressing the "X" in the upper right corner.
  19. The last this we are going to look at in this task is the Focus and Zoom attributes.
  20. In the commandline type this:
    [Channel]>att focus
    Followed by a Please, the attribute is changed to Focus and Zoom. The encoders have also changed to give you control over these two attributes. You can access all of the attributes this way.
  21. Now type this:
    [Channel]>att focus at 50
    Followed by a Please, you can see that the value of 50 is now assigned to the Focus attribute.
  22. Clear your programmer.
Result
We have had a look at the basics of controlling moving lights. In the next tasks we have a look at some details of controlling specific attributes.

Task: Software / Programming / Controlling Shapers

This is a short introduction to controlling shapers using the Special Shaper Dialogs.
Pre-Requisite

For this task you need to patch some fixtures with shapers. For this task I use the VL3500 Spot from Vari*Lite.

It might also be a good idea to have a visible Fixture Sheet and a Commandline Feedback Window. You should also have a look at the previous pages. They give you a basic understanding of controlling general attributes.

For details you should have a look at the window description of the Special Dialog. It gives you a complete description of the dialogs.

Context

The task is a look at controlling the shapers attributes in fixtures.

The grandMA2 series introduces a new and intuitive way to control shapers.

Steps
  1. Select the Shaper preset type in the Encoder Toolbar.
  2. Select the fixture with shapers.
  3. Press the "Special Dialog" button in the Encoder Toolbar.
  4. This dialog has three different modes. Press the U1 key to enter the "Corner Mode".
  5. Press and drag any of the black circles with a orange outline to change the shape of the shapers.
  6. Press and drag the top green circle on the left side of the screen to rotate the entire shaper module.
    If you only have one green circle, then your fixture can't rotate the entire shaper module.
  7. Press the U2 key to switch to the "Blade Mode"
    This gives you a more direct control of the blades.
  8. Press the U3 key to switch to the "Fader Mode".
    This allows you to control the individual parameters using faders.
  9. Clear your programmer.
Result
This was a short task introducing you to the Special Shaper Dialog.

Task: Macro

This section contains all the macro tasks.

Task: Creating / Editing a macro

Macros is a very useful tool. You can do almost anything with macros.
Context
We are now going to make a very simple macro. This macro removes all dimmer values from your programmer.
Steps
  1. Create a macro pool.
  2. Press Edit followed by a empty macro button.
    You should now see the Edit Macro Pop-up (see link below for info about this pop-up)
  3. Right click in the gray area under "Name".
    A small pop-up should appear - allowing you to write text.
  4. Type: Remove Dimmer followed by Please.
    You have now created a new name to the macro.
  5. Press the Add soft-button, to add a command line in the macro.
  6. Now right click in the gray area under "Text". And type: Off att 1 followed by Please.
    The test line in the gray are should now say: Off Attribute 1
  7. Press the big X in the upper right corner of the pop-up to close it.
Result
Your macro is done! Before closing the pop-up you have several extra options: You can add a time to your macro line. Or add more lines. Thus making more sophisticated macros serving your every need.

Task: Using macros

There are many ways to run a macro. This will show you some of them.
Context
The following is not steps to perform. They are different ways to do the same. All the examples are executing macro number 1. If you need to run a different macro just replace the "1" with the correct number. Please read details about the Keywords, Keys and windows by following the link at the bottom.
Steps
  1. There are several ways to execute macro 1:
    • Press the first macro pool button.
    • Use hard keys:Macro1Please.
    • In the commandline type: go ma 1 followed by Please.

Task: Assigning a macro to an Executor.

This will show you different ways to assign a macro to an excutor.
Context
There are also many ways to assign a macro to any executor. This will show you some of them.
Steps
  1. In the following we will assign macro 1 to executor 101
    • Use the hard keys: AssignMacro1AtExec101Please .
    • use the command line: ass m 1 at exec 101Please.
    • A compination af screen and keys: Press Assign then a pool macro button and finally the Executor hard key.
    • Using the Assign Menu (follow the link below for details about the Assign Menu).
Result
Macro 1 is now assigned to executor 101.

Task: Effects Tasks

The following pages will take you through some effect tasks. Demonstrating many of the effect features.
Context
In the following we will make some effects. But to do this we need an appropriate show. If you don't know how to do these steps, please go through the Tutorial Basis 1 and 2.
Steps
  1. Create a new empty show.
    I made a show called "EffectTasks".
  2. Patch 20 moving heads with CMY color mixing.
    I added 20 "Mac 700 Profile Extended" from "Martin".
  3. Place the first 10 of them on a single line 5 meters above the ground facing down. And the last 10 on the ground facing up.
    Fixture 1 thru 10 are moved to X = -10 thru 10; Y = 5; Z = 5; X(rot) = 180. Fixture 11 thru 20 are moved to X = -10 thru 10; Y = 5.
  4. Create a Fixture Sheet and a line with the Effect Pool.Make sure the "Layer Control" is on and it might be an advantage if you turn on "Symbol Features".
  5. Save your show.
Result
We are now ready to make the first effect task. Go to the next page to begin making effects.

Task: Make an Effect using the Programmer.

We will now create an effect using the programmer.
Pre-Requisite
Please make sure you have a appropriate show for this task. You could use the one made on the previous page: Effect task .
Context
We are going to create an effect using the programmer. For this we are using the "Layer Control Bar" buttons that deals with effects:

and the "Encoder Toolbar":

Steps
  1. Select all your fixtures.
  2. Select "Position" preset type in the Encoder Toolbar.
  3. Select "Effect Form" in the "Layer Control bar".
  4. Press the "Pan" encoder and select the "Cos" in the calculator pop-up.
    You will now see all the Pan attribute move from side to side in your fixture sheet.
  5. Press the "Tilt" encoder and select the "Sin" in the calculator.
    Now also the Tilt attribute moves.
  6. Select "Effect Rate" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  7. Press the "Pan" encoder and adjust the rate to "0.5"
  8. Repeat step seven for the "Tilt" attribute.
    It now uses 2 seconds to go through the effect cycle (0.5 hertz).
  9. Select the first half of your fixtures.
  10. Select "Effect Value 1" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  11. Set the "Pan" value to "-30" and the "Tilt" value to "20".
  12. Select "Effect Value 2" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  13. Set the "Pan" value to "30" and the "Tilt" value to "60".
  14. Select "Effect Phase" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  15. Set the value to "0 thru 360" for both "Pan" and "Tilt".
  16. Select the second half of your fixtures.
  17. Select "Effect Value 1" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  18. Set the "Pan" value to "-30" and the "Tilt" value to "-80".
  19. Select "Effect Value 2" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  20. Set the "Pan" value to "30" and the "Tilt" value to "-50".
  21. Select "Effect Phase" in the "Layer Control Bar".
  22. Set the value to "0 thru 360" for both "Pan" and "Tilt".
  23. Press Store and then the first empty effect pool button.
    You have now stored a Pan/Tilt effect with your fixtures.
Result
To test your effect you can clear your programmer and press the effect pool button twice (once for selecting the fixtures - second for assigning the effect to the fixtures), and turn your fixtures on.
Post-Requisite
On the next page we are going to create an effect using the Effect Editor Pop-up.

Task: Make an Effect using the GUI.

We are going to make a dimmer effect using the effect edit pop-up.
Pre-Requisite
You need fixtures that has a "Dim" attribute. But maybe you should make the previous two task first.
Context
We are going to make a random looking dimmer chase that snaps the value at 100% and then ramps down to 0%.
Steps
  1. Select your fixtures in a random order.
  2. Press Edit followed by the first empty effect pool button.
    This gives you the Effect Editor pop-up on screen 1 (or maybe screen 2).
  3. Press the X1 key or where it says "add" to add a line in your effect.
    This gives you the Select Effect Attribute pop-up.
  4. Navigate to the "Dim" attribute and select it.
    This brigs you back to the Effect Editor.
  5. Press the U1 key or where it says "Edit Effect Line".
    What you now get is the Effect Line Editor pop-up. This is great for editing the individual lines in an effect.
  6. Select the PWM table in the first column.
  7. Make sure the Rate is "0.8 Hertz".
  8. Make sure the Value 1 is "0"and Value 2 is "100".
    This makes the effect go from 0% to 100%.
  9. Set the Phase From at "0" and Phase To at "360".
    This distributes all the fixture evenly trough the effect cycle.
  10. Set the Width to "15%". The width controls how many fixtures you have turned on at the same time.
  11. Now we want the dimmer attribute to snap up and ramp down. This is controlled by the "attack" and "decay" parameters. Set the Attack to "0%" and the Decay to "100%".
Result
We are done, and you can close the editor pop-up. All your different settings are automatically store in the effect.
Post-Requisite
You can test your effect by pressing the pool button twice. You might compine it with the effect we made in the previous page. On the next page we are going to look at an effect that uses presets.

Task: Make an Effect with Presets.

We are going to make an effect that changes the color between two different color presets.
Pre-Requisite
For this task you need some fixtures with CMY colors. You need to make two presets with different colors. It might be a good idea to make the previous effect tasks.
Context
There are many advances by using presets and now they can also be used in effects. You can still update your presets without changing every effect that uses it. The effects will simply use the preset content.
Steps
  1. Select all your lights.
  2. Select the "Color Mix" feature in the Encoder Toolbar and select "Effect Value1" in the Fixture Sheet.
  3. Press the preset pool button for your first color preset.
    This assigns the preset to value 1 in your effect.
  4. Select "Effect Value2" in the Fixture Sheet.
  5. Press the preset pool button for the second color preset.
    This assigns the second color preset to the second effect value.
  6. Press Store followed by the first empty effect pool button.
    This stores your two values in an effect.
  7. Right click the Effect pool button or press Edit followed by the effects pool button.
    This opens the Effect Editor pop-up on ether screen 1 or 2.
  8. In the Effect Editor pop-up you'll see the lines for the three different color wheels (CMY). The "Form" is, as a default, "Flat V1". Select all three line in the "Form" column. Right click the selection (or press Edit followed by the selection).
    This gives you a new pop-up.
  9. Select the "Sin" in the Select Form pop-up
    This closes the pop-up and assigns the "Sin" form to your effect.
  10. To avoid all the fixtures change together we need to change the "Phase To" value. Select all the lines in the "Phase To" column and edit the value.
  11. In the Calculator pop-up type "360" followed by Please.
    This spreads out all your fixture evenly in the entire effect cycle.
  12. Close the Effect Editor pop-up.
    We are done.
Result
The effect is done and you can use it by pressing it twice. You might need to turn your lights on and move them to see the effect running.
Post-Requisite
You should save your show. On the next page we are going to assign the effect to executors and use them to control the effects.

Task: Assign and control Effects on Executors.

This is a look at assigning and controlling effects on the executors.
Pre-Requisite
For this task you need at least one effect in your effect pool. Maybe you could benefit from making the previous effects tasks.
Context
There are three ways of running effects: In the programmer, on Executors & from a Sequence. We are now going to take a look at running it from the Executors. And using a speed master to control the overall rate.
Steps
  1. The fastest way to assign an effect to an executor is the Assign key. We are going to assign effect 1 to executor 1. Press Assign Effect 1 At Exec 1 Please.
    This assigns the effect to the executor and you can probably run it by pressing the a Go button and turning up the fader.
  2. Let's check some of the options for this executor.
    1. Press the Assign key and then one of the executor buttons on executor 1.
    2. In the Assign menu (on screen 1 or 2) press where it says "Options".
  3. We are now going to assign the effect to a Speed master. Press where it says "Speed Individual" and in the small pop-up select "Speed Group 1".
  4. Then we need a "Speed Master". This will then control the speed of the effect.
    1. Press the Assign Key followed by an empty executor.
    2. In the Assign Menu press where it says "Function".
    3. Press the X9 key or where it says "Special Master".
    4. Scroll down and select the "Speed 1" option.
    5. Close the Assign Menu.
    You now have a speed master and an effect that uses it.
Result
You now know how to assign en effect to an Effect Executor, and control the rate with a speed master.
Post-Requisite
The next task look at effects in sequences.

Task: Make an Universal Circle Effect

Pre-Requisite
To perform this task you need a showfile with some fixtures with pan & tilt attributes
Context
As the current version does not include any prebuilt effects, and some default-values like rate and size is not optimized, you may want to create some basic universal effect in advance, to use as a starting point for creation of actual effects.
Steps
  1. Edit an empty effect
    Edit Effect 1
    The Effect Editor Window opens
  2. Make sure that you have no fixtures selected and press Add (X11)
    The Attribute Select popup is displayed
  3. Browse to and select Pan from the attribute select popup:
    1. Press the pluss-icon next to the label "Position" to expand this PresetType
    2. Press the pluss-icon next to the label "Position" to expand this Feature
    3. Press the label "Pan" to select this attribute
    The Attribute Select popup is closed, and an effect-line with pan is created
  4. Repeat step 2 & 3, but select "Tilt" as attribute
    The Effect now has two lines, one with Pan and one with Tilt
  5. Rightclick in the Tilt Effect-line of the Form column, and change the form from Sin to Cos
  6. Select both the Pan and Tilt-line of the Rate column, rightclick and change rate to 0.2
  7. Select both the Pan and Tilt-line of the Value1 From column, rightclick and change value to -25
  8. Select both the Pan and Tilt-line of the Value2 From column, rightclick and change value to 25
  9. Press U1 to open Effect-line editor, and enable Relative by pressing X19
  10. Press U2 or U3 to edit the other Effect-line and enable Relative for the secod line aswell
  11. Close the editor with the ESC key or the "X" in the upper right corner
  12. Label the effect by pressing Assign Assign Effect 1Please and enter "Circle" in the label popup
Result
We now have an Universal Circle effect in our Effect-pool, which will be applied relative to the current position To use it, select some fixtures, press the Circle Effect, adjust vsize rate etc if neccesary with the encoders by changing encoders to the respective layers, and either store as a new effect or directly into a cue.

Task: Using effect in a sequence.

We are going to take a look at effects running native in a cue. And use another cue to change a value.
Pre-Requisite
You need some fixtures with a Dimmer and Pan & Tilt feature.
Context
We are going to create an effect in a cue. Then use a second cue to slowly stop the effect.
Steps
  1. Put this in your programmer:
    1. Select all your fixtures.
    2. Select "Position" preset type in the Encoder Toolbar.
    3. Select "Effect Form" in the "Layer Control bar".
    4. Press the "Pan" encoder and select the "Cos" in the calculator pop-up.
    5. Press the "Tilt" encoder and select the "Sin" in the calculator.
    6. Select "Effect Rate" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    7. Press the "Pan" encoder and adjust the rate to "0.5"
    8. Repeat step seven for the "Tilt" attribute.
    9. Select the first half of your fixtures.
    10. Select "Effect Value 1" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    11. Set the "Pan" value to "-30" and the "Tilt" value to "20".
    12. Select "Effect Value 2" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    13. Set the "Pan" value to "30" and the "Tilt" value to "60".
    14. Select "Effect Phase" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    15. Set the value to "0 thru 360" for both "Pan" and "Tilt".
    16. Select the second half of your fixtures.
    17. Select "Effect Value 1" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    18. Set the "Pan" value to "-30" and the "Tilt" value to "-80".
    19. Select "Effect Value 2" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    20. Set the "Pan" value to "30" and the "Tilt" value to "-50".
    21. Select "Effect Phase" in the "Layer Control Bar".
    22. Set the value to "0 thru 360" for both "Pan" and "Tilt".
  2. Turn all your fixture on by setting the dimmer value to 100.
  3. Store this as cue 1 with a fade time of 3 sec. on a empty executor.
  4. Select the executor.
  5. In the commandline type this:
    [Channel]>f 1 t at cue 1
    This selects all the fixtures an takes the values from cue 1 in your programmer.
  6. Change the "Effect Rate" to "0".
    This stops the effect.
  7. Store this as cue 2 with a time of 3 sec.
Result
Now you have an sequence with two cues. Cue 1 will run the effect. Cue 2 will slowly stop the effect. "GoBack" will slowly start the effect again.

Task: Creating a post in the Agenda.

This is an example on how to create an post in the Agenda using the screens and windows (not the commandline).
Context
When you need the desk to execute a command at a specific time you can make an agenda.
Steps
  1. In the agenda window, select a date (could be the current date).
    You should now be in the day view.
  2. Press or click on the "add" button.
    A line like this: should appear.
  3. Now you need to set the start time. Pressing the gray area under "Start" were it says "Absolute" gives you several options. You can select a specific time (called "Absolute") or you can select a relative time (like "Dawn", "Sunrise", "Sunset" or "Dusk"). If you choose an "Absolute" time you also need to enter a time in the gray area under "Time".
  4. You can also set a duration for your agenda post. This tells the desk how long the command is valid. If the desk is off at the start time, the duration tells the desk if the command is still active on the time the desk is turned on.
  5. Repeat is a nice useful feature if you need your command to be repeated. There are all possible repeat possibilities incl. Daily, Every 2nd day, etc.
  6. Now we come to the command part. Here you type the command the desk needs to execute. This can be anything you can type in the command line. If you need more sophisticated commands, you might want to make a macro and then use the agenda to execute the command.
  7. In the "Info" column you can type any text that might be useful to you or others.
  8. The gray area under "First" is the beginning date. With this you can see and edit the (first) date the command should execute.
    If you right click the date, you are presented with the "Enter Date Pop-up". Follow link below to read about this pop-up.
  9. If you made a repeating agenda you can set the "last date" the agenda should execute. If you leave the empty, then it repeats forever.
Result
That's it! Now you have made an agenda that executes a command, when you want it. Remember that writing a good info text might help others understand what it does, and why.

Task: Create Highlight Presets

How to create and use Highlight Presets
Context
When Highlight is enabled, a set of predefined values will be forced on output of currently selected fixtures, to enable easy focusing of fixtures. These predefined values are generated by the fixtureType definition. By the use of Highlight Presets, these values may be dynamically changed.

A Normal Preset will apply its values in programmer, while a Highlight Preset will be applied to the Highlight property of your fixture schedule.

Steps
  1. Create (universal) dimmer Preset 1.1 with your channels at 80 %
  2. Create (universal) dimmer Preset 1.2 with your channels at 100%
  3. Clear programmer and type in the commandline Assign Preset 1.1 + 1.2 /special=highlight
    Dimmer preset 1 & 2 gets clearly labeled with Highlight
  4. Select Channel 1 thru 10 and enable Highlight
    The channels output normal Highlightvalue 100%
  5. Pres